Incredible Negligence: the R101 Disaster
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2024
- In the late 1920s the whole world was experimenting with airships and lighter-than-air travels- Germany had an impressive fleet of zeppelins which would eventually culminate in the Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin. But Britain experimented too, and the pride of the Imperial Airship program were the airships R100 and R101. Design faults and methodology flaws soon set in and the R101 set out in a dangerous condition leading to the largest loss of life in any airship accident. Let's take a look at what went wrong and how Britain's greatest airship was seemingly doomed from the start.
Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels- from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!
#history #documentary #r101 #airship #zeppelin #hindenburg #engineering
0:00 Introduction
1:28 Airships; Way of the future?
4:39 R100 & R101 Are Born
8:07 Trials and Issues
11:31 Final Flight
17:30 Survivors
18:53 What Happened? - บันเทิง
My great Grandfather died on that Airship. James (william george) Buck. He was the Batman (personal assistant/butler) to Lord Thomson. This was his first airflight in any air vehicle.. He currently lies in rest at Cardington cemetary. Rip Great Gramps. Ironically i returned to Cardington to work on a military airship prototype in summer 2012 . Although that also crashed (at cardington) it was an unmanned vehicle so only our pride and the company bank account was damaged.
Sounds like a family tradition every 4 generations to crash airships.
But may they rest in peace.
The R101 had a trial flight to Scotland, and flying over Billingham it cast its shadow over my dad ( 7 at the time ), giving him a lifelong story and perhaps the impetus to become a DC3 pilot during the war.
I’m Batman.
Crazy!
RIP great grandpa. Airships are mesmerizing, magical devices. I can understand what drove people to pour millions and many lives into them. It's a pity it was for nothing. I hope one day airships recover...Say hello from Greece to grandpa when you visit him next time.
One of the engineers who worked on the successful R100, and flew on its lauded round trip to Canada and back, was Nevil Shute Norway. After the dirigible program was cancelled because of the disaster of R101, he founded his own airplane company; Airspeed Ltd. He is best known today for his novels, like 'On the Beach' and 'A Town Like Alice'.
He wrote in considerable detail of the events surrounding the construction and flights of these airships in his autobiographical, 'Slide Rule'. Those who find this video of interest, will undoubtedly enjoy reading it.
I didn't know that! Thank you so much, I will look out for the book.
And he is heavily biased in it, too. R100 was far, far from perfect. From dodgy flapping covers, that also ripped occasionally too and let in water soaking the gas cells and a plethora of other issues to fuel tanks that fell off if filled incorrectly to engines that drinks fuel and were on occasion unreliable (great engines for aeroplanes, not for airships) to even chafing the gas cells on radial wires and also being over weight too. She was, however, very lucky on her Canadian flight. To ride the storm is a good book on it, and Atherstones diary is even better. He is very honest on both ships...
@@trevorcardington I'm really glad that someone else has said this. Shute had a very partisan drum to beat, wanting to emphasise how the R100, built with private money, was much better than the government-backed R101. This obscures the fact that, as you say, the R100 was full of faults and the R101 was a much more advanced design that the government couldn't stop meddling with. And it's also worthy of note that in his novel, 'So Disdained,' written before the Second World War, Shute was falling over himself to praise the Italian blackshirts. So, not a very balanced source.
And he worked alongside Barnes Wallis, of Bouncing bomb, Tall Boy and Grand Slam bombs, and the geodetic form of construction from thr Wellington bomber. I found Slide Rule quite biased to, but absolutely a read worth. I have read a number of his books with great pleasure.
@@trevorcardington Well, 'perfect' is not a standard of judgment that should be raised about any human endeavor. The Model T Ford was not perfect, but it was the first step toward much better vehicles we drive today (which are still not perfect). Human progress is incremental.
Despite R101's skeleton being largely made of steel, there was still a significant amount of lighter material such as duralumin used in the ship as well. The Zeppelin Company purchased five tons of duralumin from the wreck of R101. It's likely that this material was used in the frame of the Hindenburg.
So the duralumin became the Violet Jessop of airships?
Recycled Duraluminum: "This is the kind of deja vu I really don't like."
That has to be some sort of macabre record, not content with one bizarre airship crash, recycle and do it all again.
So it crashed twice.
@browncoatkevin, was she the nurse that survived both the Titanic and Britannic?
It’s hard to imagine seeing something the size of a cruise ship in the sky. Very steampunk.
@@polbecca Neil Peart from Rush?!
@@SalMinella The very same. 👍
@@polbecca looks up my alley thanks
Definitely, it feels kind of mind blowing to imaand that you could fly in these 100 years ago if you had lots of money, the thrill.
th-cam.com/video/C7v69FWcJ1E/w-d-xo.html
Remember to speaking to very elderly gentleman over twenty years ago, who at the time thought he caused this disaster.
During its maiden flight the R101 flew over his garden and as a eight year old he fired his air rifle at it flew over his house..
Even though his low powered air rifle pellet would not have reached 4000 feet as it flew over his garden, he had sleeplessness nights for weeks.
I know a private pilot who found a bullet hole in a wing, and a fuel tank on his Cessna 172....... Something to think about.
Maybe he should stop flying over my hollar
My father was 9 years old and in elementary school when the Hindenberg flew over his school playground in NY right before it crashed. I remember him describing it with all the wonder of a boy of that age, "I swear, it blocked out the sun," he would say.
The Hindenburg was designed for helium, but the US held helium as a vital strategic military substance. The Germans didn't have helium and it is lost to history, last I saw, as to whether the Germans used back channels to ask the USA for it and were refused or decided they weren't going to ask for it and used the hydrogen that was plentiful and cheap.
