The R101 Airship

The R101 airship was built at Cardington and made her first flight in October 1929. At 777ft, she was the largest airship in the world.

There were a number of minor mishaps on her initial flights including sluggishness and lack of lift. In June 1930 she went into a steep dive for over 500ft when returning from the Hendon air show. The crew managed to bring her back under control, only to have to deal with a second and a third dive.

The R101 plainly had significant problems but Lord Thomson, the Secretary of State for Air, insisted that the R101 be ready for a flight to India on the 4th October 1930. Lord Thomson had personal political ambitions in India and wanted to see a regular airship service from London to Karachi, via Egypt. As a result of this pressure, repairs were hurried and the airship patched with a rubber solution.

On the evening of 4th October the R101 left Cardington. She carried 42 crew, 6 officials and 6 passengers. A crowd of over 3,000 came to watch the departure. The start of the journey was not propitious; ballast had to be dumped to compensate for over loading, strong winds were encountered and the aft engines broke down.

At approximately 2 am the R101 passed over Beauvais, a French city to the north-west of Paris. Already flying at very low altitude she went into a dive and despite all the efforts of the crew she crashed just south of the city. The airship ran along the ground for some distance before being engulfed by flames.

Forty eight people died in the tragedy. National feeling surrounding the disaster was huge; the funeral procession through London was watched by thousands. The bodies were then taken by special train to Bedford to be laid to rest in a communal grave in Cardington cemetery.

Statistics: Length 777ft, Diameter 131.3ft, Speed 71mph, Volume 5,509,753cft

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• R101
• Airship
• R100
• aviation
• history

[MrCriticOfAll]

Hey Bomberguy,thanks for the upload of these two wonders of the sky.I would like if you could answer 2 questions for me please.1)Was the R-101 hydrogen filled or helium? and 2)Were the engines diesel or petrol?.Cheers mate and thanks again.

[cristian1997cat]

No debían destruir el R.100 tenia un gran futuro.

[TimePortalStudios]

Awesome video!! Love the sound of the old airship engines. Nothing like straight pipe with a diesel engine!! The new airships of today sound like wind up toys, not these things ;)

[heliumblimp]

The R101 was a good example of why smoking on the job is bad for you!

If you want a real Helium sniffing laugh try my Gasbags lighter than air comedy web site: 3w dot airship dot me

[zeppship]

@Jjames763 So in a way they could be called "goodelins"

[Jjames763]

@zeppship

That's a convenient example, seeing as ZRS stands for "Zeppelin rigid ship". It was a synonym even back then.

That and the fact that the Macon and Akron were in fact built by Goodyear-Zeppelin.

[zeppship]

@Jjames763 1: The correct term for zeppelin are rigid airships that are built by zeppelin

and if you look at the design differences between the zeppelin built hindenburg and the akron/macon, you can see quite a number of differences

[Jjames763]

@zeppship

1: "Zeppelin" is a generic term for any rigid airship, and even some semi-rigids, not to mention there was absolutely no practical differences between rigid airships and Zeppelins,

2: The R-100 and R-101 were original designs, as were several, inferior early ships, only war Zeppelins were copied, not passenger ships,

3: Some ships served for years, but not in direct conflict.

[zeppship]

@Jjames763 the zeppelins of ww1 were german and even though britain had made rigid airships 1st they werent zeppelins since they werent built by zeppelin, 2nd they were based off german designs instead of designing them themselves (so basicly they(along with USA) cheated), 3rd they played very little role in the conflict.

[heliumblimp]

One great airship doomed by the use of Hydrogen. Another great ship, or rather HAV 366 will leave the hangar in Cardington in a few years time bound for Canada rather than India. For more info on airships or HAV's see my web site:

3w dot hybridairship dot nett but one t

Regards JB (Airship & Blimp Consultant)