69 feet 3 inches. The gross lift is
24,300 lb.; the disposable lift, without crew, petrol, oil, and
ballast, 8,500 lb. The normal crew carried when on patrol is ten,
which includes officers.

As in the case of the Coastal, a gun is mounted on the top of the
envelope, which is approached by a similar climbing shaft, and guns and
bombs are carried on the car.

These ships have become notorious for breaking all flying records for
non-rigid airships. Even the first ship of the class, despite the
unsatisfactory power units, so long ago as in the summer of 1917
completed a flight of 49 hours 22 minutes, which at the time was the
record flight of any British airship. Since that date numerous flights
of quite unprecedented duration have been achieved, one of 61 1/2 hours
being particularly noteworthy, and those of upwards of 30 hours have
become quite commonplace.

Since the Armistice one of these ships completed the unparalleled total
of 101 hours, which at that date was the world's record flight, and
afforded considerable evidence as to the utility of the non-rigid type
for overseas patrol, and even opens up the possibility of employing
ships of similar or slightly greater dimensions for commercial purposes.

N.S. 6 appeared several times over London in the summer months of 1918,
and one could not help being struck by the ease with which she was
steered and her power to remain almost stationary over such a small
area as Trafalgar Square for a quite considerable period.

The flights referred to above were not in any way stunt performances to
pile up a handsome aggregate of hours, but were the ordinary flying
routine of the station to which the ships were attached, and most of
the hours were spent in escorting convoys and hunting for submarines.
In addition to these duties, manoeuvres were carried out on occasions
with the Fleet or units thereof.

From the foregoing observations it must be manifest that this type of
ship, in its present modified state, is a signal success, and is
probably the best large non-rigid airship that has been produced in any
country.

For the purposes of comparison it will be interesting to tabulate the
performances of the standard types of non-rigid airships. The leading
dimensions are also included in this summary:

Type S.S. Zero S.S. Twin Coastal North
Star Sea
Length 143' 0" 165' 0" 218'