@@MiserableOldFart I don't think so. Helium has a lot less lift that hydrogen. In fact, helium would not have worked on the Hindenburg,
@@dougerrohmer No, it was originally designed for helium, hydrogen has only about 8% more lift. The disaster of the British airship R 101 prompted the Zeppelin Company to reconsider the use of hydrogen, therefore scrapping the LZ 128 in favour of a new airship designed for helium, the LZ 129, to be named Hindenburg. So the Germans designed the airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the U.S. government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National Munitions Control Board refused to lift the export ban, they were forced to re-engineer Hindenburg to use flammable hydrogen gas.
My grandfather said exactly the same when Hindenburg flew over my hometown of Barrow-in-Furness, on a rather obvious spying mission.
@@mirandahotspring4019 I stand corrected.
Cool to see this channel expanding into airships - not quite "oceanliners" but a fascinating part of transport history concurrent with the golden age of ocean liners, and likewise huge floating things. This is the second video on the subject, and it's strongly hinted more are coming - looking forward to that!
They're surely part of the ocean liner paradigm :)
@@ian_b It's interesting to see the progression, this was intended to be the next big thing to take the place of ocean liners. But they were too dangerous and not economically viable. Then came the huge flying boats, which were more successful but not on a scale to really make a dent in ocean liner travel. Land planes were next, but it wasn't until after WWII that they really took a big chunk of the market, then jets pretty much ended the ocean liner's relevance. Airships were a first attempt at going from ship travel to air travel.
@@quillmaurer6563 If I could go back in time, I'd love to fly on one of those flying boats in some distant part of the Empire. Before the world was so small as it is now.
Airships, are ship's too.
They'll make a huge comeback...
Cue Iron Maiden’s Empire of the Clouds.
Or orange and yellow zeppelin
Came here to post essentially the same thing!
"'We're down lads' came the cry, bow plunging from the sky- three thousand horses silent as the ship began to die..."
I see you're a person of culture too! It is a fantastic song though. Right on par with Rime of the Ancient Mariner in my opinion! 🤘😎
Smoke on the water and fire in the sky
My favorite band of all time. In fact I’m wearing an Aces High t-shirt as I type this.
6:53 ".. and an asbestos-lined smoking room" - nice. Safety is our number one priority.
My grandfather (he died a few years ago at the age of 96) remembered watching the R101 go over his house as a boy.
Please do keep making content on Lighter than Air. Not many talk about them nowadays. And your channel is just great no matter the subject, honestly.
Imagine my surprise to hear someone with your inimitably smooth voice talking about an _airship_ of all things.
It then occurred to me "who better?"
Thank you for sharing your research and talent.
Actually, i'm french and live at Beauvais and since i was kid, we learn here about the R101 crash, we even have a monument at Alonne, site of the crash. So i had to say this video was particulary touching for me. Great job!
For those who enjoy exploring things on Google Earth, the memorial at the crash site is located at 49.39048 N 2.11187 E.
were you by chance playing with firecrackers 🧨 that night 😅
I learned about this in history in secondary school 9 years ago.
It's amazing anyone could survive something like this let alone six.
May those poor souls lost rest in peace 😞
I learned about it through Iron Maiden's Empire of the Clouds song. th-cam.com/video/RsM6wpIA3Sc/w-d-xo.html
It’s 80 odd years ago mate. Not yesterday. I think their souls are safe by now 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
@@xr6lad The R101 dead are interred together in a common grave in the cemetery at Cardington only a mile or so from their departure point.
In their "communal grave".
@@BrianMorrison Is there a marker "honoring" them? "Communal graves" are the ultimate government "coverups".
Several things about this video.
One = The Douglas DC-3 didn't fly until 1935, so was not in service when the R101 went down. British passengers of that era flew in giant biplane airliners like those from Handley-Page and others.
Two = I didn't hear it mentioned, but the R100 was designed, at least partly, by the famous scientist Barnes-Wallis, who went on to design the bouncing bombs used against the German dams in the Ruhr Valley in the Dam Busters raid of WWII. The R100 did fly to Canada and back safely.
Side note: he also designed what is believed to be the first supersonic airliner/bomber which would have swing-wings to be able to fly slow enough to safely land or, swept back, it could fly at Mach 2. It was never built, as the British government was, at the time, interested in the huge Brabazon airliner, which was built, and flew, but not bought by any customers, even BOAC, which it was designed for.
Three = you didn't mention that the fatal flight was vastly overloaded with luggage and personal effects that, "simply couldn't be left behind, what if it's needed in Pakistan?"
Shit that was never built was never "designed".
"Vastly overloaded" yet still managed a "takeoff".
Pakistan didn't exist then, it was India they were headed for.
@@deeremeyer1749 Yes it was, the 'lift' margin was below spec. but it took off regardless.
The 'lift' margin is there to allow for loss of hydrogen from possible leaks.
Geddit?
@@brianletter3545Sky Hunt was begging for more hydrogen on the day of departure, R.101's side mounted gas valves would leak constantly even with light winds and little rolling. Eyewitnesses stated that the nose nearly hit the ground after casting off the mast, they were standing along the High Road near Cotton End and were doused in ballast water as all the forward ballast was dropped with the exception of the 2 emergency half ton bags in the nose. Lord Thomson's carpet and many cases of champagne were stored near the nose and the walkway from the mast into the airship. The extra gas bag bay grafted into the R.101 was behind the centre of lift, the airship was even more nose heavy and unstable after this modification. During the trip to Ismailia the airship was flying heavy, using aerodynamic lift to maintain height. After the sudden dive the reduction in power was ordered, this reduced the lift from aerodynamic lift.
