Next to this was 'Army Airship 2A 'launched early in 1910 and larger,
longer, and narrower in design than the Baby. The engine was an 80
horse-power Green motor which drove two pairs of propellers; small
inflated control members were fitted at the stern end of the envelope,
which was 154 feet in length. The suspended car was 84 feet long,
carrying both engines and crew, and the Willows idea of swivelling
propellers for governing the direction was used in this vessel. In June
of that year a new, small-type dirigible, the 'Beta,' was produced,
driven by a 30 horse-power Green engine with which she flew over 3,000
miles. She was the most successful British dirigible constructed up to
that time, and her successor, the 'Gamma,' was built on similar lines.
The 'Gamma' was a larger vessel, however, produced in 1912, with flat,
controlling fins and rudder at the rear end of the envelope, and with
the conventional long car suspended at some distance beneath the gas
bag. By this time, the mooring mast, carrying a cap of which the concave
side fitted over the convex nose of the airship, had been originated.
The cap was swivelled, and, when attached to it, an airship was held
nose on to the wind, thus reducing by more than half the dangers
attendant on mooring dirigibles in the open.
Private subscription under the auspices of the Morning Post got together
sufficient funds in 1910 for the purchase of a Lebaudy airship, which
was built in France, flown across the Channel, and presented to the Army
Airship Fleet. This dirigible was 337 feet long, and was driven by two
135 horse-power Panhard motors, each of which actuated two propellers.
The journey from Moisson to Aldershot was completed at a speed of 36
miles an hour, but the airship was damaged while being towed into its
shed. On May of the following year, the Lebaudy was brought out for a
flight, but, in landing, the guide rope fouled in trees and sheds and
brought the airship broadside on to the wind; she was driven into some
trees and wrecked to such an exteent that rebuilding was considered an
impossibility. A Clement Bayard, bought by the army airship section,
became scrap after even less flying than had been accomplished by the
Lebaudy.
In April of 1910, the Admiralty determined on a naval air service,
and set about the production of rigid airships which should be able to
compete with Zeppelins as naval scouts. The construction was entrusted
to Vickers, Ltd., who set about the task at their Barrow works and built
something which, when tested after a year's work, was found incapable
of lifting its own weight. This defect was remedied by a series of
alterations, and meanwhile the unofficial title of 'Mayfly' was given to
the vessel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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