EARLY BRITISH AIRSHIP

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27670, 28 May 1955, Page 2

EARLY BRITISH AIRSHIP

CHRISTCHURCH MAN’S ASSOCIATION

LIAISON OFFICER FOR FLYERS

The announcement in “The Press” yesterday that Major-General Sir John Edward Capper, who flew over London in 1907 in Britain’s first military airship, had died at his home in Sussex, revived memories for Mr F. Carpenter, of Mount Pleasant.

Mr Carpenter was a boy trainee at the balloon school at Farnborough when Colonel S. F. Cody, the famous pioneer aviator, and Major-General (then Colonel) Capper were making their famous flights in the open tubular-shaped car suspended under the sausage-shaped envelope of the Nulli Secundus, the name given to the famous airship. He acted as a public relations officer for the flyers, keeping journalists informed of their programme. He recalls that the airship had barely taken off on its first flight when copies of a London evening newspaper appeared on the airfield carrying a story of a successful flight. When Colonel Cody first started the airship’s 50 horsepower engine the mounts of military policemen keeping back the crowds took fright and bolted, he said.

From the famous flight over London, Mr Carpenter said, the Nulli Secundus did not return. After flying over the city she landed at the Crystal Palace. A storm blew up that night, and Royal Engineers, who were on guard, fearing that the. ship would break lose, stuck their bayonets into the envelope. The wrecked airship returned to Farnborough oh board railway trucks. Later Mr Carpenter flew with Colonel Cody in the first roundBritain air race. They came to grief when the flimsy craft struck a jump on the Aintree racecourse.

When he returned to Britain recently Mr Carpenter was a guest at the air display at Farnborough, and was photographed with the secretary of the Aircraft Establishment Association in front of the tree to which Colonel Cody tied his aeroplane in the days before there were hangers.