So far no one has mentioned the calcium carbide drift floats in an open box on the navigator's table nor the ballast plumbing that was routed through the control car which was made of thin-walled aluminium tubing that buckled during the crash. The carbide floats ignite in water, this is the likely cause of the fire as described by Harry Leech in his testimony.
There are a lot of theories, which is exactly correct I don't know but this one is from Geoffrey Chamberlain who was a local man who knew a very great deal about the whole airship enterprise and interviewed all of the survivors.
The video is about the English R101 but most of the actual film footage is of the first German Graf Zepplin 1, the most successful of the airships. Graf Zepplin 1 was the first aircraft of any kind to circumnavigate the globe. It carried an expedition to the North Pole and made over 400 Atlantic crossings without injury to any passenger or crew member. It was only decommissioned after the Hindenburg disaster made airship travel too frightening for the public.
“For all you unbelievers, the Titanic fits inside.”
Wondered how long it would be until someone referenced that song...
@@paulelverstone8677 th-cam.com/video/obrdfzi0Aio/w-d-xo.html
@@paulelverstone8677 " 'We're done lads!' came the cry, while plunging from the sky, 3000 horses silent as the ship began to die" to me, these are the most haunting lines
@@ironmaidenfan66670 Sky Hunt actually called "We're down lads" as he passed through the crew quarters. He was retired, but went on the flight to help his great friend Walter Potter because he knew the state of the airship. Hunt escaped the crash, but went back in to try to save Wally Potter, both died. Before the departure Hunt was heard pleading with the people who ran the gas manufacturing plant at Cardington "Can none of you give me any hydrogen!" The side valves on the R101 gas bags leaked continuously even in calm conditions and often stuck open due to their size.
@@ironmaidenfan66670 To the moon and the stars, now what have we have done, oh the dreamers may die but the dreams live oooooooooon
If you get the chance, read Slide Rule by Nevil Shute, where a chunk of the book is about his time working for the Imperial Airship Program on the R100 and is particularly damning about the R101's construction, as the bureaucrats being the R101 project would have an idea and nobody in the management or engineering side of the project would put their foot down and say no, hence the finish ship was heavy, had very poor lift capacity, and some of its engineering was overly complicated - and there's a passage, post-crash, where somebody shows him an unused piece of the R101's cover that crumbles between his fingers like it's nothing
I also read that book many years ago and recommend it.
Mike, the R-101 crashed five years before the DC-3s first flight. You should have either used the Ford Trimotor or Fokker F.VII as the airliner example.
The English Imperial Airways was still using giant biplanes with a top speed not much more than the airships when they debuted.
The Ford Trimotor was the 747 of the 1930s.
@@kdrapertrucker ROFLMAO. Yeah. Right.
@@deeremeyer1749 He's not entirely wrong though.
The Tri-Motor was a pretty advanced plane for air travel of its time. Very reliable, quite advanced build compared to its contemporaries, in service with well over 100 airlines and making air travel in general more accessible.
That's nothing to scoff at.
Better maybe to refer to the HP42
The Hindenburg’s sister ship was the Graf Zeppelin II. The original Graf Zeppelin had been built in 1928, and had a long & successful career traveling the world.
Quite so. The Graf's success was due to the use of "Blaugass" which was gaseous fuel specific weight of '1'. Therefore, there was far less need for venting the hydrogen lift gas, and infinitely less risk of hydrogen/air combustion;...equilibrium was maintained by air replacing the gaseous fuel.
Very well done video Mike. The surprising thing is that this happened at least 7 years prior to the Hindenburg disaster yet if you were to ask people about airship crashes and disasters you will hear the Hindenburg name mentioned over and over again.
Well done sir.
Well, R101 went down in the French countryside in the night, pretty much unnoticed by the general public.
Hindenburg's destruction was reported live.
@@agp11001 Not quite as live as things go these days but, I suppose, as live as they could do it back then ! I write under correction but the recording of Herbert Morrison only went out to the radio stations the next day, the same with the various reels of film that were shot. :)
I started my engineering career at Cardington back in 1986. The hangers for both the R100 and R101 were still there in partial preservation. They still are to the best of my knowledge. At the time in the main RAF offices were artefacts from the R100 which was dismantled after the R101 disaster.
Both sheds are still there and are both in a great state of preservation One was in a poor state but was restored a few years ago and looks great now. I drove past them yesterday
Yep now film studios.
A new reality TV show in the UK is being filmed at Cardington. Drove past them last year - can’t believe how close they have built houses along the side of the R101 hanger - like all you will see out of your window will be solid walls of green steel!
@@michduncg and never see the sun ;-)
@@michduncg I think the programme has recently been on, called Scared of the dark, now the reminds me of another Iron Maiden song. From Empire of the clouds to Fear of the dark.
I had the good fortune to see the old Goodyear Blimp (before they switched over to the new Zeppelin model) fly low over my house one summer.
Thing that impressed me was how it just hung there as pilot swung it into the wind and hovered it, got a wave from everyone and I waved back.
At first I was wondering what the heck was going on as I heard the loud droning of the engines and props, then the big bulk of the envelope coming over the trees and blocking out the sun.
The whole time I was grinning like a little kid, and at the back of my mind I was thinking "This thing is HUGE...but it's just a baby compared to the old airships. Probably would faint dead away on seeing one of those monsters."
A Goodyear Blimp flew over my house in the early 1970s. Two impressions. It was low. 100 feet tops (sorry, I still think in English units). It was loud. Like standing next to a revved up DC3.
My late mother saw R101 fly overhead on its last journey from her garden in Kent. She remembered it as moving very slowly.
Being huge it would be difficult to judge the speed.
