Rigid airships: R-100/101 and Hindenburg

If anyone is in the area, go to Theberton church, near Leiston, Suffolk, there are pieces of a Zeppelin in there that was brought down in WW1, very strange thing to find in a church.

The Long Shop Museum in Leiston has an exhibition on the same subject with some other pieces & Photos of the wreckage

If anyone is in the area, go to Theberton church, near Leiston, Suffolk, there are pieces of a Zeppelin in there that was brought down in WW1, very strange thing to find in a church.

Thought this thread would enjoy the attached photo I recently purchased.

Not sure if it is a published image but it came from a private estate sale.

Cheers,
Troy

That’s some photo!

As far as bits of zeppelin are concerned, my Grandad had a small brooch in the shape of a zeppelin which was made from a piece of aluminium from the L33 when it crashed in 1917. I think my parents still have it.

In 1990 in an art shop in California I found a framed painting of the USS Shenandoah…….it had a piece of one of her gas bags in the frame!! To this day I regret not having the money to get it……..

R-100 over Montreal

Thought this thread would enjoy the attached photo I recently purchased.

Not sure if it is a published image but it came from a private estate sale.

Cheers,
Troy

I’m with J Boyle on this one; my grandfather was a professional photographer and I have a very worn photo he took of the USS Macon, it’s just immense. I can’t imagine how awe-inspiring it must’ve been to see these things in flight, and what it would be like to stand next to something 800 feet long which FLEW!

And PU597, those R101 photos are amazing…the thing only flew what, five times on tests before the ill-fated departure across the Continent? Thanks for sharing them!

Lynn

Wasn’t there a theory put forward that it was actually the type of paint used on the Hindenburg spontaneously combusting when the guide ropes eathed, rather than the use of Hydrogen that caused the disaster.

There was indeed. IIRC the purpose of the outer coating was multi-purpose. It had to be water repellent (see, for example, normal fabric aircraft dope) and also had to be capable of earthing a large static electricity charge that would build up on the outside of the airship in flight. This needed to all run to earth when the ‘ship moored, or a discharge (= spark = nasty!) would occur.

The composition was changed for one containing powdered aluminium and iron oxide powder. These are perfectly compatible together until you get a large enough heat source when suddenly you have a violent reaction generating enough heat to reduce the iron oxide back to molten iron.

In short, better known as THERMITE! It is used today to generate enough molten steel to weld railway track. Presumably one big enough spark and the whole caboodle was doomed from the moment ignition occured. I have my doubts that you could ever prove it after all this time, but whatever the cause of the initial spark or fire from the moment the covering was hot enough to begin reacting with itself, no agency on earth was going to stop that fire.

Adrian

P.S. In my youth the thermite reaction was taught at “A” Level – one wonders when it was discovered?

One of the now extinct aircraft I really regret not being around to see is a huge airship.
And the slightly newer Boeing 314 flying boat.

I wonder if some one rebuilt an air ship kitted it out in the old style luxury ,if there would be a customer base for them, instead of the rushing around life style. Imagine sitting back in an arm chair ,tall drink in hand, watching the world slowly rolling by.

Cant imagone the kind of courage? it took to fly into combat in a craft filled with hydrogen………

I have a fantastic book called ‘Zeppelin Adventures’ I think it was written in the early ’20s, and is a collection of accounts of Zeppelin missions, both bombing the UK and some of the height/distance record breaking flights. I can’t find it on my shelves so it must be in the loft, I will dig it out and see who the author is. You are left with huge admiration for the crews after reading it, the conditions that they operated in, and the things that they had to do were incredible.
I also remember reading a similarly aged book from the British side, but I can’t recall what that was called, I will have to ask around, but it was very interesting reading the Zep crew account of a mission, and then the RFC Pilot’s account of trying to shoot them down

If an airship were to be built that size today……….Im sure you could NOT have the type of control facilities they had on the great Zeps…….I mean, there was no single “pilot”, but it was more akin to driving a ship at sea…….helmsman, planesman, engine telegraphes etc…….

The pic’s posted by PU-597,(my son). The top three are of the Graf Zeppelin when it visted Cardington on the 26th April 1930. On the original you can see the cabin at the front below the bows. The R100s cabin,s are much further back.
The next four pic’s, The airship on the mast near the sheds is the R100. The airship flying is the R101, which has more pointed fins.

And the R101

Nice pics. The top one looks like R100 to me although the one underneath is definitely R100.

I often wonder what it must have been like to see the big ‘tween wars rigid airships flying. Films showing these ocean-liner sized things hanging in the sky looks surreal, stately, unbelieveable. With helium and modern materials I imagine it would be possible to build ‘ships the size and speed of the Hindenburg et al, but I also imagine it would be rather impractical.

What has happened to the Goodyear airship, I haven’t heard anything about it or seen it for a while.
A few years ago Stansted Airport did a promotion campaign and offered to take representatives from local businesses for a flight in it. We applied, but never even got a reply!

It seems so………civilized……….to sit at a table and eat a fine meal and then take a stroll on the promanade while watching the scenery passing below…..

And the R101

Slightly off topic i know but heres some pics of the Graf Zeppelin that i dug out of the collection today

When Australia’s most bent tycoon Alan Bond got into the airship business (another great tax and investor loss) the airship was for a while based at Moorabbin Airport near where I live. In fact it flew over my house quite regularly.

Although somewhat smaller than the dirigibles of the 20s and 30s it was interesting to watch its flight characteristics. In a headwind it tended to develop a regular rythmic pitching motion which I suspect might have been discomforting to passengers.

Wasn’t there a theory put forward that it was actually the type of paint used on the Hindenburg spontaneously combusting when the guide ropes eathed, rather than the use of Hydrogen that caused the disaster. The paint was a new batch of a different chemical composition that had a much lower flashpoint than it should have done. They have done tests and have proved that it could have caught fire if sparked. There was a large build up of static electricity as it passed through the rain on the way to its mooring, all of the elements were in place for the disaster.
If you watch the film, the way the skin burns faster than the Hydrogen explodes supports this theory.

I remember seeing that programme and the tests were pretty compelling, using a surviving piece of hindenburg skin and wetting it and earthing it caused it to explode, but the official version still stands as no one wants to reopen a crash from 60 odd years ago.

Further to my above one of the hangars had gotham city built in it for batman begins, last time i went past some of it was still there and one of the batmobiles.

curlyboy