Eta (airship)

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. 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.19.[2]

Service

On November 19, 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.[3]

References
  1. "British military aviation 1862-1912 - Airships". www.rafmuseum.org.uk. Royal Air Force Museum. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  2. Castle, Ian; Bryan, Tony (19 May 2009). British airships, 1905-30. Osprey Publishing. pp. 13–14. ISBN 978-1846033872.
  3. Warner, Guy, 2016. Lighter Than Air: The Life and Times of Wing Commander N.F. Usborne ... Pen & Sword Aviation.


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