British Airships, Past, Present, and Future

ORRES T

airships in the future would be invaluable to a fleet for scouting purposes. It was manifest that our fleet, in the event of war, would be gravely handicappe

should be allotted to the Navy, and a design for Rigid Airship No. 1 was prepared by

f that year and nothing more was done with her. In February, 1912, the construction of

wing to the fact that airship construction was so behindhand in this country, in comparison with the Continent, it was determined that purchases should

from France. This was a ship of 229,450 cubic feet capacity and was driven by twin Chenu engines of 210 horse-power each. She carried a crew of six, and was equipped wit

hip which afterwards became e known as No. 9. Full details of the vicissitudes

an design of Major von Parseval and three of the Forlanini type, which was a semi-rigid design manufactured in I

as also building when war broke out; needless to say this ship was never delivered. At a later date Messrs. Vi

aken over by the Italians; Messrs. Armstrong had not commenced work on the oth

L AIRSH

ce flying carried out by it during the first three years of the war, and, secondly, for its great va

entre at the bottom towards the nose and tail at the top. The object of this is to distribute the load fore and aft over the envelope. These bands, particularly at the after end of the ship, follow a curved path, so that they become more nearly vertical as they approach the upper surface of the envelope. This has the effect of bringing the vertical load on the top of the envelope; but a greater portion of the compressive force comes on the lower half, where it helps to resist the bending m

en were carried, together with a w

r, and in addition to the duties performed by her in the autumn of 1914, which are mentioned later, carried out long hours of

AIRSHIPS

ction of the North Sea airship with its greater speed were not persevered with. The dimensions of the envelopes were somewhat increased, giving a cubic capacity of 325,000 cubic feet. Twin Maybach engines driving swivelling propellers

engines was rigged to one of envelopes. During a speed trial, this ship was calculated to have a ground speed of 50 to 53 miles per hour

as anticipated events somewhat, and a

40 horse-power, driving swivelling propellers. This ship was delivered towards the end of the year 1914. The second Astra was of smaller capacity and was delivere

anded their airship service, and the military ships together with

elucidate the matter. The original intention was to designate each airship owned by the Navy by a successive number. The original airship, the rigid Mayfly, was known as No. 1, the Willows airship No. 2, and so on. These numbers were allocated regardless of type and as each airship was ordered, consequently some of these ships, for example the Forlaninis, never existed. That did not matter, how

worse confounded if these ships bore the original system of successive numbering and were mixed up with those of later classes which it was known would be produced as soon as the

d. Hence we have No. 1 a rigid, the second rigid constructed is No. 9, or R 9, and the third becomes R 23. From this number onwards all are rigids and are numbered in sequence as

d tedious explanation the fol

pe. Re

ecked, Sept

ws Becam

rres Delete

l Deleted,

ever delivere

ip built by Me

Built by Mes

Built by Mes

rres Delete

Deleted,

res Envelope

Never delivere

Never delivere

Never delivere

id Neve

id Neve

-Torres S

ransferred

d, May

Deleted,

Deleted,

nsferred fr

th car fr

d May,

struction cance

struction cance

gid 23

gid 23

gid 23

gid 23

gid 23

x Class. Nev

gid 23

x Class. Nev

gid 31

31 Class

gid 33

gid 33

gid Ca

gid Bu

gid Bu

gid Bu

gid Bu

gid Bu

gid Bu

on of two stations, Farnborough and Kingsnorth, the latter in a half-finished condition. Seven airships were possessed, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and the four ex-army ships--Beta, Gamma,

e North Sea, and No. 4 came under the fire of territorial detachments at the mouth of the Thames on her return to he

l Expeditionary Force across the Channel, and in addition to this No. 4 c

r a short period early in 1915 at Dunkirk, and was employe

, and in the case of the latter the car was found to be beyond repair, and she was accordi

o fly to Dunkirk in November, 1914. She encountered a snowstorm near Redhill and was compelled to make a forced

so moored out in the open for a short time near Dunkirk, a

the Naval Airship S

opportunity, and the authorities grasped the fact that, with development, here was the weapon to defeat the most dan