THE LAST OF THE BRITISH ARMY AIRSHIP WHICH WAS BOUGHT BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION. A DISASTROUS FLIGHT AT ALDERSHOT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 25, 21 June 1911, Page 18

THE LAST OF THE BRITISH ARMY AIRSHIP WHICH WAS BOUGHT BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION. A DISASTROUS FLIGHT AT ALDERSHOT.

The l.ebaudy airship Belonging to the British Army was totally wrecked on I’anib. n.rgh Common, last month, after a successful flight of over an hour. Fortunately nobody was injured. It was tin* second flight of tin* giant army airship in England, and. like the first, it ended in disaster. I( will be remembered that on the .•♦••rival of tli< Lebaudy al Aidershot, last year, after Its successful voyage from France, the envelope was ripped open by a girder of the shed into which it was being towed, (hi the second occasion, the wind ruse after the ascent, and disaster followed, when the descent was attempted. The airship got out of hand, and drove straight into a lump of trees. The enormous gas envelope was pierced, and with a report that could 'be heard a mile off, the whole of the huge structure crashed downwards, tearing >wn telegraph lines, and uprooting railings, ami dropped into a shapeless mass over a detached villa. The top ph to shows the wreckage, and soldiers commencing to clear It away. In the middle picture the airship is seen al the commencement of her ill-fated trip. The bottom photo shows the wrecked car and propellers.