R100
R100 (then spelling: R-100) was a British airship at the beginning of the 1930s . It made a transatlantic trip to Canada and back. After the accident with the R101 , the alternative to the competition to build large airships, it was sold and scrapped. There was a rumor that only the more successful of the two airships should serve as a model for further development. The ship was built on the former Howden Air Force Base in Yorkshire .
The ship
Planned and constructed under the direction of Barnes Wallis and with the assistance of Nevil Shute Norway , the R100 was designed in parallel with the R101 , but was underfunded from the outset (as a fixed price had been agreed). Therefore, austerity measures were imperative, for example only a dozen machine tools were used in the construction of the airship. While the R101 was designed to push the boundaries of technology and therefore this project was seen as extravagant and ambitious, the design of R100 was more pragmatic and conservative. Shute Norway later partially withdrew its criticism of the R101 design.
The skeleton of the 216 m long airship was made of duralumin . The 15 rings with 16 longitudinal girders, which mostly consisted of triangular girders with a cross-section height of about 70 cm, had no auxiliary girders or auxiliary rings in contrast to the zeppelins. The hull fields were therefore up to 14 × 8 m in size and, as the skeleton was clearly visible, gave the ship a characteristic appearance. Calculations had shown that the air resistance of an airship with a sixteen-sided cross-section is only slightly greater than that of a circular cross-section. The small number of side members simplified the calculations for the load-bearing capacity of the construction, which was of great importance after the catastrophic loss of R38 in 1919. Risk of corrosion from condensation in the unheated airship hangar made it necessary to paint the aluminum structure.
A combination of hydrogen and kerosene was originally planned as a motor fuel. When it became clear that suitable engines could not be developed in time, the Ministry of Aviation decided in favor of diesel engines . Their use should avoid fire disasters such as the loss of R38. But since Beardmore's Tornado diesel engines proved too heavy, six reconditioned Condor gasoline engines from Rolls-Royce were installed.
The passengers were accommodated inside the fuselage on three floors, similar to what was later in LZ 129 "Hindenburg" . The R100 and R101 were the first airships to have this form of passenger accommodation. The structure of the passenger system was different on both ships. At R100 there were 14 two- and 18 four-bed cabins for around 100 passengers on the upper deck. The middle deck housed a dining salon stretching over two floors with a surrounding gallery, electric fireplace and promenade decks with large viewing windows on the sides of the hull. The lower deck contained quarters for officers and men as well as sanitary rooms, the kitchen and the radio station .
business
R100 only made ten trips, although it had demonstrated its airworthiness and had no serious errors or design defects. However, the load capacity - as with the competitor's R101 design - was lower than that of the smaller LZ 127 .
His identification was G-FAAV.
First trips
The first trip took place on December 16, 1929 and led from Howden via York to Cardington in Bedfordshire . The second voyage the following day was to go to London, but a strip of tissue came off the lower tail fin, and the only tour of Bedfordshire was to test the controls.
Modifications to the covering were made by January 11, 1930. On January 16, 1930, the airship reached a speed of 131.2 km / h on a third voyage, during which it was found that the covering , which fluttered between the fortifications due to the large spans , formed standing waves . This was filmed during the fourth trip on January 20th. After another short drive on the same day, the R100 undertook a continuous drive of more than 53 hours from January 27th to 29th. After that, work was carried out on the shell and the Condor IIIA motors were exchanged for Condor IIB motors. When the airship was carried out of the hangar on April 24, a wind-induced collision with the gate damaged the tail unit. The repairs lasted until May 21, after which a 24-hour test drive took place.
Transatlantic cruises
As part of its test drives, the R100 also made long distance drives. The original and contractually agreed destination was India , but due to the use of gasoline as fuel and the associated fire hazard, a trip to the tropics was considered too risky, so that on July 29, 1930, after the damaged conical tip of the tail was replaced with a hemispherical part Transatlantic voyage to Canada began. The drive to Saint-Hubert Airport in Québec took about 78 hours. A 24-hour journey with passengers led from there to Toronto and Niagara Falls . The faster return trip to England began on August 13th. Cardington was reached after 57½ hours. This corresponded to an average speed of 128 km / h.
