R101
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- R-101 was also the code designation used by the Soviet Union for studies of the Wasserfall missile
The R101 Airship was a British airship that crashed on October 5, 1930 in France during its maiden voyage, killing 48 people. It was one of the worst airship disasters, along with the Hindenburg disaster that coloured international public opinion of lighter-than-air craft and effectively ended British employment of rigid airships.
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[edit] History
[edit] Design
The R101 was the result of a British government initiative to develop airships. In 1924 the Imperial Airship Scheme was proposed as a military project able to carry 200 troops or 5 fighter aircraft. This was expected to require an airship of 8 million cubic feet (230,000 m³) — well beyond current designs. As a result the two prototype airships of 5 million cubic feet (140,000 m³) were to be constructed. To increase the development of new ideas, two different teams would be used: one, under the British Government's Air Ministry, would build the R101, and the other would be a subsidiary of the private company Vickers, which would build the R100 under contract for a fixed price. Among Vickers' engineers were the designer Barnes Wallis, later to become famous for the bouncing bomb and, as Chief Calculator (Stress Engineer), one Nevil Norway — later to be known as the novelist, Nevil Shute.
The story of the designs of the R100 & R101, and the competition between them, is told in Shute's Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer, which was first published in 1954.
[edit] Construction
The building of the R101 began in 1926 at the Royal Airship Works at Cardington near Bedford, England. Due to a failed attempt to create hydrogen-powered engines and several other new design concepts, the project's completion was delayed from 1927 to 1929. The R101 was meant to have a useful lift of 60 tons but ended up only able to carry 35 tons.
The stability of the R101 was doubtful, due to the insufficient span of its fins into the airstream. During its flight at the Hendon air show in 1930, it almost plunged to the ground, as well as repeatedly going into a dive during the return flight. Its gas bags also developed numerous leaks. The gas bag valves may have also been defective, leaking gas and leading to the continual decrease of lift in flight. Despite this, it was given a Certificate of Airworthiness. Engineers lengthened the frame, added another gas bag, reversed propellers, and replaced the outer cover. After that, the ship was 777 ft (237 m) long with a total volume of 5.5 million cubic feet (160,000 m³) and a useful lift of just under 50 tons.
At completion she was the largest flying craft ever built, surpassing the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, which was of similar length but only 3.7 million cubic feet (100,000 m³) in capacity. The LZ 129 Hindenburg would surpass her in 5 years at 804 feet (245 m) long and 7 million cubic feet (200,000 m³).
[edit] Accommodation
The passenger accommodation was spread over two decks within the envelope and comprised of 50 passenger cabins for one, two or four people, a dining room for 60 people, two promenade decks with windows down the sides of the ship and even an asbestos lined smoking room for 24 people. Most of the passenger space was on the upper deck with space for the crew, kitchens and washrooms and the smoking cabin on the lower.
[edit] Engines
The R101 was fitted with five heavy diesel engines made by Beardmore. The engines were designed by combining two four cylinder units in use for railway transport to create the 8 cylinder Beardmore MkI Tornado engine. These were designed to give an output of 700 bhp at 1000 rpm but in practice had a continuous output rating of only 585 bhp and at 17 tons for the five were 6 tons above design weight. The big end bearings were also found to be liable to early failure and it was reported that gold plating had to be used to lengthen their life and there were two critical vibration periods which unfortunately coincided with idling and cruising speeds.
[edit] Final Flight
The Air Ministry pressured the engineers to finish the project. The final trial flight of the R101 was originally scheduled for September 26, 1930 but an unfavourable wind delayed it until October 1. She returned to Cardington after a flight of 17 hours.
The R101 departed on October 4 at 6:24 p.m. for its intended destination to Karachi (then part of British India) via a refuelling stop at Ismaïlia in Egypt under the command of Flight Lieutenant Carmichael Irwin. Passengers included Lord Christopher Thomson, Secretary of State for Air, Sir Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation, and Squadron Leader William Palstra, RAAF air liaison officer (ALO) to the British Air Ministry. The airship had to drop 5 tons of water ballast to lift off.
Over France, the R101 encountered gusting winds that tore back the outer covering, exposing and rupturing the first gas bag. The R101 crashed into a hillside near Beauvais, north of Paris, at only 13 mph (20 km/h). The crash ignited the leaking hydrogen and fire quickly engulfed the entire airship.
46 of the 54 passengers and crew were killed. Two men who survived the crash died later in a hospital bringing the total to 48 dead. According to survivors, the top layers of the outer cover and some of the forward gas bags had been torn in the wind, causing a loss of the flammable hydrogen lifting gas. On impact, an engine had struck the gas bags, igniting the gas.
Scrap contractors salvaged what they could of the R101 wreckage, continuing through 1931. The Zeppelin Company purchased 5 tons of duralumin from the wreckage.
The R101 spelled the end of the British attempt to create lighter-than-air aircraft. Its competitor, the R100, despite a more successful development program, and a safe transatlantic trial flight, was mothballed immediately after the R101's crash and sold for scrap in 1931.
[edit] Specification
[edit] General characteristics
- Crew: 42
- Length: 777 feet / 237 meters
- Diameter: 131.3 feet / 40 meters
- Hydrogen capacity: 5.5 million ft³ /160,000 cubic meters
- Disposable lift: 50 tons / 50,000 kg
- Powerplant: 5 x Beardmore MkI Tornado 8 cylinder Diesel 585 bhp
[edit] Performance
- Maximum speed: 71 mph
[edit] Popular culture
- The Doctor Who audio play Storm Warning is set aboard the R101 during its final voyage.
- The R-101 also figured prominently in the book The Airmen Who Would Not Die by John G. Fuller.
- The R-101 is the subject of the rock opera ("song story") "Curly's Airships" by Judge Smith
- One of the locations in the video game Rule of Rose is a very similar representation of the R-101 airship (Route from Cardington to India, crashes and kills the onboard passengers, etc.). The main character's parents apparently died in the crash of this airship as well.
- The British comedy group Monty Python references the R101 disaster in one of their sketches, "Historical Impersonations", with Napoleon showing off his impersonation of the disaster.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Chamberlain, Geoffrey, Airships - Cardington, Lavenham, Suffolk, Terence Dalton Ltd. (1984), ISBN 0-86138-025-8.
Leasor, James, The Millionth Chance, London, Hamish Hamilton (1967).
