List of British Rigid Airships

The list of British Rigid Airships includes Rigid Airships made in the UK.

In Great Britain, 16 rigid airships from our own production have so far rose into the air. Many of them were replicas of German zeppelins and Schütte-Lanz airships and served in the First World War . After the war, Great Britain also received the war zeppelins LZ 109 (L64) and LZ 113 (L71) as reparations from Germany.

list

designation	Usage	First drive	Remarks	Illustration
HMA No. 1	military		First British rigid airship, “The Mayfly” (mayfly), built by Vickers , construction started in 1909, first tests in 1911, no voyage, still badly damaged on the ground and later broken off
HMA 2 to 8			No rigid airships .
HMA 9	military	November 27, 1916	Second British rigid airship, first ever voyage by an English rigid airship, total time in the air: 198 hours 16 minutes, 33 hours of which at the anchor mast.
HMA 10 to 22			No rigid airships
HMA 23	military	September 17, 1917	Third British Rigid Airship; Type ship of the "23 class"; Commissioned October 15, 1917, total flight performance: 16,560 km (8,426 mi) in 321.5 hours, decommissioned in September 1919.
HMA 24	military		"23 class", total flight performance: 164 h 40 min, 6759 km (4200 mi), decommissioned and scrapped in December 1919
HMA 25	military	October 14, 1917	"23 class", but with some changes, use: mainly training, total flight performance: 221 h 5 min, 9510 km (5909 mi), decommissioned in September 1919.
R26	military		The "23 class", which was given the new "R" designation, was damaged by the weather at the end of January 1919 and was broken up on the anchor mast.
R27	military		Type ship of the 23X class, commissioned: June 29, 1918, total travel time: 89 h 40 min, was destroyed on August 16, 1918 by a fire in the airship hangar together with several impact airships, one dead.
R28			23X class, not built
R29	military		23X class, a 32-hour journey on July 3-4, 1918; involved in the sinking of a German submarine on September 29, 1918; 438 h total travel time, last journey before decommissioning: October 24, 1919.
R30			23X class, not built.
R31	military	July 29, 1918	Wooden framework according to the German SL-e type (Schütte-Lanz), a total of 9 flight hours, after the 3rd trip due to broken girder in Howden housed in a hall without a roof, scrapped in spring due to excessive weathering and sold as firewood (bad luck for the Buyer: wood was fireproof due to impregnation), 42,400 m³, 185 m long, 19.7 m diameter, 21 gas cells, 6 (later 5) Rolls-Royce Eagle III or IV engines with 190 kW each, 105 km / h payload: 16.5 t.
R32	military	September 3, 1919	Sister ship of R31, also made of wood.
R33	military	March 6, 1919	Type ship of the R33 class; Replica of the German Zeppelin LZ 76 / L33; multiple trips; z. B. 31-hour drive on 1st – 2nd July 1919 with a band on board over the coast of England and Ireland; several civil journeys, e.g. B. on September 10, 1919 to Holland with passengers and steward as an advertising trip for civil aviation.
R34	military	March 14, 1919	R33 class, two Atlantic crossings (first ever Atlantic crossing by an airship), scrapped in early 1921.
R35			not built
R36	Rigid airship	April 1, 1921	no more war use, was equipped with a long passenger cabin under the fuselage and made some trips after the end of the war.
R37			not completed (see R38 )
R38	military	June 23, 1921	"Admiralty A Class", intended as ZR-2 for the USA. Destroyed in the fourth test drive on August 23, 1921, 44 fatalities.
R39			"Admiralty A Class", sister ship of R38, not built.
R40			"Admiralty A Class", sister ship of R38, not built.
R41			"Admiralty A Class", sister ship of R38, not built.
R80	military	June 19, 1920	First English rigid airship with streamlined shape; there were also extensive plans for civil use; Disarmed in 1925.
R100	civil	December 16, 1929	Large airship , two Atlantic crossings, broken up in 1931.
R101	civil	October 14, 1929	Largest flying machine ever built upon completion. Crashed near Beauvais on October 4, 1930, killing 48.

See also

• List of airships