THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR.
GERMANY is emulating France in the construction of steerable balloons for military purposes, and no one can remain seriously in doubt as to their practical uses. We need not repeat the record of the successes achieved by the French dirigeables, for these are in the memory of all. Parisians are no longer astonished when a balloon performs perfectly controlled evolutions over their heads, and returns to the point from which it came. The success of Count Zeppelin's airship in Germany is the newest fact in the coining conquest of the air. It will be convenient to describe first what Count Zeppelin has done, and then to examine the military significance of the progress in aerial navigation.
Count Zeppelin's balloon is the fourth of a series. His third balloon made some notable flights last September, and showed high qualities of speed and navigability. The fourth balloon, which is a monster carrying many passengers, resembles the third in the employment of what is known as the rigid principle. One of the notorious dis- advantages of an ordinary balloon when driven forward by a propeller is that the silk envelope changes its shape uuder the rush of air, becomes indented in one place and bulging in another, and this to some extent affects the navigability and stability of the balloon. Count Zeppelin's principle is to overcome this difficulty by enclosing the balloon in a sheath of very light aluminium. The construction of No. IV. has been carried out with the financial help of the German Government, and it is agreed that if Count Zeppelin can fulfil certain conditions his under- taking will be transferred bodily to the Government. The chief tests which he will have to undergo before be satisfies the Government are these :—He must prove that his balloon has a wide range of action by keeping the air for twenty-four hours ; he must start and finish his journey on land instead of on water, as he has done previously ; and he must rise to a certain height to show that his balloon has sufficient lifting-power where the air is less dense than lower down. So far Count Zeppelin has not risen very high, and there is still a question as to the buoyancy of the rigid envelope in more or less rarefied air. Count Zeppelin, however, seems likely to be able to satisfy the Government eventually, if not soon. His flight on July 1st was a memorable affair, and was well worthy the Emperor's telegram of congratulation. He started at half-past eight in the morning from his floating shed on Lake Constance, and returned at half-past eight in the evening, having travelled about two hundred and fifty miles. This trip easily beats his own record of eight and a half hours in the air, which was accomplished last autumn. On the return journey a stiff head-breeze was met, but there was no difficulty -with the steering. Since then Count Zeppelin has made two attempts to bring off his twenty-four hours' journey, but each time he has been prevented by minor accidents. The route the airship was to take was all mapped out,—Waldsliut, Basle, Neu- Breisach, Strassburg, Maxau, Mannheim, and other places were/all attentive to salute Count Zeppelin, and "recep- tion committees " had been formed. It must be admitted that the functions of a committee in " receiving " an aeronaut who does not propose to stop are rather nebulous. Probably the committees had some schemes for effectually discharging their salutations at their guest as he passed. But, alas for the uncertainty of the affairs of the air ! the last accident, in which the balloon was torn against its shed in a puff of wind, has made it impossible for Count Zeppelin to attempt his long journey for a few weeks. Enough has been shown, however, to convince us that Germany is not far, if at all, behind France in military aeronautics. And where is Great Britain? At present, according to a list which we find in the Manchester Guardian, Germany has, built or under construction, five airships (the 'Gross,' 'Von Parseval," Zeppelin No. III.,' Zeppelin No. IV.,' and another built by Messrs. Siemens and Shuckert) ; France has the Ville de Paris' and the `De la Vaulx,' and five others built, or being built, on the model of the Patrie,' which broke away and was wrecked in a gale last November; Italy has two; and Great Britain has two.
The first thing to be remarked about these facts is that a new kind of international competition has obviously been born. We cannot shirk it, though we need not be alarmed by it. The evolution of every instrument of war, like the evolution of every political idea, is much slower than people at one time think likely. When a particular end is once foreseen as inevitable, they are apt to assume that it can be reached in a few months. But, somehow, the working out of an idea takes its own course and refuses to be hurried. Probably it will be a very long time before the choice of a new type of airship will become as critical a matter as the choice of a new type of battleship. At the same time, within the limits of service possible to an airship, it would be folly for the British War Office not to employ a sufficient sum of money to experiment adequately. We have no doubt that the capable officers who control the Engineers' ballooning section are earnestly at work in every branch of military aeronautics ; and although we are not afraid of being caught napping in practice, it is necessary to remember that a country always has to be reassured as well as defended. A groundless panic may cause vast material loss, and nothing would provoke a commercial panic more easily than the belief that an important department of the Services was unprepared at a critical moment. What we have to fear from the superiority of our possible enemiei in the air may be set within exact enough limits. To begin with, there is no prospect of invasion by airships. Invasion requires tranaports ; and steerable balloons and heavier- than-air flying machines are not transports. They cannot conceivably carry thousands of men. Again, we cannot imagine airships taking the place of ships upon the water. They would not have the habitability of warships, and they could not carry a comparable weight of guns. We imagine that airships will never be able to carry guns —or weapons that discharge missiles horizontally—at all, but will have to rely upon accuracy in dropping explosives from a height. Their fire will be vertical. It may be said that war will become too horrible to be tolerated ; but we do not suppose for a moment—and we gave our reasons not long ago—that nations will shrink from war as such more than before or that airships will ever lack crews. A man can only die at the worst; and death is only death. Fighting in mid-air will be a nerve-shaking business, of course ; but the total injury to life and property among those below would not be greater than we suffer from many older weapons, even if it should be as great. Accuracy in dropping things from a great height will be very difficult indeed ; and so far as we can see, airships will be forced higher and higher, "towering like falcons in their pride," in the attempt to occupy the only position from which " firing " upon a hostile airship will be possible. Apart from the tactics of the air, considerable height will be necessary to keep out of range of gun-fire from the earth, not to say out of vision. Rifle-fire till it becomes extraordinarily heavy has not much effect, and certainly no immediate effect, upon a balloon, as was proved by the experience of the American Army in Cuba. Even a "Porn-porn" shell is said to have pierced one of the balloons in South Africa without doing it much harm. But the men and the mechanism of the airship (unless the weight of armouring can be afforded) will always be vulnerable. The delicate parts and balance of heavier- than-air machines would, we suppose, be particularly vulnerable; they could be easily upset by a single. well- aimed shot. Probably for some time the chief function of airships will be scouting. Their services in that respect may well be inestimable ; and if there were no other danger ahead of us than the possibility that foreign countries will excel us in the range and skill of their scouting, that would in itself be a sufficient reason. for making up our minds to the need of meeting compel limn on equal terms. An army or a navy with bad scouts is Samson blinded.
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