Holding up the R101

A member of the WAAC - the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp - holds up the R101 Airship, riding at her home mast at Cardington, Bedford. 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

Auxiliary Bedford Cardington Lifts Mast R101 Rigid Waac

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