@@jsl151850b Possibly, but there were strong SW winds and the R101 was trying to fly SSE with one engine not functioning. Travelling over Kent her nose was 30 degrees right of track. In other words she was having to fight the wind from the right trying to push her to port. In those conditions, lacking one engine, it is surprising she made headway at all.
"overweight, under-powered, and unable to take many passengers" sounds like most British cars of the sixties.
Good job Mike, I know these animations take you a long time and the effort doesn't go unnoticed! As a Brit and an aviation enthusiast I'd never even heard of this disaster, keep up the good work!
Absolutely agree with that. 👍
Thanks for posting this, I've learnt a lot and remember my nan talking about seeing the R-101 fly over London on it's way to the sad end. She was born in 1907 and also remembered hearing about the Titanic sinking, though this was a much more vivid memory
Yes, my father was also born 1907. When I was taken to see the (somewhat inaccurate) film of A Night to Remember on general release, he told me that his father had shewn him the newspaper about the sinking, stating rather unsurprised..."Well lad, she's gone down".
A really superb production, Mike, and by far the most graphic and detailed account of the ill fated airship I have yet seen. This really is top-drawer stuff.
I recall my mother telling me that as a very little girl, she watched the R101 flying over their house in North London. I'd like to think it was, and not the R100 that she saw.
Farewell high hopes, and over-confidence.
But the hangars at Cardington are still an amazing sight today. I passed them on the train only a couple of weeks ago. They can still inspire genuine awe with their sheer size.
My parents too saw it. I was just going to watch the pictures, having read many books (and the ones in French by Princess Bibescu on Lord Thompson) but when I realised who was narrating, I listened to the entire programme!
Great video Mike! I remember reading about R101 and it's "sister" (or maybe I should say "cousin") years ago. You did a great job bringing R101 to life, well done!
I am so proud of this channel, great job on all the content this year Mike and crew if you are reading this.
When I was in the USAF stationed in England in the early 90's, I often took the bus to Bedford which ran right next to the giant hangars which housed the R-100 and R-101. I've still got a picture I took of them.
If anything videos like this just make me want a reasonably accurate Zeppelin simulator with open world and realistic damage and destruction mechanics. Maybe a "make your own custom" Zeppelin.
Add in some elements from the old Giants of the Sky, and chefs kiss.
And not just because I want to virtually crash the Hindenburg into the simulated Empire State Building to see what would have happened if Hans had a little too much schnapps over the Atlantic.
What, you don't like the GTAV Blimp that pops when it touches anything?
_Crimson Skies,_ perhaps?
Wonder if Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, or FlightGear could have that? I've seen some blimps and Zepplins for FSX, I recall a decent Hindenburg, and a Goodyear K-Ship blimp that is among the best-done freeware adddons out there. I believe someone made a hot air balloon too (which was famously modified with F-16 flight characteristics, this version is a regular of AirForceProud95 videos). But the game wasn't designed for lighter-than-air vehicles, they had to be modeled as airplanes with very low stall speeds rather than true lighter-than-air, and the hot air balloon was actually a helicopter in terms of flight dynamics (albeit with ineffective flight controls, actually resulted in a not-terrible approximation). I could see new editions or updates to FSFS/X-Plane/FlightGear to incorporate lighter-than-air, shouldn't be too hard to model (basically have negative weight components) and can use the existing aerodynamics, weather, graphics, and so on systems. I believe early releases of MSFS didn't have helicopter dynamics included but more recent updates have added that - future addition of lighter-than-air doesn't feel outside the realm of possibility.
@@Matt..S I mean I love the idea of blimps being filled with fuel vapor and white phosphorus but yeahhh. Plus, you can't actually walk around the blimp per se. Imagine a game where while you're puttering across the ocean you can walk around the lounge, explore the catwalks, see what life in an engine gondola was like, yada yada. With a library of airships to choose from.
I could go on and on
@@quillmaurer6563 I know in X-Plane 10 you could download a lot of user-made flight models of Zeppelins both factual and fictional, but there was never a ton of effort put in to them as opposed to, say, what one person did with a Kalinin K-7. But my craving is a more dynamic experience. I want the risk of a wind gust ripping my tail off midway across the Atlantic. I want nosedives into wheatfealds where you can see the frame crunch and the fabric tear. Realistic fire mechanics. Ya know. A freaking Zeppelin game lmao
Sir Peter Masefields book “To Ride The Storm” is very good reading on R101. I visited the sheds near where the mast had been at cardington quite a few times with my dad in the 60’s.
I highly rcommend a book about the R101 - "The Airmen Who Would not Die", by John G Fuller. If you ignore the supernatural element of the story (and the fact the book is - technically - fiction) it gives a well researched look at the probable causes of the R101 crash. Like most disasters it was probably a combination of factors which led to the crash. Bad weather, overloading, leaking gas bags, and so on. Worth a read.
A bit of a correction on your description of the competition. "Rattling along in wicker chairs in a Douglas DC-3." The immortal DC-3 had regular metal-framed-with-cushions seats. Your description is, I believe, intended for the Ford Tri-motor; which has the added feature of actually being in service during the R-101's construction. The DC-3 didn't go into production until 4 or 5 years after the R-101's crash.
Well said, and the plane interior pictured did not have wicker seats, but it does appear to be a DC2 interior.
The Ford Trimotor didn't have wicker seats either. The Handley Page biplane airliners of the day were so equipped.
@@throttlegalsmagazineaustra7361 - That's interesting because the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village, outside of Dearborn, MI, has a section of a Trimotor cabin that you can walk into. You can actually sit in the wicker seats (which have cushions, but are wicker nonetheless). I was there last July.
Excellent video. I live a few miles from Lakehurst NJ and walked the ground where the Hindenberg crashed. It's a sobering moment.
