Major George Herbert "Lucky Breeze" Scott, CBE, AFC,[1] (25 May 1888 – 5 October 1930) was a British airship pilot and engineer.

In addition to his achievements as an aviator, Scott made significant contributions to airship engineering, notably in the evolution of the mooring mast.

[4] (In fairness to Scott, one source attributes the collision to his efforts to avoid an "enormous bonfire" that had been lit in a misguided attempt to "assist [the crew] in finding their bearings".

[2] Scott took charge of the new rigid R34, built by William Beardmore and Company at Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on its completion in 1919 and was ordered to "prepare for a voyage to the United States of America".

Despite "dodging storms and fogs" and running low on both fuel and hydrogen, it landed at Mineola, New York, on 6 July, after 108 hours and 12 minutes of flying time.

[2] Scott retired from the RAF in October 1919, subsequently joining the technical staff of the Royal Airship Works at Cardington, Bedfordshire, in 1920.

On a 5 April 1921 demonstration flight, the R36 suffered a failure of the top rudder and starboard elevator during a turning test, which "caused the ship to fall rapidly for about 3,000 feet (910 m) [and attain] a severe nose down angle".

[10] However, thanks to Scott's decision to conduct the tests at altitude, he was able to "trim [the R36] and...bring her safely to earth" by moving crew members about within the hull.

[11] Scott was also involved in the R36's high-profile 14 June 1921 flight over the Ascot Races, with journalists and Metropolitan Police representatives aboard, to assess the airship's potential role in road-traffic control.

[13] Proposals for an airship network connecting Britain with its colonies and dominions worldwide emerged in the years following the R34's transatlantic flight, although political and economic difficulties slowed their progress.

In the same year, Scott assumed the position of Officer in Charge of Flying and Training in the Air Ministry's Airship Directorate.

On the night of 16–17 April 1925, the R33 broke from the Pulham mast during a gale and was blown stern-first to the Netherlands before those aboard—led by the first officer, Flight Lieutenant Ralph Booth, who would later command the R100—could regain control.

[15] Scott was involved more directly in a second incident with the R33, this time on its final flight in November 1925, when the ship hit the shed doors at Pulham while under his control.

[21] The mast, which was erected in July 1919, was initially tested using the obsolescent rigid airship R24, which remained moored for periods of three to six weeks at a time.

)[31] After the R100's successful trip to Canada, attention turned to plans for a similar flight to India by the R101, in which Lord Thomson (then Secretary of State for Air) and other dignitaries would take part.

"[32] According to Sir Peter Masefield in his 1982 history of the R101 project, To Ride the Storm, when the final decision to depart for India was taken on 2 October, Irwin, Richmond and Director of Airship Design R.B.B.

[33] The R101 left Cardington, with Scott and 53 other people aboard, at 18:36 GMT on 4 October 1930, bound for Karachi with an intermediate stop at Ismaïlia in Egypt.

[37] The victims were returned to London via special trains and warships to lie in state in Westminster Hall prior to a memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral on 11 October; they were then taken by rail to Cardington and buried in a common grave in the cemetery of St. Mary the Virgin.

[39] The Dictionary of National Biography described him as "without doubt the foremost British airship commander of his time" and praised his "cool, alert and expert handling" of the R34 during storms on the outward leg of its transatlantic flight.

[2] Alongside his achievements with the R34 and R100, Flight highlighted his decision to climb before conducting high-speed trials on the R36, thus (as described above) saving the ship from disaster when it experienced elevator and rudder failures.

One Panel shows Scott alongside Arthur Whitten Brown and John Alcock, who piloted the first non-stop transatlantic flight.

[47] In respect of the R101's ill-fated India flight, Masefield argued that the departure was made at a time when "prudence would have dictated an operational postponement for better weather" and blamed the "known and obvious deterioration in [Scott's] judgement and competence" and the unwillingness of senior officials at the Air Ministry and Cardington to address the issue, as well as Scott's own unwillingness to acknowledge that airships were not "all-weather craft".

In mitigation, however, Shute noted that in 1930 "a pilot was expected to be brave and resolute, a daredevil who was not afraid to take risks" and that "to turn back would destroy the whole of [Lord Thomson's] political programme.