Sewickley Herald

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The
The Sewickley Valley's Home-News Weekly
Vol. XXVII.   No. 24.
SEWICKLEY, PA., FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1930
Price 5 cents.
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LIEUT.-COMMANDER C.  E. ROSENDAHL
At the controls of the dirigible "Los Angeles"
To Be Speaker at Dorian Club Open Dinner
Next Thursday
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Lieutenant -Commander C. E. Rosen-
dnlil, IT. S. N., commander Of the Navy
dirigible, "Los Angeles," is to be the
honor guest at the open dinner of the'
Dorian Club of Sewiekley, which is to
he held at the club house next Thursday evening, at 6:30; he will be tho
principal speaker that evoning. Other
honor guests invited for "that occasion
are George H. Hahn of the Pittsburgh
Aviation Industries corporation, Hon.
•Tames M. Magce, Major Cyrus R. Miller, R. L. Kirk, assistant development
manager of tho Duquesne Light Company, and B. W. Judy, operating general manager of thc same company.
Commander Rosendahl is also to speak
at tho Aviation Night of thc National
Woe trie Light Association at Syria
Mosque next Tuesday evoning.
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The "Los, Angeles" floating over Glenfield recently.
Lieutenant Commander Rosendahl
was tho second in command on tho U.
S. Navy dirigible "Shenandoah," when
it was destroyed T_y a Sovero windstorm
over Ohio several yoars ago and sinco
then ho has had command of tho Navy
dirigiblo "Los Angolos." Ho was tho
official observer for tho U. S. Navy on
the rountl-tho-world fight of the German dirigiblo "Graf Zeppelin" and ho
is expected to speak of his experiences
on tho flight and the construction of
the Graf.
Commander Rosendahl has written
many scientific articles on thc construction and operation of airships, including "Bigger and Better Blimps" in
"World's Work" of January 1920, ancl
"Inside tho Graf Zeppelin" in "Tho
Scientific American" of March 1920.
The complexity of piloting an airship
is much greater than that of piloting
an airplane. Tho amount ef water ballast must ibo watched if the longitudinal balance is to bo maintained and a
special chart for tho purposo is in tlio
control room. As tlio ship burns fuel it
becomes lighter and shoots into the air,
losing valuable helium to descend unless
water recovered from  tho  engine  ex
haust gases is sufficient to- compensate
for the loss in weight. In the Graf
Zeppeilin, tho fuel, Blaugas, is of approximately the same density as air,
so tliere is no reduction in thc load of
the ship, but in the American airships
condensation of water is used to
equalize tho weight.
In addition to watching tho ballast,
each compartment must -bo closely
watched for gas pressure and content;
the engines must be kept running at tho
desired speed; tho course must be
chartccl and direction checked with
wind currents and thc weather conditions must bo studied.
In his article about the Graf Zeppelin, which ho wrote after tho big ship's
first trip across the Atlantic to New
York, Commander Rosendahl gave a
vory detailed account of the arrangement of tlio controls, cabins, 'ballast system, powor plants and details of construction of the first commercial air
liner.
Ho predicts heavier and larger air-
•ships making regular trans-Atlantic,
flights even in the stormy winter weather and says that the ideal ship, in his
opinion, is one lifted by helium and
powered by heavy oil engines.
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