Thus a most remarkable undertaking was brought to a successful
conclusion. The weather experienced was by no means abnormally
good. This was not an opportunity waited for for weeks and then
hurriedly snatched, but on the preordained date the flight was
commenced. The airship enthusiast had always declared that the
crossing of the Atlantic presented no insuperable difficulty, and
when the moment arrived the sceptics found that he was correct.
We may therefore assume that this flight is a very important
landmark in the history of aerial transport, and has demonstrated
that the airship is to be the medium for long-distance travel.
We may rest assured that such flights, although creating
universal wonder to-day, will of a surety be accepted as everyday
occurrences before the world is many years older.



CHAPTER VIII
THE WORK OF THE AIRSHIP IN THE WORLD WAR

The outbreak of war found us, as we have seen, practically
without airships of any military value. For this unfortunate
circumstance there were many contributory causes. The
development of aeronautics generally in this country was behind
that of the Continent, and the airship had suffered to a greater
extent than either the seaplane or the aeroplane. Our attitude
in fact towards the air had not altered so very greatly from that
of the man who remarked, on reading in his paper that some
pioneer of aviation had met with destruction, "If we had been
meant to fly, God would have given us wings." Absurd as this