No. 9 was inflated in the closing days of 1916, and the disposal lift was found to be 2.1 tons under the specification conditions, namely, barometer 29.5 inches and temperature 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The contract requirements had been dropped to 3.1 tons, which showed that the ship was short by one ton of the lift demanded. The flight trials were, however, carried out, which showed that the ship had a speed of about 42 1/2 miles per hour.
The alterations previously mentioned were afterwards made, the bags of the ship were changed and another lift and trim trial was held in March, 1917, when it was found that these had had the satisfactory result of increasing the disposable lift to 3.8 tons or .7 ton above the contract requirements, and with the bags 100 per cent full gave a total disposable lift of 5.1 tons.
Additional trials were then carried out, which showed that the speed of the ship had not been impaired.
For reference purposes the performances of the ship are tabulated below.
Speed:
Full 45 miles per hour
Normal = 2/3 38 " " "
Cruising = 1/3 32 " " "
Endurance:
Full 18 hours = 800 miles
Normal 26 " = 1,000 "
Cruising 50 " = 1,600 "
No. 9 having finished her trials was accepted by the Admiralty in Mar. 1917, and left Barrow, where she had been built, for a patrol station.
In many ways she was an excellent ship, for it must be remembered that when completed she was some years out-of-date judged by Zeppelin standards. Apart from the patrol and convoy work which she accomplished, she proved simply invaluable for the training of officers and men selected to be the crews of future rigid airships. Many of these received their initial training in her, and there were few officers or men in the airship service who were not filled with regret when orders were issued that she was to be broken up. The general feeling was that she should have been preserved as a lasting exhibition of the infancy of the airship service, but unfortunately rigid airships occupy so much space that there is no museum in the country which could have accommodated her. So she passed, and, except for minor trophies, remains merely a recollection.
RIGID AIRSHIP No. 23 CLASS
After the decision had been made in 1915 that work on No. 9 should be restarted, the Admiralty determined that a programme of rigid airships should be embarked upon, and design was commenced.
Several ships of the same class were, ordered, and the type was to be known as the 23 class. Progress on these ships, although slow, was more rapid than had been the case with No. 9, and by the end of 1917 three were completed and a fourth was rapidly approaching that state.