I used to pass the old balloon sheds at RAF Cardington on my way to school. The traumatic loss of the R101 became embedded in local folklore. Recently, however, these enormous sheds have been used by a new company, Hybrid Air Vehicles, which has designed non-inflammable, helium-filled airships that employ aerodynamic principles and controls utilised by the aircraft industry to supplement the buoyancy of helium. These airships are being launched as hybridvehicles but the plan is to make them fully electric once the electric engines under development have been fully tested.
The prototype Airlander crashed, twice. On the second occasion it broke free of its mooring mast and the safety system deflation pyrotechnics split the envelope and the remains landed on the hedge at the airfield edge and was destroyed. HAV moved out of the No 1 shed at Cardington several years ago.
Embedded in local folklore? Look up the definition of folklore genius.
WOW! JUST LIKE THE GOODYEAR BLIMPS FOR THE LAST 60 YEARS! AND EVERY OTHER "MODERN" AMERICAN "AIRSHIP" SINCE! AMAZING "INNOVATION".
Maybe I am influenced by the period black and white newsreels, but the airships always look so dreamily and romantically beautiful - until they crashed, of course. Thank you for the video! It is brilliant, as your videos always are. Your computerised recreations are nothing short of magnificent!
The Millionth Chance, the story of the R101, by James Leasor gives the R101's story and is a great read along side Slide Rule by Shute. Two diametrically opposed sides of the stories.
Agree, read both to understand the timeless difference between the industrious thrift of private sector and arrogance and wastefulness of the public sector
I live near Lake Konstanz in Germany close to the city of Friedrichshafen, the Zeppelin HQ is still there next to the Zeppelin Museum really interesting :)
Another beauty Mike, so very well done. Airships never seemed like the best idea in the world to me. A lot of money to effectively have a few people travel through the air in a bomb! Brilliant video again 👏
If they were filled with helium they wouldn’t explode. But they still would have all the other problems the design was prone to.
They might be more viable integrating the lifting body concept.
Effectively a hybrid of conventional aircraft and lighter than air design.
An awful lot of money 'invested' when times were so hard. It provided short-term employment but driven (what a surprise!) by polticians.
My grandfather was the Marconi wireless officer on the R101 - but ultimately missed the maiden overseas voyage owing to the flu.
The definition of "blessing in disguise"
...Mike, your storytelling keeps getting better...you have found your place...and we are all better for it... ( down to the fine details...the dog barking during or after the explosion was a masterstroke.... My father told me of the day he looked up and saw the Graf Zeppelin flying over him in Chicago...
From the description, I can't help but wonder if part of the cause of the second dive was the decision to cut the engines. As the R101 slowed, the reduced airflow over the elevators would reduce their control authority until eventually they couldn't overcome the lack of buoyancy in the nose.
Added to that, R.101 was flying heavy, using aerodynamic lift to maintain height. The reduction in speed reduced this effect and that led to the second dive.
For a long time I thought zeppelin's tiny little protrusion underneath is the whole gondola and cabin accommodation. Never thought there's so much more going on inside their rigid hull...
It's not a Zeppelin. It's a dirigible.
Same here.
Maybe because that's also how the little "blimps" of today work, I don't believe there is anything else to them besides that lower cabin.
It must have been incredible to ride on one of these.
@@jgrab1It is a dirigible, but more specifically it's a rigid airship. Dirigible just means airship, blimps are also dirigibles.
Depends on the model. But in general, zeppelins/airships did have very small passenger spaces compared to the overall size of the airship.
There is a great "cutaway" model of a quarter of the passenger area of the Hindenburg in the museum in Friedrichshafen, that gives a good idea about how it looked and where it was located.
would everyone have survived if the airship was filled with helium?
Seems like ancient history yet one of my Dad’s earliest memories was seeing the R101 fly over while holding his Mum’s hand. He was aircrew in Lancasters in WW2, an aircraft designed by Roy Chadwick who went on to design the Vulcan nuclear bomber. As a lad I watched the maiden flight of Concorde 002 with my Dad and he only passed away 2 years ago after witnessing nearly every major development in aviation. It just shows the rapid rate of technological innovation that it can all be spanned in one lifetime.
My dad too! Coastal Defense 210 sqn
He also told me of watching air shows in the 1930’s with tiger moths roped together ! We never talked about airships though, as he was an aviation nutter he must have followed them too. I have his RAF jacket. In one of the pockets is his ATC logbook and a letter from his father authorizing him to fly with RAF transport planes !
My Dad liked to point out that he was a year old when the Wright brothers successfully flew, and lived to see the moon landing. Which he taped on a reel to reel video recorder.
That, good Sir, was fabulous. I have read everything available on the R airships ever published. This is the most complete and perfect account of what went down in Beauvais. Thank you, good work. Respect.
Thankyou so much!
That was great. To sum up, the more successful of the two, R 100, was designed and built by a company (Vickers and Sir Barnes Wallis being the designer - look him up and see what he designed) while the R 101 was built by the Government. That should be a big clue right away. What is interesting is that the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) bought five tons of duralumin from the wreckage of the R 101, and used this for the construction of the Hindenburg LZ 129. Oh and one thing - Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg were not actually sister ships, they were different designs. But each did have a sister - Graf Zeppelin (LZ 127) had an older sister, LZ 126 which became USS Los Angeles, while Hindenburg had a younger sister, Graf Zeppelin II LZ 130.
And both R100 and R101 were equally terrible flying bricks. Couldve learned from germans at least a little, even soviet airships did better (and it was NOT a good story in the slightest).
Really loving the improvements on your animation skills!
Me too
Very well done Mike . Thank you for bringing history to life in such a professional and realistic way . Proud of you .
