R32 (airship)
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The R32 was a British airship that first flew in September 1919.
[edit] History
The R32 and her sister ship the R31 were designed by the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors with assistance from a Herr Muller who had defected to Britain and previously worked for the Schütte-Lanz airship company and built by Short Brothers at the Cardington airship sheds. The airship frame was made from spruce plywood laminated into girder sections and weatherproofed with varnish and also fireproofed. These enclosed 21 gas bags. The R32 incorporated modifications and improvements learned from the short lived R31 including the reduction from six to five engines. The sixth engine having been found unnecessary on the R31 it was never fitted to the R32. Intended as a scout ship for fleet protection operations it was planned to fit armaments as on the R31 but as the airship was completed after the armistice none were installed.
After being formally accepted by the Royal Navy the R32 made her first trial flight on the 3rd September 1919 and then on the 6th September went to the base at Pulham Market, Norfolk. On the 10th September in formation with the R33 she made a flight over the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France and back to Pulham. In October 1919 the R32 with the rest of the airship fleet was formally handed over to the Royal Air Force. There then followed a period when the airship was used by the National Physical Laboratory for structural testing. On the 20th March 1920 she was flown to the base at Howden, East Yorkshire to be refurbished and used for crew training by the American party who had come to accept the R38. When the metal framed R80 became available the use of the by now obsolete wooden framed R32 stopped and to save money she was decommissioned and used to assess the effect of a gas bag bursting. The covering was removed and the engines taken away and cell 18 overpressurised until the expansion caused the bracing and structure to fail. The frame was then dismantled.
In all the airship had logged just over 212 hours in the air of which 203 hours were under the control of Commander LH Maxfield and his fellow Americans.
[edit] Specification
- Length: 615 ft
- Diameter: 65 ft 6 in
- Speed: 70 mph (later 65 mph)
- Engines: 5 x Rolls-Royce Eagles of 275 hp each
- Volume: 1,500,000 cubic feet
- Disposable lift 16.5 tons
