My Winnipeg uncle, Alg Purchase, followed my parents to their Pilot Mound. Manitoba farm,in 1915, worked about on farms and put himself through Manitoba Agricultural College. He went overseas with the University Battalion, served in France, and volunteered for the new Royal Naval Flying Corps. Here is his blimp flying anti-submarine patrols off the British Coast in 1918. Its 75 horsepower Hawk engine, with cranky mags,

gave it a max speed of 53 mph and a rate of climb of 1200 feet per minute. Two 110-pound bombs (or one 250 lb bomb could be carried.
(The crew were given wooden mallets to pound the magnetos into submission!)

)

And here is the type of car used, for three- sometimes four- crew. It was made of ash and aluminum, designed to float if it came down on water, which it did on Mumbles, near Swansea, Wales. The blimp was deflated, but the crew were OK. (That may be my uncle Alg, standing, aft.)