R36
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- For the Subway car see R36 (New York City Subway car)
The British R36 was the first Civil registered airship carrying the registration G-FAAF.
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[edit] History
As airship production increased during the latter stages of World War I it was seen that post-war, the use of airships would change. Civilan use for passenger transport was seen as a likely possibility
The design was produced by the new Airship Design Department, work commencing in November 1917. She was a lengthened version of the R33 and R34. These had been influenced by German Zeppelin L33 which had crash landed in England. In this case, the L48 which was forced down at Courbonne-les-Bains in October 1917 provided yet more input into the design. The R36 along with a second ship the R37 were to be a stretched version of the L48, getting more lift by adding another 33 ft bay of gas bags.
Construction began before the end of the war, but the design was altered to carry 50 passengers in comfort, sleeping on folding beds in 25 individual silk-walled compartments.
R36 was launched for her maiden flight on April 1, 1921 from the William Beardmore and Company works at Inchinnan near Glasgow. Late the following day she flew on to Pulham Market in Norfolk home to the R33 (known locally as the "Pulham Pig"). She was damaged on the 5th April over London and returned to Pulham to take the R33's place in the sheds for repair.
After repairs and strengthening work she re-emerged in June for a successful series of test flights including an epic voyage over 734 miles (1174 km) of land and sea, in the air for nearly 30 hours. She was immediately used at the request of the Metropolitan Police for observing traffic congestion caused by the Ascot Races. Journalists and senior Police representatives were entertained in great comfort on the day - traffic reports and newspaper stories being dropped by parachute over Croydon airfield (later the site of Heathrow airport).
On June 21, returning form another trial flight, she suffered damage during landing. The release of emergency ballast caused a sharp pitching up, straining the ship against the mooring line. The nearest unoccupied sheds were at Howden in Yorkshire - the Pulham sheds holding the German Zeppelins. The wind increased and it was decided that the L64 would have to be sacrificed to save the R36. Within 4 hours the L64 had been cut into pieces and cleared to give enough room for the R36. Even then she was damaged by a gust of wind during the manoeuvre into the shed.
Repairs were delayed while policy on airships was reviewed because of the R38 disaster and economic conditions. In 1925 she was refurbished for a meteorological flight to Egypt but calculations cast doubt on her ability to make the trip and in the light of her age and condition she was scrapped in 1926.
[edit] Specification
- Length 675 ft / 206 metres
- Diameter 78.66 ft / 24 metres
- Volume 2,101,000 cu.ft / 59 493.7 cubic metres
- Speed 65 mph / 104 km/h
- Powerplant 2 x 300 hp / 224 kW Maybach (from the captured Zeppelin L-71), 3 x Sunbeam 323 hp / 241 kW
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Lord Ventry and Eugene Kolesnik,Airship saga: The history of airships seen through the eyes of the men who designed, built, and flew them , 1982, ISBN 0-7137-1001-2
- Manfred Griehl and Joachim Dressel, Zeppelin! The German Airship Story, 1990 ISBN 1-85409-045-3
- Ces Mowthorpe, Battlebags: British Airships of the First World War, 1995 ISBN 0-905778-13-8
- Lord Ventry and Eugene Kolesnik, Jane's Pocket Book 7 - Airship Development, 1976 ISBN 0-356-04656-7
