DISABLED AIRSHIP TOWED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 89, 11 October 1913, Page 10

DISABLED AIRSHIP TOWED

FEAT BY ARMY DIRIGIBLE. f .The unique spectacle of an airship towing one which was disabled, to which it was attached by 600 feet of cable, was witnessed between Odiham and Famborough, England, on 20th August. Such a feat has never before been attempted, and that it was successfully accomplished speaks well for the qualities of the new army dirigible Eta. The incapacitated airship was the small Willows dirigible. Owing to engine trouble it was lying in the "flying camp" at Odiham, and the suggestion was made that it should be fetched to Farnborough by the Eta, which was built in the Government sheds, and which is now undergoing trials, prior to being taken over by the Flying Corps. It was, of course, no part of the fixed tests that she should tow another airship a distance of 14 miles ; such a task, indeed, has never before been attempted ; but it was accomplished without mishap. Captain 'Waterlow, R.E.,and Lieutenant Usborne, R.N., with a crew of factory mechanics, navigated the Eta, ,and Lieutenant Woodcock, with one assistant, steered the Willows. To lessen the nisk of collision the vessels travelled on different levels, the Eta being about 200 ft higher than the disabled aircraft. ' Keen interest was taken in the feat, and cheers greeted the successful termination of the novel voyage.