At last, in 1905, the first ascent took place. It was
unsuccessful. The huge balloon, made of tussore silk, cruised
about for some time, then drifted away with the breeze, and came
to grief in landing.

A clever inventor of air-ships, a young Welshman, Mr. E. T.
Willows, designed in 1910, an air-ship in which he flew from
Cardiff to London in the dark--a distance of 139 miles. In the
same craft he crossed the English Channel a little later.

Mr. Willows has a large shed in the London aerodrome at Hendon,
and he is at present working there on a new air-ship. For some
time he has been the only successful private builder of air-ships
in Great Britain. The Navy possess a small Willows air-ship.

Messrs. Vickers, the famous builders of battleships, are giving
attention to the construction of air-ships for the Navy, in their
works at Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness. This firm has erected
an enormous shed, 540 feet long, 150 feet broad, and 98 feet
high. In this shed two of the largest air-ships can be built
side by side. Close at hand is an extensive factory for the
production of hydrogen gas.

At each end of the roof are towers from which the difficult task
of safely removing an air-ship from the shed can be directed.

At the time of writing, the redoubtable DORA (Defence of the
Realm Act) forbids any but the vaguest references to what is
going forward in the way of additions to our air forces. But it