eing fitted with the Hawk
engine, carried out a patrol one day of 18 hours 20 minutes. In the
summer of 1916 one of the Armstrong ships was rigged to an envelope
doped black and sent over to France. While there she carried out
certain operations at night which were attended with success, proving
that under certain circumstances the airship can be of value in
operating with the military forces over land.

S.S.P.

In 1916 the design was commenced for an S.S. ship which should have a
more comfortable car and be not merely an adaptation of an aeroplane
body. These cars, which were of rectangular shape with a blunt nose,
were fitted with a single landing skid aft, and contained seats for
three persons.

The engine, a 100 horse-power water-cooled Green, was mounted on
bearers aft and drove a four-bladed pusher propeller. The petrol was
carried in aluminium tanks attached by fabric slings to the axis of the
envelope.

Six of these ships were completed in the spring of 1917 and were quite
satisfactory, but owing to the success achieved by the experimental
S.S. Zero it was decided to make this the standard type of S.S. ship,
and with the completion of the sixth the programme of the S.S.P's was
brought to a close.

These ships enjoyed more than, perhaps, was a fair share of misfortune,
one was wrecked on proceeding to its patrol station and was found to be
beyond repair, and another was lost in a snowstorm in the far north.
The remainder, fitted at a later date with 75 horse-power Rolls Royce
engines, proved to be a most valuable asset to our fleet of small
airships.

S.S. ZERO

The original S.S. Zero was built at a south-coast station by Air
Service labour, and to the design of three officers stationed there.
The design of the car shows a radical departure from anything that had
been previously attempted, and as a model an ordinary boat was taken.
In shape it is as nearly streamline as is practicable, having a keel
and ribs of wood with curved longitudinal members, the strut ends
being housed in steel sockets. The whole frame is braced with piano
wire set diagonally between the struts. The car is floored from end to
end, and the sides are enclosed with 8-ply wood covered with fabric.

Accommodation is provided for a wireless telegraphy operator, who is
also a gunner, his compartment being situated forward, amidships is the
pilot and abaft this seat is a compartment for the engineer.

The engine selected wa