To Admiral William A. Moffett, and the men his leadership inspired—to Landsdowne, McCord and Berry—to Calnan and Dugan and other able juniors, to Maxfield and Hoyt, Hancock and Lawrence of an earlier decade—to the Army’s Hawthorne Gray, and as well to England’s Scott, France’s de Grenadin, Germany’s Lehmann and Goodyear’s Brannigan and Morton—names taken from lighter-than-air’s brief but distinguished casualty list—of men who believed in airships and accepted gallantly the penalty which progress eternally exacts from men—this book is dedicated.

Not forgetting the living men, the Navy’s Rosendahl, Fulton, Mills, Settle; Goodyear’s Litchfield and Arnstein, and hundreds of others who have carried on with unshaken faith, in the face of great setbacks.

Much of devotion and courage, of scientific research and engineering achievement has gone into this enterprise—and much has been proved. Today, airships of the non-rigid type are taking on a new responsibility to the nation. If they succeed, they may well bring back the great rigid airships, to act as long range scouts against enemy raid or surprise fleet movement, as fast moving bases and refueling points for fighting airplanes far at sea—and as factors in world commerce in days to come.

It is this impulse which is driving forward the men who believe in airships—that the sacrifices and efforts of Admiral Moffett and the rest shall not have gone in vain.