ZODIAC CLASS

Société française de ballons dirige ables et d'aviation, Zodiac, 10 route du Havre, Puteaux (Seine). These dirigibles were intended primarily for private pleasure purposes. Consequently they are designed to fly when filled with coal gas if nece ary. Every effort is made to render them easily transportable; the long girder frame by which the weight is distributed is made to take to pieces. It is held in France that numbers of this cla of ve el would form an invaluable a et in time of war, as each could be transported in a single cart, filled with a very few bottles of hydrogen, and when so filled could manœuvre for some 6 hours at a speed which compares favourably with that of the standard types. When the service of reconnai ance was performed, the ve el could be packed up and sent out of harm's way in an hour, whereas this could scarcely be done with a larger ve el on account of the quantity of hydrogen that would be required if it had to be filled afresh for each service. The mooring of an airship in the open during war requires such an amount of preparation and attention as to be a serious drawback to the alternative plan of keeping such ve els unfilled, while the sending of an airship back to its distant shed on each occasion means doubling the work that the ship is called upon to perform. Ships of cla are:— | 1. | ZODIAC I ( Petit Journal ) | | 2. | ZODIAC II ( De la Vaulx ) | | 3 | ZODIAC III | | 4 | ZODIAC IV | Dutch Military | | 5. | ZODIAC V | South American (private) | | 6. | ZODIAC VI | Sold to United States | | 7 | ZODIAC VII | Sold to Ru ian Army | | 8. | ZODIAC VIII | " | | 9. | ZODIAC IX ( Le Temps ) | French Army | | 10. | ZODIAC X ( Capitaine Ferber ) | " | | 11. | ZODIAC XI ( Commandant Coutelle ) | " | | 12. | ZODIAC XII ( Spie ) | " ( rigid ) | 121