Graf Zeppelin's sister was more U.S.S. Los Angeles, then it was the Hindenburg. Also, building the Los Angeles for the U.S.Navy helped Zeppelin Company be able to build the Graf Zeppelin. Los Angeles was the most successful American derigible, having met her fate being scrapped during WWII.
To be fair, you need to cover R-100 if you have already. I apologize for not knowing that.also, we lost Shenandoah, Akron, and Macon, but as above, Los Angeles survived, not to mention the Naval blimps 104 for the U.S. Navy during WWII built by Goodyear. They built 203 in total. Interestingly, the latest "Goodyear Blimps" are Zeppelin NT-1s.
Hindenburg's sister airship (LZ-130) was also named Graf Zeppelin
@googleuser3163 Graf Zeppelin II the first is the more famous. Also while Hindenburg had pusher engines Graf Zeppelin II had traction engines.
my maternal grandmother's brother was a designer on the R101.. and was supposed to be on the test flight, but came down with a cold the night before. (He could have flown like that) but preferred not to spread it, and that saved his life. Frank Vince was his name.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of engineers of the R101 had gotten colds before going on a test flight...
Could you blame them?
How’s THIS for a little known fact.
Only the R101 visited London and my now 100 year old father remembers it flying over his house at the age of 7 years old.
There was (and still is) a territorial Army base which backed onto the family home and he’s absolutely adamant the airship came down in the large grass covered field/ parade area and collected something (possibly mail) then taking off again never to be seen again.
He remembers it happening early evening.
All the information I’ve ever been able to find says it was in October 1929 ( possibly one of the test flights).
It could not have been the R100 as (stated in my opening statement) she never visited London.
Possibly the most impressive original piece I've seen on YT to date. So well put together and narrated. Big respect 😮 Great work.
I did read that some of the ballast water ignited the parachute flares stored in the control room, these were water activated designed to illuminate the surface of the sea when no other landmark was available to judge height.
Mike I have to say adding the CGI animations to your video to help you tell the stories is a huge step forward in making your videos so engrossing and engaging versus mini early documentaries that simply just feature photographs to tell the story the animation really brings the subject to life
These "Airship Designs" videos are great thanks for another good one Mike!
Thank you very much. A relevant informing video, well researched and awash with relevant footage. Its very nice work, especially that you manage so much into 22 minutes.
I'm basically very happy this isn't (as some channels produce) a clickbait 10 minute history meme - 90% irrelevant garbage and 10% twist. So, thanks again.
I'm very curious about the consturction, materials and design of the R101, and, after noting some of the decent comments; the R100. Primarily, what welding and metals were implemented, and how did they compare with US, French and German technical efforts. Please continue your good work. :)
I used to live in Indianapolis, about six blocks from the Speedway, and the month of May always made it likely that the Goodyear blimp would be in the vicinity. One day it flew right over my house, and it was a memorable sight. It was pushing winds from the west, so was going maybe 15mph and I got a good, long look at it. It was so majestic and present, seemingly almost hanging there in space.
It's amazing they used heavy locomotive engines on R101 that couldn't reach the stated horsepower because they couldn't reach the intended rpm.
Mike, have you ever read 'Hindenburg- an Illustrated History'? Another book filled with beautiful Ken Marschall paintings that used to fascinate me as a child. I swear, if that man had illustrated a book on turnips I'd probably have developed a life long obsession with root vegetables.
Right? Ken Marschall's artwork is incredible.
Hello Mike Brady from Airship Designs, great video and animations as usual.
Thank you Mike for another great video. Your channel is one of my first choices as soon as i land on the tube! And-congratulations on your flawless classic elegance!
The Imperial Airship Programme's two prototype airships are a fascinating story. My interest in them started as a schoolboy, because the primary school that I attended for four years (aged 8 - 11) had once upon a time been for boys only. And Selwyn Boys School had an honours board for distinguished former pupils of that school. The first name on the list was:
Lt-Col. V. C. Richmond BSc, ARCS, OBE, FRAeS (1893-1930). Vincent Crane Richmond was employed by the British Air Ministry on the R101 project as DAD (T) or Director of Airship Development (Technical). Richmond was effectively the chief engineer for designing and developing the R101.
Although I no longer have a copy of it within my own archived papers, I did write a dissertation about Vincent Crane Richmond: Engineer, to complete a Master of Science degree at Imperial College London back in 2003.
Mind you, the second name on that list of distinguished old boys was Sir George Edwards OM, CBE, FREng, FRS, DL (09 Jul 1908 - 02 Mar 2003) British aircraft designer and industrialist. Edwards, as head of the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) played a key role in the development of the BAC One-Eleven airliner, and of the BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde supersonic airliner.
Plus the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar strike plane. And the Anglo-Italo-German Panavia TORNADO Fighter/Reconnaissance/Strike aeroplane.
One thing I always thought was weird is that no one ever thought to have the engines contribute to lift by making the engine pods pivot.
that's a lot of weight and vibration to cope with in each engine alone. Altogether i think it was just too much. The u.s. navy's akron and macon used nonflammable helium which allowed the engines to be placed inside the hull. The propellers were placed on pivoting arms outside the hull. As far as i know they were quite effective.
Great work Mike, thank you for your insight into this horrific accident.
Great video Mike as usual. I used to love listening to my grandfathers story of a zeppelin appearing over the harbour in Scarborough (england) in WW1. It was midnight and was dropping bombs on the hatbour. Searchlights picked it out and fired anti aircraft shellls. They shot it down in s hige ball of flame. He kept saying it was the most eerie sight he ever saw
I wish there's more coverage about the R101 just like how the Hindenburg was. Would the Italia the semi-rigid airship disaster be in the works soon in the future?
