‘Stealth’ 1916 Airship: The SS.40 ‘Black Ship’.

Hi folks,
As always, hope this isn't old news but Googling away about early stealth (or ancestors of stealth), brought up this: the British SS. 40 'low-observable' airship for delivering secret agents and general reconnaissance: “In 1916, the British modified a small SS class airship for the purpose of night-time reconnaissance over German lines on the Western Front. Fitted with a silenced engine and a black gas bag, the craft was both invisible and inaudible from the ground but several night-time flights over German-held territory produced little useful intelligence and the idea was dropped”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_technology#cite_ref-8

Larger SS-40 image from: http://ohtm.pastperfectonline.com/archive/A666853F-F10F-470E-8755-878734333165

“…this would appear to be SS-40, which had a silenced engine and was 'Modified for special night flights over enemy lines', including a black envelope (hence the name 'Black Ship', presumably)”, Brett Holman, ‘William Benn, and the Black Ship’, http://airminded.org/2006/01/14/william-benn-and-the-black-ship/ - source of the smaller photograph of SS-40 below.

"In the spring of 1916 the War Office attended a demonstration here of the stealth vessel, 'Black Ship' SS40", Rosalind Hodge, ‘Polegate Royal Naval Airship Station at Lower Willingdon’, http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/polegate-royal-naval-airship-station-at-lower-willingdon/ - source of the photo of camouflaged airship hangers A and B below. (Not the most relevant image for this forum perhaps but the idea of a 'stealth' airship operating out of a 'dazzle' camouflaged hanger seemed too good to miss ...)

Couple of other references:
“This airship, the uniquely black-painted SS 40, does not appear to have undertaken any espionage missions but it did carry out nocturnal reconnaissance activities during the Battle of the Somme. A first-hand account of the activities of SS 40 by one of its pilots FSLt V Goddard, was published in Cross & Cockade (Great Britain) Journal, Vol 12, No 4”, Wing Cdr. C.G. Jefford, Observers and Navigators: And Other Non-Pilot Aircrew in the RFC, RNAS and RAF, Grub Street, 2014, page 80, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T2ZEBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&img=1&pgis=1&dq=black+ss+40&sig=ACfU3U3N-1e3sPQ6qtzHkLZl6nQWmCSCkA&edge=0

Naval Airship S.S. 40. Arrangements for 4 operations in France, http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4080468

Thanks and all best, 'Wingknut'.

Maybe not the clearest images ever posted on this forum but here is a watercolour of the SS. 40 'Black Ship' and a detail of its gondola:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10036240_watercolor-of-a-british-rnas-ss40-blackship
See also: http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/the-black-ship-ss40/

I'll have to look it up, but I've read somewhere, probably an old 'Aeroplane Monthly', that the 'SS' (Sea Scout) airships used B.E.2 fuselages as their gondolas.

cheers,
Robin.

Thanks, Robin.
Some (I think even most) S.S. class airships did indeed have B.E. 2C fuselages for gondolas - I think others didn't though:

"SS B.E.2c
Similar to the prototype, the production car was a wingless B.E.2c fuselage stripped of various fittings, and equipped with two ash skids in place of the wheeled undercarriage. Mounted at the front of the car was an air-cooled 75 hp (56 kW) Renault engine driving a 9 ft (2.7 m) diameter four-bladed propeller.

The pilot was seated behind the observer, who also served as the wireless operator. A camera was fitted,[13] and the armament consisted of bombs carried in frames suspended about the centre of the undercarriage and a Lewis Gun mounted on a post adjacent to the pilot's seat.[14] The bomb sight and release mechanism were located on the outside of the car on the starboard side of the pilot's position.

SS Maurice Farman
The Airships Ltd. design initially used 60,000 cu ft (1,700 m3), and later 70,000 cu ft (2,000 m3) envelopes. Dual controls were fitted for the pilot and the observer/wireless operator. Occasionally a third seat was fitted to carry a passenger or an engineer. Renault engines were normally fitted, mounted at the rear of the car in pusher configuration, but a Rolls-Royce Hawk proved effective in one instance. The type was slightly slower than the SS B.E.2c, but the cars were roomier and more comfortable.

SS Armstrong Whitworth
The version fitted with the Armstrong Whitworth F.K. car was similar in many respects to the B.E.2c type, but had a single-skid landing gear with buffers, and required the larger 70,000 cu ft envelope to maintain a reasonable margin of lift. A water-cooled 100 hp (75 kW) Green engine was fitted in tractor configuration, and fuel was carried in two aluminium tanks supported in fabric slings suspended from the envelope, saving 100 lb (45 kg) in weight compared to the internal tanks fitted to the B.E.2c."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_class_airship#Versions

I think a full list is here: http://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/ss/index.html

Specs. for each type (by kind of gondola) here:
http://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/Technical%20Spec/SS%20Airships%20BE2C.htm
http://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/Technical%20Spec/SS%20Airships%20Farman.htm
http://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/Technical%20Spec/SS%20Airships%20Armstrong.htm

Bit of a side-bar this but having posted a proto-'Stealth' British airship of 1916, here's some German 1917 acoustic-enhancer head-gear:
http://www.pbase.com/image/162007098

Thanks again and all best, 'Wingknut'

According to my research, the Armstrong Whitworth-built gondolas (designated as F.K.4 by the company, though not necessarily in Koolhoven's own numbering system) were adapted from F.K.3 fuselages and fitted to Submarine Scout airships SS.27 (in March 1915) and SS.40 to 49 (later that year), so the "Black Ship" was pretty much part of that batch.
Only difference between the SS.27 one and the others was that it was powered by a Renault engine, while the rest used a 100hp Green.

A correction concerning the SS-27, it was build at AW, but it was a modified BE-2 fuselage and powered by fancooled Renault engine. This engine type was used in pushers aeroplanes. The problem with the other BE-2 Renault engines were cooling problems, because of to little forward speed.

The SS.27 was the F.K.4 the others were build later and had an other F.K.number (not yet find out