After the ship was brought back to the airship hangar on August 17 and initially taken out of service, the focus was on the inspection of the ship after the long voyage and began to concentrate on the upcoming trip of R101 , which was intended for the end of the year . A large part of the crew went on both ships and now switched to the R101 crew.
Scrapping
After the accident with the R101 on October 4, 1930, it was decided to stop the R100. On December 11th, the ship was hung up in the hangar and the lifting gas was released. In May 1931 the British Parliament and the government discussed the further fate and also the further costs that the ship would cause. R100 represented the pinnacle of conventional British airship technology. The US government even offered to fill the airship with helium very cheaply - if not free of charge - in exchange for British technology . Different approaches were discussed:
- continue the project
- greatly reduce the scope of the project and use it for scientific and technical research
- discontinue the project.
After long discussions and arguments, the British government came to the conclusion that the airship should be scrapped against the backdrop of the Depression and the huge financial outlay for the airship project . In November 1931 the British Aviation Department therefore decided to sell R100 for scrapping. Scrapping began on November 16, 1931 and lasted until February 1932. The interior furnishings and equipment were sold. A price of £ 450 was fetched for the skeleton . The facilities and the airship hangar in Cardington as well as a basic staff of about 300 people were retained for later developments.
technology
- Length: 216 m
- Diameter 40.5 m
- Gas volume: approximately 141,500 m³ (5,000,000 cft ) hydrogen
- Mass: 102 t,
- Payload: 51 t (actually 60 t were required)
- Crew: 50 men + 100 passengers
The maximum speed of the ship was 130 km / h.
The lifting gas was in 15 gas cells. They were supplied by the Berlin subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH . This company also supplied the gas valves.
It was driven by three motor gondolas, each housing two gasoline engines , one of which drove a pull- propeller and the other a pressure propeller. The rear engines were reversible, they could run forwards and backwards. Used Rolls-Royce Condor III B petrol engines were used. They each weighed 550 kg, had an output of 485 kW and were described as prone to breakdowns. Attempts to run the engines on both hydrogen and kerosene have not been successful. A fuel supply of 40 m³ petrol in 32 tanks of 950 liters each could be carried on board . The transport of the fuel from the storage tanks to the drop tanks via the engines was unusual with hand pumps .
Rides
- December 16, 1929, duration: 5 h 47 min, distance: 209 km, from Howden via York to Cardington
- December 17, 1929, duration: 6 h 29 min, distance: 280 km, round trip in the area around Cardington, After these first test drives the ship was thoroughly inspected in the airship hangar.
- January 16, 1930, duration: 13 h 36 min, distance: 349 km, from Cardington via Grantham and Spalding back again
- January 20, 1930, duration: 7 h 18 min, distance: 344 km, from Cardington via London , Croydon , Reading and back
- January 29, 1930, duration: 53 h 52 min, distance: 2865 km, from Cardington via south-west England, the English Channel , the Channel Islands and back
- May 21-22, 1930, duration: 22 h 50 min, distance: 1112 km, from Cardington and back, hull tests were carried out, after which the tip of the stern had to be repaired.
- July 25-26, 1930, duration: 24 hours 16 minutes, distance: 1,296 km, from Cardington via Midlands , Wales , Channel Islands and back
- July 29 - August 1, 1930, duration: 78 h 49 min, distance: 5414 km, from Cardington to Montreal
- August 10-11, 1930, duration: 25 hours 57 minutes, distance: 1,296 km, from Montreal to Québec and back
- 13-16 August 1930, duration: 57 h 56 min, distance: 4,756 km, from Montreal to Cardington
The total driving time was 294 hours and 10 minutes (just over 12 days); 17,920 km were covered.
Web links
- www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/r100/index.html R100 at Airshipsonline (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shute, Nevil. Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1954.
- ^ Masefield, Peter G. To Ride The Storm: The Story of the Airship R.101. London: William Kimber, 1982. ISBN 0-7183-0068-8
- ↑ The Times, Issue 45413, Friday, January 17, 1930, page 14: Third Flight of R100
- ↑ The Times, Issue 45424, Thursday, January 30, 1930, p 11: Return of R 100