I feel it a great honour to have the privilege of addressing the members of the Royal Aeronautical Society on the subject of Airship Piloting, especially in view of the interest you have taken in furthering and generally assisting in the development of all types of aircraft.

Although the airship has hitherto not occupied the thought and brains of Aeronautical Engineers to the same extent as the aeroplane and seaplane, I feel sure the confidence and support of the Society will lead to a more general and scientific interest being taken in lighter-than-air craft, which is bound to result in more rapid progress in the near future.

I hope the discussion to follow will provide the foundation for solving some of the problems that will have to be faced, when piloting the airships over routes to various parts of the world, where totally different atmospheric conditions are likely to be encountered.

In his recent lecture on “ Airship Mooring and Handling,” Captain Butcher refers to certain experiments carried out with the use of models in connection with three-wire mooring. It is, perhaps, useful to add some further details of these special experiments, which were conducted at the National Physical Laboratory.

Mention was made by Captain Butcher of the original or “ fixed ” three-wire system (see Fig. 1), which originated from the emergency mooring of R.9. Its defects lie in the occasional slackening and subsequent impulsive tightening of one or more of the mooring cables when the airship is riding in gusty weather. In the particular modifications introduced by the N.P.L., breakdown due to this contingency is eliminated.

In attempting to survey the growth and progress of the “ Giant ” aeroplane in Germany, it is first of all necessary to review the circumstances and conditions which determined and necessitated the direction of effort in this direction, and secondly, to indicate roughly the accessory circumstances peculiar to the conditions of the Central Empires during the war at the period when giant aircraft first began to appear, and to distinguish if possible the influence of these circumstances where they bear on development in a manner either conflicting or diverse from the conditions appertaining in Entente countries.

Such a preliminary survey is absolutely necessary in order to disabuse the mind of its natural tendency to compare the completed individual German giant aeroplane with its corresponding Entente type; and at the same time to prepare one of the various confusing and unexplained peculiarities which must tend to mislead, if the ruling circumstances are not first made clear.