The R 100 was a complete success. I’ve never read anything bad about it. It flew successfully from England to Canada and back.
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Besides suffering ALL the problems of 101, these things were an atrocity to airship design name, rightfully the worst of them all.
Amazing video, Mike! I hope that you'll continue to cover airships in future videos. I'm sure we all would love a Hindenberg video, but it would be great if you could also cover the USS AKRON and the USS MACON. Great work!
Yes! Came here to say the same thing - flying aircraft carriers!!
I really appreciate taking the time for something different in the channel I've always have been fascinated by the R-101 with all its tragic grandure...and yes im a huge iron maiden fan
Brilliant graphical representation of the airship and its demise.
Neville Shute's autobiography Slide Rule is well worth a read. He worked as an engineer on the R100 which was privately designed and built (with government funding) and largely successful. He heard rumours and was shown evidence that the state built R101 had major problems before the disaster.
Thank you for mentioning "Slide Rule", and the fact it is an autobiography (nonfiction)! That fact holds more credibility for historians than the "ignorant" majority of the comments calling it a "novel" (FICTION!). Talk about bias! Typical socialist disinformation.... After all, the political state is 'never' wrong.... This all happened under the purview of the first elected British "Labor" government. Though not perfect, R-100 did fulfill the contract. Trust an participating engineer over a politician when given a choice. The odds are better, for they have far less scapegoats when things go sideways.👍
Great book.
Love these airship videos, they’re a great compliment to your regular content!
I never knew about this airship. I think a video on the Graf Zeppelin would be interesting, since it had a successful career unlike her bigger sister Hindenburg
You'd think after the enormous success of R100, designed with a lot of input by the legendary Sir Barnes Wallis, they should have built airships based on the R100 design. Barnes Wallis went on to a legendary career in aeronautics, a career arguably only matched by Sir Sydney Camm at Hawker and Clarence "Kelly" Johnson at Lockheed.
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I agree, but the useless Socialist Government has to get involved trying to hide what a dismal failure they were (are) and built a badly designed flying coffin called the R101.
By the way before the R101 crash the King has suggested naming them Castor and Pollux although he did not specify which ship would have which name.
Fascinating presentation Mike. A lot of work went into this. Your long form content is excellent!
Never ceases to amaze me people were willing to board such gargantuan machines that rose so high in the sky & that could be blown about so easily by the elements.
Tragically this shows that after all the design work, technical drawing, calculations, etc, it's the actual flight testing that shows what works - and what doesn't.
In the 1950s, the very promising Comet jet developed in the UK crashed and faults in the manufacturing process were to blame.
Very tragic loss of life
Interesting to see other modes of shipping come to light on this channel👍 good stuff mate.
I know other people have already mentioned that Iron Maiden made a song about this airship named Empire of the Clouds, but if you have never listened to it, I implore you to go and do so! It is a 20-minute long epic of a song, and it's an absolute masterpiece of musical storytelling. It is Iron Maiden at their finest!
The R101 was a beautiful airship. However, I would say that the Graf Zeppelin was the most beautiful of all airships.
Great video. I was born a few hundred meters from where the Hindenburg crashed. Lakehurst Naval Air Station. I always tell folks that there were two disasters at Lakehurst: the Hindering and me.
Another long term project down!
I remember hearing you talk about R101 in a live-stream. Didn't give it much thought until I heard the Doctor Who audio-play 'Storm Warning' from 2001 which led me to doing some research on the ship and noticing a number of errors including them getting Lord Thomson's name wrong!
One story that would be interesting to see though would be what if Thomson listened to the complaints and delayed the launch so that the problems could be rectified? Would the British have continued the program and how long would it have lasted?
There's an alternate history novel called "ZRS" where rigid airships survived long enough to serve in WWII where the R101 didn't crash, was refitted to be filled with helium and served as a flying hospital ship until she was destroyed by Japanese fighter planes while evacuating people out of Singapore in late 1941/early 1942.
@@AlejandroFlores-Ibarra That sounds awesome!
@UNSCForwardontodawn I agree completely! It has some great dialogue and the characters are very enjoyable.
Great video about one of the 1st ‘big’ aviation disasters. Amazing simulations and good use of stock video too. There also an interesting ‘spiritual’ connection with the R101 story detailed in John G Fullers interesting and in depth book ‘The Airmen who would not die’ which also covers lots of the R101 story before and after the crash.
While Thomson had personal ambitions and made some questionable decisions that could have contributed to the R101's demise, a lot of literature is biased and portrays him and the R101 crew unfairly while glorifying the R100's performance (it also had a number of serious issues).
I recommend reading this article which presents some information based on primary sources. www.aerosociety.com/media/4840/the-r101-story-a-review-based-on-primary-source-material.pdf
Anyone in the UK must go and see the hangers for the R100 and R101 which are at the former RAF Cardington near Bedford. When I saw them one was being used for fire testing on buildings. It had a full size 3 storey office block in it which looked like a model in the gigantic building. I've also driven past the ridge where the R101 crashed.
Airship hangars are known as sheds. Shed 1 looks a bit sad, whereas shed 2 has been repainted. But worst of all, a massive housing estate has been built to the North side which encroaches to less than 150 feet from shed 1, and absolutely means aircraft will never fly there again, including the Airlanders. It’s a travesty.
Thanks for the update. I was there in the late 80s and it does sound very sad that all this has happened.@@sprint955st
@@sprint955st Not true. As far as I can tell, the only place airship hangers are called "sheds" is in the UK and the Commonwealth countries. In the U.S., the facilities at Lakehurst and Sunnyvale are called hangers while the huge Goodyear Zeppelin structure in Akron is called an air dock.
