The speed of the Zero is about 45 miles per hour and the ship has
a theoretical endurance of seventeen hours; but this has been
largely exceeded in practice.
The original ship proved an immediate success, and a large number
was shortly afterwards ordered.
As time went on the stations expanded and sub-stations were
added, while the Zero airship was turned out as fast as it could
be built, until upwards of seventy had been commissioned. The
work these ships were capable of exceeded the most sanguine
expectations. Owing to their greater stability in flight and
longer hours of endurance, they flew in weather never previously
attempted by the earlier ships. With experience gained it was
shown that a large fleet of airships of comparatively small
capacity is of far more value for an anti-submarine campaign than
a lesser fleet of ships of infinitely greater capacity. The
average length of patrol was eight hours, but some wonderful
duration flights were accomplished in the summer of 1918, as the
following figures will show. The record is held by S.S.Z. 39,
with 50 hours 55 minutes; another is 30 hours 20 minutes; while
three more vary from 25 1/2 hours to 26 1/4. Although small, the
Zero airship has been one of the successes of the war, and we can
claim proudly that she is entirely a British product.
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