Commander Neville Usborne was a career naval officer who entered the Royal Navy at a time of significant technological change. He was one of the first to appreciate the value of air reconnaissance for the fleet and, as a torpedo specialist with a practical knowledge of electrical and weapons systems, he was better placed than many seaman officers to become closely involved with the development of airships which were expected at first to have much greater utility than fixed-wing aeroplanes. He was appointed to the small team that stood by the first rigid airship, R1, unofficially known as the ‘Mayfly’, during her construction by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness, and was selected to command her on her completion. Whilst at Barrow he designed and patented a clever system to capture the water vapour produced during the combustion process in the craft’s engines for use as ballast. In the event she was never completed and the Admiralty temporarily abandoned airships in favour of fixed-wing aircraft development, but this did not harm Usborne’s career.
He was one of the outstanding personalities among the early aviation specialists, and a measure of the respect he earned can be drawn from his selection to become an associate fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in February 1912, at the same time as Frederick Handley Page and Horace Short. He qualified to fly both heavier-than-air aircraft – awarded pilot’s certificate number 449 – as well as airships, and his drive and enthusiasm allowed him to continue at the forefront of development. Promoted to commander in January 1914, he was one of only six officers of that rank serving in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) on its official formation on 1 July 1914 and was appointed to command the new Royal Naval Air Station at Kingsnorth in Kent, which was to be used as an operational, experimental and construction base for airships. From this new air station, Usborne flew some of the very first war patrols by RNAS airships in 1914, searching the eastern approaches to the English Channel in HM Airships 3 and 4 for signs of an enemy attack on shipping carrying the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France. He never lost sight of the need to make the best use of the material the RNAS had available, but recognised the urgent requirement for technical innovation to overcome the immediate problems that faced the Navy’s air arm.
Usborne was closely involved in the design evolution of the SS class non-rigid airships that proved to be very successful in coastal patrol work, an achievement recognised by his appointment as the Admiralty’s Inspecting Commander of Airships (Building) in August 1915. The RNAS had responsibility at the time for the air defence of the UK, since the whole of the Royal Flying Corps had been sent to France. However, fixed-wing aircraft proved unable to take off and climb fast enough to intercept Zeppelins over south-eastern England after they were detected, and nor could they maintain patrols at altitude for long against the possibility of an attack. The RNAS’ primary tactic was to attack the Zeppelins at source in their factories and sheds in Germany and Belgium, but something had to be done to intercept airships that penetrated UK airspace, and Usborne designed a remarkable solution, the airship-plane. This was a hybrid aircraft that comprised of a standard BE2C scout aircraft suspended beneath an SS-type airship in place of its control car. It could patrol for several hours at 4,000 feet and Usborne believed that the BE2C could be released with a realistic chance of attacking and destroying an enemy airship once it had been sighted. Unmanned release trials worked successfully with a prototype hybrid, and, on 21 February 1916, Usborne flew the first manned example, AP-1, with Squadron Commander W.P. de Courcy Ireland as co-pilot. As you will discover in the following pages, both men were killed when something went badly wrong, with the result that the RNAS lost an innovative and driving force who had played a not inconsiderable part in its early development.
In this fascinating book, Guy Warner goes much further than simply recounting the biographical details of one individual, albeit a very remarkable one. He traces the development of lighter-than-air flight in the British armed forces from its very beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century in order to place Usborne’s career and achievements in their due context. Historians have often, hitherto, paid too little attention to the development of airships by the Royal Navy, and the important part they played in the First World War has been overshadowed by the exploits of heavier-than-air aircraft. Commander Usborne himself has not been given the degree of recognition he deserves, as one of the outstanding personalities in the first decade of naval aviation. This book redresses that imbalance, and is a worthy tribute to the memory of a brave and resourceful officer and his contemporaries.
David Hobbs
January 2016