rapidity of transport, and here, as in the passenger service
outlined above, the airship offers undoubted facilities. As we
have said before, it is mainly over long distances that the
airship will score, and for long distances on the amount carried
the success of the enterprise will be secured. For this purpose
the rigid airship will be essential. There are certain instances
in which the non-rigid may possibly be profitably utilized, and
one such is suggested by a mail service between this country and
Scandinavia. A service is feasible between Newcastle and Norway
by airships of a capacity of the S.S. Twin type. These ships
would carry 700 lb. of mails each trip at about 4d. per ounce,
which would reduce the time of delivering letters from about two
and a half to three days to twenty-four hours.

A commercial airship company is regarded in this country as a new
and highly hazardous undertaking, and it seems to be somewhat
overlooked that it is not quite the novel idea so many people
imagine. Before the war, in the years 1910 to 1914, the Deutsche
Luftfahrt Actien Gesellschaft successfully ran a commercial
Zeppelin service in which four airships were used, namely,
Schwaben, Victoria Luise, Hansa and Sachsan. During this period
over 17,000 passengers were carried a total distance of over
100,000 miles without incurring a single fatal accident.
Numerous English people made trips in these airships, including
Viscount Jellicoe, but the success of the company has apparently
been forgotten.

We have endeavoured to show that the non-rigid airship has
potentialities even for commercial purposes, but there is no
doubt whatever that the future of the airship in the commercial