In 1912, Beta, having been employed regularly during the previous
year, was provided with a new car having a Clerget engine of 45
horse-power. In 1913 she was inflated for over three months and
made innumerable flights, on one occasion carrying H.R.H. the
Prince of Wales as passenger. She had at that time a maximum
speed of 35 miles per hour, and could carry fuel for about eight
hours with a crew of three.
GAMMA
In 1910 the Gamma was also completed. This was a much bigger
ship with an envelope of 75,000 cubic feet capacity, which,
though designed in England, had been built by the Astra Company
in Paris. The car, as in Beta, was carried in a long framework
suspended from the envelope. This portion of the ship was
manufactured in England, together with the machinery. This
consisted of an 80 horse-power Green engine driving swivelling
propellers, the gears and shafts of which were made by Rolls
Royce. The engine drove the propeller shafts direct, one from
each end of the crankshaft.
Originally the envelope was fitted with inflated streamline
stabilizers on either side, but at a later date these were
replaced by fixed stabilizing planes. At the same time the Green
engine was removed and two Iris engines of 45 horse-power were
installed, each driving a single propeller.
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