@@mjhbuckeye Well, I’m in the U.K. and as far as I know, we call em sheds and so did the designers so sheds they are.
This is truly the Titanic Of The Skies.
I heard Titanic comparisons every so often, Titanic Of This, Titanic Of That, etc. And usually people only give things that nickname because of a high death count. Personally I don't that should qualify a disaster getting a Titanic comparison. But here we have a massive airship, like how Titanic was a massive oceanliner in it's day, that crashed on it's maiden voyage like how Titanic sunk on it's maiden voyage. These are the conditions that should be met to get the nickname of Titanic Of The Sky if you ask me.
That, great video Oceanliner Designs. While I do love hearing about shipping disasters, it's always nice to see people branch out. Hindenberg is legendary, can't wait to see what you'll have to say on that one.
Finding myself watching more and more of your stuff. Good stuff. Please keep up the good work. God speed to all history buffs.
Howdy Mike, I am so happy to see you branching out into these types of "ships". Your variety of information and knowledge is totally amazing; please keep up the good work!!
Thank you so much!!
The R101’s designers went for an immensely strong stainless steel framework because of the disastrous loss of the R38 near Hull. That airship had been built based on a lightweight German ‘height climber’ design, but it was far too fragile and broke up over the Humber during trials with the US Navy. As a consequence, the R101’s frame was made far stronger to resist static and dynamic loads. The frame turned out to be one of the few things that did work. The design of the gas valves, the rigging, the envelope however…
The R101’s shed is not far from where I live, it is a stupendous building that can be seen for tens of miles in every direction.
And the airship’s RAF pennant, recovered almost intact from the crash is now preserved in the nearby church at Cardington.
The crash had a direct influence on German airships. Zeppelin was already designing the LZ128 as a successor to the Graf Zeppelin. It would have used hydrogen for lift, but in the aftermath of the disaster, LZ128 was abandoned in favour of a design that could carry a useful load across the Atlantic with helium - the design that would become the Hindenburg. Although that airship would never fly with helium. Perhaps ironically, Hindenburg was built in small part using scrap duralumin from R100.
The US was the only supplier of helium and rejected Germanys request to acquire
@@sc1338 Yes, Germany spent huge amounts of diplomatic effort trying to get helium. Hugo Eckener who ran Zeppelin even made personal pleas to the President to get it. An agreement was eventually struck, but the US backed out of the deal after Germany invaded the Rhineland.
Shenandoah was based on a height climber too I think.
@@TK42100 You’re absolutely right. The Shenandoah was based on the height climber L49 which was captured by the French during World War I. That was the same airship the British used as the basis of the R38. Both of them suffered massive structural failure because they just weren’t strong enough. Shenandoah, to her credit, battled to the last against a massive storm. The R38 broke up in almost perfect conditions.
Yes, and the Hindenburg traveled back and forth for a whole season, some 30+ trips to the us and back and they figured it was safe with hydrogen because the Germans knew what they were doing. Hubris. They redesigned it to hold more people over the winter and on its maiden flight for the season to NY was when it crashed. That' why their was only one camera there. It was less of a story, just a story that flights had resumed.
I read a book about the R101. It’s called “The airmen who would not die” by John G Fuller. Absolutely amazing!
That is what started off my researches.
Me too, a follow up to his very successful ‘Ghost of Flight 401’ novel. But ‘Airmen’ is as you say much more than a ghost story - it’s an amazingly well researched documentary about R101
I have been lucky enough to have been inside both sheds at Cardington. Many years ago, when I was a Bedfordshire Police constable, public order training was carried out in one of the sheds, and a few years ago I was present in the other shed, when a Honda Civic advert was filmed. As an Air Cadet, from 134 Squadron, RAF Cardington, I played football at the side of the sheds.
way back in the mid 60's I worked at Cardington for a number of years and in one of the large storage sheds (not a hangar) the RAF kept a huge store of aviation bits + junk of historical interest and i remember one day coming across bits of the R100 all nicely labelled. No idea where they finished up when the RAF pulled out.
Iron Maiden composed a great track about the fall of the R101. Empire of the Clouds.
As well as an ENTIRE ROCK OPERA from Chris Judge Smith in 2000 called Curly's Airships, told from the perspective of a fictional third officer, George "Curly" McCloud.
Well done Mike, and Thank you for sharing this with us.
I vaguely knew the story of R101, thank you for making this. So well presented. Airships really are amazing
An excellent video, full of interesting facts. With all the problems in production I’m surprised that any of the engineers and designers wanted to fly on it.
If it weren’t for such disasters as this, and the Hindenburg, airships could have survived because while slow compared to jets, the lack of jet lag and the incomparable amenities for a comparable price would make them an appealing alternative to long distance flights.
Hardly. They would have died the same death as liners for trans-oceanic travel. Plus, you couldn't economically justify 50-ish passengers at 50 MPH in rather Spartan accommodations versus 200+ souls at 450+ MPH on a long haul. For overland travel, in their own time, airships were slower than train travel, which again could seat more passengers and be far less affected by variances in the weather. While I agree with the romantic notion of airship travel, it was just something that wasn't practical and would have faded away even without the many crashes which befell the type.
How good is the airship? Good enough to take you to the scene of the crash.
It was somewhat like the CHALLENGER disaster. The engineers aren't happy. Well, we have had too many delays. We are going with this.
It is amazing though that we went from playing with failed airship designs to landing and returning from the Moon within about 35 years.
Another great vid Mike !!! Keep up the good work !!!
Everything I've read about the R101's construction and design points to was almost a classic 'Yes, Minister' situation. All of the important decisions were being made by bureaucrats for perfectly sound bureaucratic reasons, with any input from actual engineers somehow getting largely lost in the shuffle.
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