So far, the credit of the only English airship which has yet flown rests with Mr. Stanley Spencer, the well-known aeronaut. Mr. Spencer comes of a race of aeronauts. His grandfather, Edward Spencer, was the great friend and colleague of Charles Green, and shared with him some of his chief ballooning adventures, notably the terrible voyage when Cocking lost his life. Green stood godfather to Edward Spencer’s son, who was christened Charles Green after him. He also grew up to be an aeronaut, and made several inventions and improvements relating to balloons and flying machines. His love of ballooning, inherited from his father, has been passed on to his children, and his three eldest sons, Percival, Arthur, and Stanley, are chief among British aeronauts, and indeed have practically the monopoly of professional ballooning and balloon manufacture in Great Britain. Nor have they confined themselves to this country. All three have taken their balloons and parachutes to distant parts of the world, and among their many hundreds of ascents, both abroad and at home, have met with all manner of exciting and perilous adventures, though never yet with serious mishap. Their knowledge of practical aeronautics, then, is unrivalled, and Mr. Stanley Spencer had the experience of three generations to guide him when, in 1902, he set to work to build an airship which he had long been devising. His first machine was a comparatively small one, capable only of lifting a light man. It took the usual form of a cigar-shaped balloon, the framework of which was built of bamboo, driven forward by a screw-propeller worked by a small petrol engine. Warned by the fate of the unfortunate Severo, Mr. Spencer placed his engine far away from the valve. Profiting also by Santos Dumont’s experience, he constructed his balloon in such a manner that, should it become torn and the gas escape, the empty silk would collapse into the form of a parachute and break the fall. Furthermore, there was an arrangement by which, while aloft, ordinary air could be forced into the balloon to replace any loss of gas, and so keep the silk always fully inflated and “taut”--a very important factor in a machine that has to be driven forward through the atmosphere. With this airship Mr. Spencer, as also his equally daring wife, made several highly successful trials at the Crystal Palace, when it was found to steer well and answer its helm most satisfactorily. Mr. Spencer also made two long voyages, from London and from Blackpool, on both of which occasions he found he could manœuvre his airship with considerable success, make circular flights, and sail against the wind, provided it was blowing only at moderate speed.