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A girl called Pansy

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A girl called Pansy

It is said that every story needs a love interest. In the case of airship NS11 this is provided by Pansy Nina Grahame Chambers, together with a fair dose of intrigue, unsolved questions and an astonishing coincidence.

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The Fiat racing legacy

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The Fiat racing legacy

So what is the connection between NS-Class airships and Mefistofele, Sir Ernest Eldridge’s world record racing car? The mighty 21.7 litre Fiat A12 engine. The Fiat Mefistofele began life as a 1908 Fiat SB 4 chain-driven Grand Prix car, using an engine of no less than 18 litres, with two individual but linked-together cylinder blocks. By 1922 it had come into the hands of John Duff, who was racing it at Brooklands when he became the innocent party in one of the biggest blow-ups ever recorded in the entire history of motorsport. One of the cylinder blocks exploded, separated itself from...

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