reconstituted and was stationed at Farnborough. The first
requirements were airships, and owing to the fact that airship
construction was so behindhand in this country, in comparison
with the Continent, it was determined that purchases should be
made abroad until sufficient experience had been gained by
British firms to enable them to compete with any chance of
success against foreign rivals.

First a small non-rigid, built by Messrs. Willows, was bought by
the Navy to be used for the training of airship pilots. In
addition an Astra-Torres airship was ordered from France. This
was a ship of 229,450 cubic feet capacity and was driven by twin
Chenu engines of 210 horse-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.