July Mystery Airplane Contest

The concept of mating an airplane with an airship was trialed as early as World War I. On 26 January 1918, an Albatros D. III was released from Zeppelin L-35 (LZ-80). The pilot flew the fighter to a successful landing. No method of recovering to the airship was tried. Further trials by the British and later the United States followed. The British experimented with launching a Sopwith Camel (unpiloted) from airship R-23 in 1918 and later a piloted de Havilland Hummingbird and Gloster Grebe from airship R-33 in the 1920's.

The U.S. Army flew a Sperry Messenger from the blimp TC-3 in December 192...