The Future Of Airships
With the signing of the Armistice on November 11th, 1918, the airship's work in the war was practically completed and peace reigned on the stations which for so many months had been centres of feverish activity. The enemy submarines were withdrawn from our shipping routes and merchant ships could traverse the sea in safety except for the occasional danger of drifting mines. "What is to be the future of the airship?" is the question which is agitating the minds of innumerable people at the present moment.

During the war we have built the largest fleet of airships in the world, in non-rigids we have reached a stage in design which is unsurpassed by any country, and in rigid airships we are second only to the Germans, who have declared that, with the signing of the peace terms, their aircraft industry will be destroyed. Such is our position at the present moment, a position almost incredible if we look back to the closing days of the year 1914. Are we now to allow ourselves to drift gradually back to our old policy of supineness and negligence as existed before the war? Surely such a thought is inconceivable; as we have organized our airship production for the purposes of war, so shall we have to redouble our efforts for its development in peace, if we intend to maintain our supremacy in the air.