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Balloons for Commercial Use.

Despite all this the balloon has its uses. If there is to be such a thing as aerial navigation in a commercial way—the carrying of freight and passengers—it will come through the employment of such monster balloons as Count Zeppelin is building. But even then the carrying capacity must of necessity be limited. The latest Zeppelin creation, a monster in size, is 450 feet long, and 42 1/2 feet in diameter. The dimensions are such as to make all other balloons look like pigmies; even many ocean-going steamers are much smaller, and yet its passenger

From Aeronautics.
Plan View of Chanute's Launcher for Gliders.

[Description: Black and white illustration: Various diagrams of glider launching system.]

capacity is very small. On its 36-hour flight in May, 1909, the Zeppelin, carried only eight passengers. The speed, however, was quite respectable, 850 miles being covered in the 36 hours, a trifle over 23 miles an hour. The reserve buoyancy, that is the total lifting capacity aside from the weight of the airship and its equipment, is estimated at three tons.