From scouting platform to airborne command post

The concept evolved toward sending the parasite aircraft forward while the much larger airship remained at range with fuel, weapons, communications, and maintenance facilities. From altitude it could serve as a mobile command-and-control node during multi-day searches rather than exposing its huge hull while scouting directly. Launching and recovering aircraft was already possible, but coordinating their reconnaissance remained a separate task still being explored in exercises. The idea also required crews skilled in several new branches of naval engineering and aviation. Weather forecasting remained immature, and losing the two experimental hulls before procedures could develop left only a bare-bones doctrine. A run of six or eight airships could have preserved enough critical mass to learn from accidents, whereas losing both experimental hulls ended that opportunity.