R101 at Cardington, Bedford
The R101 Airship, riding at her home mast at Cardington, Bedford, seen behind the two massive Airship Hangars. R101 was a British rigid airship completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. After initial flights and two enlargements to the lifting volume, it crashed on October 5, 1930, in France, during its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 people. Amongst airship accidents of the 1930s, the loss of life surpassed the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, and was second only to that of the USS Akron crash of 1933. The demise of R101 effectively ended British employment of rigid airships
Picture No
10508791
Media ID
45561766
Size
5222px x 3917px
(5.6MB)
Credit
Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection
Source
Unattributed postcard
Date
circa 1930
