page_title: List of British airships
section_title: British Army airships
hierarchical_section_title: List of British airships / Semi-rigid and non-rigid airships / British Army airships
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph showing Submarine Scout Zero Type Airship SSZ 37 flying above a minelaying sloop. The sloop has the number 61 painted on the side.
context_page_description: Airship development in the United Kingdom lagged behind that of Germany and France. The first British designed and built airship was constructed by Stanley Spencer, and on 22 September 1902 was flown 30 miles from Crystal Palace, London to Ruislip, carrying an advertisement for baby food. A series of more practical airships was constructed by Ernest Willows, the "Willows Number 1" making its first flight near Cardiff on 5 August 1905. The Royal Navy realised that airships similar to Ferdinand von Zeppelin's designs could be of great use and in 1909 ordered construction of a rigid airship. This was completed in 1911 but was wrecked while leaving the hangar before it had flown. Meanwhile, the British Army's School of Ballooning, later the Air Battalion Royal Engineers, acquired a small fleet of semi-rigid and non-rigid airships for observation purposes; they were taken over by the Royal Navy on the creation of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914. A large number of rigid and non-rigid airships were mainly used to counter the U-Boat campaign in World War I.
context_section_description: British Army Dirigible No 1 - or "Nulli Secundus"; first flight, 10 September 1907. Damaged by high wind, 10 October 1907 and rebuilt with enlarged envelope as Nulli Secundus II.
  Nulli Secundus II - first flight 24 July 1908. Damaged on 15 August and never repaired
  "Baby" - 1909, "British Army Airship No.3"
  Beta - May 1910 (a rebuild of "Baby" with a new envelope)
  Beta II - 1912 (a rebuild of Beta)
  No.2A - 1910, 150 feet long, with a gas capacity of 75,000 feet, powered by an 80hp British Green motor.
  Gamma - February 1910
  Gamma II - 1912 (A rebuild of Gamma)
  Delta - 1912
  Eta - August 1913. Transferred to Royal Navy, 1914.
  Two French-built airships, Clément-Bayard II and the Morning Post were operated by the British Army from 1910 to 1914. The latter had been donated by the readers of a British newspaper.
caption: A naval SSZ airship escorts a warship during World War I
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