Dienstbach, C. and MacMechen, T.R. (1909) The Aerial Battleship. McLure’s Magazine, August, 1909
An article discussing the role of airships in war.
In the fall of 1908 the third airship built by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was bought by the German government, officially commissioned as a warship, and given a military crew. On May 29, 30, and 31 his fifth and last ship, the Zeppelin Il. made, without landing, a flight of thirty-six hours, covering 850 miles. This flight would have carried it from German soil to London, Paris, Vienna, or Stockholm, and back again. In secret trials by the German government during March, a rapid-firing gun, capable of throwing nearly sixty 1.9-inch shells a minute, was fired with entire success from the deck of the Zeppelin I. This means the end of armies within the next ten years. The situation, about which there is now the densest popular ignorance, should be understood.
Article available at: http://64.62.200.70/PERIODICAL/PDF/McClures-1909aug/1-13/
