R29 (airship)
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R29 was a British R23X class rigid airship of World War I. It was the first British rigid airship to enter combat, attacking enemy U-boats on three occasions. The first escaped, the second struck a mine after being pursued, and the third (UB-115) was hit by a bomb before being finished off by destroyers on September 29, 1918.
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[edit] Design and construction
R29 was almost identical to R27. With the experience gained from the HMA No.23 class, further improvements were passed on to the new R23X class ships. Gas capacity was slightly increased by redesigning the bow and stern. The radical change, instituted by Constructor-Commander Campbell, was the elimination of the external keel corridor. This was intended to achieve a considerable saving of weight without causing any significant loss of strength and also to improve turning. An internal corridor allowing the crew to travel between the cars was formed by inverted U-shaped ribs positioned above the two lowest longitudinal girders. The corridor also gave access to the ballast and fuel tanks. The fuel tanks were linked by a new system of pipes, allowing faster filling or jettisoning of fuel. The engine arrangement was identical to that used originally for the 23 class ships, with two swivelling propellers in the forward gondola and two engines driving fixed propellers in the midships car. The aft car initially contained two engines and swivelling propellers, but this was quickly changed to a single engine and propeller. Four of the 23X class were originally planned, with numbers running consecutively from R27 to R30, but following the downing of the Zeppelin L33 virtually intact, the British were able to re-think the programme and caused R28 and R30 to be cancelled in order to concentrate resources on the new R33 class.
[edit] Specification
- First Flight: May 29, 1918
- Length: 539 ft (164 m)
- Diameter: 53 ft (16 m)
- Volume: 990, 000 ft³ (28 000 m³)
- Payload: 8.5 tons (7,700 kg)
- Speed: 55 mph (88 km/h)
- Engines: 4 x Rolls Royce 300 hp (224 kW)
[edit] History
R29 was constructed by Armstrong-Whitworth at Barlow, North Yorkshire, and commissioned on June 20, 1918. She flew 438 hours in total. She was damaged entering the shed at East Fortune in May 1919. While being repaired the rear engine car was changed over to a single engine driving a single propeller. She made flights over Scotland in June 1919 with R34, and was deleted on October 24, 1919 when the military airship programme was dismantled.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Manfred Griehl and Joachim Dressel, Zeppelin! The German Airship Story, 1990 ISBN 1-85409-045-3
- J.E. Morpurgo, Barnes Wallis - A Biography, Longman , 1972 ISBN 0-582-10360-6
- 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
- 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
