R101
Sign in to saveKey facts
- Aircraft.name
- R101
- Aircraft.image
- R101.jpg
- Aircraft.image_size
- 220
- Aircraft.caption
- R101 on the day of its first flight, 14 October 1929
- Aircraft.aircraft_role
- Experimental airship
- Aircraft.manufacturer
- Royal Airship Works
- Aircraft.designer
- V.C. Richmond
- Aircraft.civil_registration
- G-FAAW
- Aircraft.first_flight
- 14 October 1929
- Aircraft.last_flight
- 4 October 1930
- Aircraft.fate
- Crashed and burnt out 5 October 1930
- Aircraft.number_built
- 1
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- R101-at mast.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- R101
- point in time
- 1930-10-04
- service entry
- 1929-10-14
- total produced
- 1
via Wikidata · CC0
~52 min read
Article
22 sectionsContents
- Background
- Design and development
- Engines
- Crewing and control
- Accommodation
- Operational history
- Testing
- 1929
- 1930
- Final flight
- Memorials
- Official inquiry
- Aftermath
- In popular culture
- Specifications (R101 after extension)
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry–appointed team and was effectively in competition with the government-funded but privately designed and built R100. When built, it was the world's largest flying craft at in length, later enlarged to 777 feet (237 m), and at that size it was not surpassed by another hydrogen-filled rigid airship until the LZ 129 Hindenburg was launched seven years later.
After trial flights and subsequent modifications to increase lifting capacity, which included lengthening the ship by to add another gasbag, the R101 crashed in France during its maiden overseas voyage on 5 October 1930, killing 48 of the 54 people on board. Among the passengers killed were Lord Thomson, the Air Minister who had initiated the programme, senior government officials, and almost all the dirigible's designers from the Royal Airship Works.