The Eta airship was a British airship built in 1913 for the British Army and later the Royal Navy.
Eta was completed in August 1913, the last airship to be built for the British Army.[1] It was smaller than its predecessor, Delta, with a capacity of 118,000 cubic feet. An improvement was the method of securing the gondola, whose six suspension cables were repeatedly divided so that thirty-six cables were actually attached to the envelope by redesigned patches. It carried a crew of five and was driven by a pair of 80 horse-power Canton-Unné engines. She was commanded by The Hon. Claud Maitland Patrick Brabazon of the military wing of the Royal Flying Corps.[2] When the army abandoned airships on 1 January 1914, Eta was transferred to the Royal Navy (RN) and given the designation His Majesty's Airship No.20.[3]
Service
editOn 19 November 1914 the Eta airship was en route to Dunkirk when she flew into a snowstorm near Redhill. After making a forced landing, she broke away from her moorings and was damaged beyond repair.[4]
References
edit- ^ "British military aviation 1862-1912 - Airships". www.rafmuseum.org.uk. Royal Air Force Museum. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ Unofficial FAA History page, facebook
- ^ Castle, Ian; Bryan, Tony (19 May 2009). British airships, 1905-30. Osprey Publishing. pp. 13–14. ISBN 978-1846033872.
- ^ Warner, Guy, 2016. Lighter Than Air: The Life and Times of Wing Commander N.F. Usborne ... Pen & Sword Aviation.
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