The French have a small airship very much like the _Blimp_ which they use for scout duty. It is called the _Zodiac_, and before the war was designed as a private pleasure car. Because of the fact that it could be easily packed and transported from place to place it was drafted into the service early in the war. Naturally, if an airship has to be kept inflated when not in use it is a constant target for the enemy's gunfire; and a small dirigible which can be packed up in an hour when not needed and readily inflated when the call for action comes is a very much safer proposition. There are several sizes and slightly different shapes of the _Zodiac_, but the shape of the envelope in all of them is very similar to the _Blimp_, tapering toward the stern with fins to give stability. A large sail-like rudder is set beneath the stern of the ship. Probably the most interesting thing about the _Zodiac_ is the car which in most models has a very long wooden framework. This framework, or girder, by its length distributes the weight along the whole length of the envelope. The car, in which the pilot and observer sit, is set in this girder. [Illustration: _Copyright Underwood and Underwood_ THE "BLIMP," C-1, THE LARGEST DIRIGIBLE OF THE AMERICAN NAVY] Nothing is more interesting to note in modern airships than the simplification of the method of car suspension. In the early airships the car was hung from the envelope by a large number of cables, which either connected with a network that fitted over the envelope, or else, in a semi-rigid dirigible, to the platform or keel at the base of the balloon. Now of course all these cables offered a great resistance to the air and were an enemy to speed. Just as the question of speed affected the shape of the envelope, until to-day we have the streamline balloon, tapering to the rear, and just as it made the question of a rigid or non-rigid envelope so important, it likewise finally did away with complicated connections between the envelope and the car. [Illustration: _Copyright International Film Service, Inc._ THE BALLOON OF THE U. S. S. OKLAHOMA] From the point of view of car suspension one of the most interesting of the modern French airships is the _Astra-Torres_. This is a dirigible of the non-rigid type. Canvas partitions are stretched across the interior of the envelope in such a manner as to form a triangle, its apex facing downwards. The sides of this triangle are strengthened by cables and from its apex hang the cables which support the car. The air resistance produced by the cables is therefore very slight, since only two lines are exposed.