e-power each. She carried a crew of six, and was equipped with
wireless and machine guns. The car could be moved fore and aft for
trimming purposes, either by power or by hand. This was, however, not
satisfactory, and was abandoned.

In April 1918, Messrs. Vickers were asked to forward proposals for a
rigid airship which afterwards became e known as No. 9. Full details of
the vicissitudes connected with this ship will be given in the chapter
devoted to Rigid Airships.

In July, approval was granted for the construction of six non-rigid
ships. Three of these were to be of the German design of Major von
Parseval and three of the Forlanini type, which was a semi-rigid design
manufactured in Italy. The order for the Parsevals was placed with
Messrs. Vickers and for the Forlaninis with Messrs. Armstrong.

The Parseval airship was delivered to this country and became known as
No. 4; a second ship of the same type was also building when war broke
out; needless to say this ship was never delivered. At a later date
Messrs. Vickers, who had obtained the patent rights of the Parseval
envelope, completed the other two ships of the order.

The Forlanini ship was completing in Italy on the declaration of war
and was taken over by the Italians; Messrs. Armstrong had not commenced
work on the other two. These ships, although allocated numbers, never
actually came into being.

PARSEVAL AIRSHIP No. 4

This airship deserves special consideration for two reasons; firstly,
on account of the active-service flying carried out by it during the
first three years of the war, and, secondly, for its great value in
training of the officers and men who later on became the captains and
crews of rigid airships.

The Parseval envelope is of streamline shape which tapers to a point at
the tail, and in this ship was of 300,000 cubic feet capacity. The
system of rigging being patented, can only be described in very general
terms. The suspensions carrying the car are attached to a large
elliptical rigging band which is formed under the central portion of
the envelope. To this rigging band are attached the trajectory bands
which pass up the sides and over the top of the envelope, sloping away
from the centre at the bottom towards the nose and tail at the top.
The object of this is to distribute the load fore and aft over the
envelope. These bands, particularly at the after end of the ship,
follow a curved path, so that they become more