The phantom airship scare has clearly entered a new phase since the sightings last Friday in Yorkshire and Warwickshire. Several major London dailies — all politically conservative — devote substantial amounts of column space to the mystery; half the main news page, in the case of the Standard. Only it’s not regarded as a mystery […]
Last week was a relatively quiet one for the phantom airships, but today they receive the most press coverage yet. The main reason for this is a cluster of sightings reported from Yorkshire on Friday, along with another sighting from Warwickshire about 100 miles inland. In fact, there are so many reports that no one
TO ILLUSTRATE THE SO-CALLED ‘BLACK SHADOW OF THE AIR-SHIP’, A MAP OF JOURNEYS POSSIBLE TO AEROPLANES AND DIRIGIBLES. This week’s issue of the Illustrated London News devotes three whole pages — mostly taken up with illustrations, of course — to an examination of what a headline calls ‘A MENACE THEORY’: ‘IS IT “THE SEA TO
The Liverpool Echo provides some additional information about the Scarborough airship reported yesterday (p. 4; above). It turns out that it was actually seen ‘either once or twice in the early part of the present month’ [February 1913], so why it has only come to light now is unclear. According to the Echo, Miss Hollings
Although phantom airships have often been in the news lately, none have actually been reported for more than a week. The Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post breaks the drought today with a sighting from Scarborough, on the coast of the North Riding of Yorkshire (p. 4; above). No date is given, unfortunately. At least two
The Daily Mirror has a curious item today under the headline ‘BRITAIN’S PERIL IN THE AIR’ (p. 5; above). It is apparently a statement made yesterday by an unidentified ‘famous naval tactician’, but instead of setting it out as an article or a letter to the editor it is given as an extended quotation with
The Aerial Navigation Bill, introduced into the House of Commons only a week ago, is now the Aerial Navigation Act, 1913, as the Daily Mail records (p. 5; above): The Aerial Navigation Bill received the Royal Assent yesterday and comes into operation at once. Foreign airships will now cross England at their peril unless their
Yesterday, the Daily Mail said that the Aerial Navigation Bill would be put before the Lords next week. In fact, as today’s issue reveals, the bill already ‘passed through all its stages in the House of Lords late last night‘ (p. 5). Moreover, ‘all the regulations for the enforcement of the Government’s Aerial Navigation Bill
The Aeroplane today suggests that ‘The visits of the various “scare-ships” have evidently not been without salutary effect’, if they have given rise to the present Aerial Navigation Bill (p. 162). The Daily Mail would tend to agree, but hopes for more. It devotes both its first leading article and nearly a column’s worth of
The Times hasn’t been ignoring the phantom airships, but neither has it focused its editorial attention on them — until now. The third leading article in today’s issue is in support of the government’s new Aerial Navigation Bill, arguing that ‘This strengthening of existing legislative powers can hardly be thought premature, and may indeed be
