Page:My Airships.djvu/257



WHAT speed my "No. 6" made on those Mediterranean flights was not published at the time because I had not sought to calculate it closely. Fresh from the troubling time limit of the Deutsch prize competition I amused myself frankly with my air-ship, making observations of great value to myself, but not seeking to prove anything to anyone.

The speed problem is, doubtless, the first of all air-ship problems. Speed must always be the final test between rival air-ships, and until high speed shall be arrived at certain other problems of aerial navigation must remain in part unsolved. For example, take that of the air-ship's pitching (tangage). I think it quite likely that a critical point in speed will be found, beyond which, on each side, the pitching will be practically nil. When going slowly or at moderate speed I have experienced no pitching, which in an air-ship