The Eta airship was a British airship built in 1913 for the British Army and later the Royal Navy.

Eta was completed in August 1913, the last airship to be built for the British Army.^[1] It was smaller than its predecessor, Delta, with a capacity of 118,000 cubic feet. An improvement was the method of securing the gondola, whose six suspension cables were repeatedly divided so that thirty-six cables were actually attached to the envelope by redesigned patches. It carried a crew of five and was driven by a pair of 80 horse-power Canton-Unné engines. She was commanded by The Hon. Claud Maitland Patrick Brabazon of the military wing of the Royal Flying Corps.^[2] When the army abandoned airships on 1 January 1914, Eta was transferred to the Royal Navy (RN) and given the designation His Majesty's Airship No.20.^[3]

On 19 November 1914 the Eta airship was en route to Dunkirk when she flew into a snowstorm near Redhill. After making a forced landing, she broke away from her moorings and was damaged beyond repair.^[4]

• Oral history interview with Chief Petty Officer J S Middleton, an engineer who served on Eta in November 1914

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