R. 100 and a Voyage Across the Atlantic

The R. 100's transatlantic voyage to Canda and back in July 1930.

[@bcfairlie1]

Such a terrible shame that R100 never got another chance to prove her worth.

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

Indeed, another overseas trip or working with the U.S or Zeppelin company as well was planned. Alas finances were against them as this was just after the Great Depression.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Nevill Shute Norway, who helped design the R100 was astounded to observe the riggers calmly walking along the catwalk (no handholds!) along the back/spine of the airship while over the Atlantic.

[@edwardcole4623]

damn the R101 was like a Titanic of the skies and R100 was like a Olympic of the skies

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

Very true! good comparison

[@alasdairblack393]

The R34 was the first airship to cross the Atlantic in 1919, East (Scotland) to west (USA)and back again!

[@lanselithgow5865]

R101 was Not a sistership! It was a completely different ,terribly flawed design n project by the Govt /air ministry. Was so overweight it needed a large extra bay added for extra bouyancy. The r100 was better n more efficient than designed , so much so that an entire engine pod was deleted n it was still faster than origional estimates! See Nevil Shute (Norway)'s book Slide Rule. He was the senior stress calculation engineer

[@GiffysChannel]

Thank you. I was thinking "sister" isn't the term I would have chosen lol

[@drewgehringer7813]

Sister doesn't equal identical twin.

[@davidthelander1299]

What a shame that she never flew again ... :(

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

Indeed... a second flight might have changed public perception but time money and events were against them.

[@davidthelander1299]

Yes, I know. But what an elegant way to fly. I’ve read (as I’m sure you must have) the Nevil Shute book on the R100/R101. Also the book by ‘The Engineer Guy.’

[@davidthelander1299]

I always wondered if she (R100) could have flown the India trip that R101 clearly wasn’t prepared yet to do. I know from ‘Sliderule’ that there was concern over the gasoline engines in tropics, but in retrospect, of course, gasoline aero engines work fine.

[@baystgrp]

The R 100 was a design triumph. Privately built, it wasn’t subject to the fiats of arrogant and ambitious of the Secretary for Air, who died, along with almost everyone else aboard, when the government-built, overloaded R 101 crashed and burned in France, killing the Secretary and almost everyone else on the ship. The R 101 was a perfect demonstration of the arc of Greek tragedy: Human hubris angers the goddess Nemesis, who bestows Chaos…

[@sloughone1]

No it was not it had many problems especially with the outer cover. The structural tubes would have suffered internal corrosion.

[@kiwitrainguy]

They should have sold the R100 to the USA rather than break it up for scrap. Good video.

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

Thanks - indeed there were many options, but timing and the financial crash of the 1930's really caused the death knell to LTA projects. Similar to many technologies in the 1970s'.

[@productions4452]

How sad. Due to the arrogance of the R101 builders and air ministry, which should had never been given permission to fly with all those problems, the R100 had to be broken apart.

[@krugerfuchs]

Can we have her back

[@CouchCoach]

Your Timetable seems to be wrong. Arrival 01.08., 16 day stay. Leaving 13.08., and was the 16 day stay including the sight seeing flight across Canada?

[@Deepthought-42]

5:26 Hopefully not the Gulf Streem as this is a current in the Atlantic Ocean !🤔

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

I was just going to say -- should be the Jet Stream.

[@krugerfuchs]

Thompson what a muppet

[@ProfessorPesca]

So the R100 did not require the engines to be running? Were airships of the time trimmed for neutral buoyancy at all times or would they rise and fall when not being propelled?

[@carlosromanikaoss3063]

I Guess that the crew dropped ballast to compesate for the lack of dinamic lift.

[@jenniferhoughton6837]

I believe the route map is wrong - R100 passed over Chester (6am) and Liverpool (6.20am) on the 29th July rather than Manchester as shown on your map.

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

We'll have to make the change but were trying to keep the route simplified for the map. Thanks for giving us the details

[@jeremymellor8300]

How many large models of r100 airship where made from Jeremy mellor England 🇬🇧

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

Hi there, of the rigid type, the UK had 16, of which the R-100 and R.101 were the largest. There were plans for the R. 102 which would have been even bigger.

[@maryrafuse3851]

The British sent second best to the most sophisticated city in the Americas. Interesting since fate decided that the R-100 was the best.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Yes, and far less innovative and complicated. The R101 was too heavy, using Beardmore Tornado diesels, modified from those used by the Canadian railways, using newly designed valves instead of the Zeppelin-tested valves of the R100 and, of course, the R100 team were appalled that the R100 used a new dope that, mixed with the previous coating would have destroyed the skin. Anyway, the R101 had to be lengthened and one wonders how much the stressing was recalculated.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Ooops, I meant R101 had the new dope!

[@maryrafuse3851]

@@johnjephcote7636 Very interesting information. A fascinating subject. A very romantic era even as flying boats were beginning to carry as many passengers in similar levels of comfort. All this aside this was a romantic era when air travel was new. John, I appreciate your insight.

[@InternetUser-xo2uw]

No offense, but I think the R100 and the R101, were pretty different ships, so while they are often called sister ships, I am feeling like it is a stretch to call them sister ships.

[@awuma]

Sisters but not identical twins ;-) The R100 had a more conventional duralumin structure, although it was desgned by the genius Barnes Wallis with Neville Shute Norway doing the calculations, whereas the R101 was built of stainless steel without guy wires. Neville Shute's "Slide Rule" describes this well. It's a great pity that such a magnificent ship, just as the second "Graf Zeppelin", never realised its potential due to the errors leading to the catastrophic loss of a sister ship. The original "Graf Zeppeilin" and the "Los Angeles" had very successful careers despite effectively being prototypes, thanks to the leadership, experience and sound judgment of Dr. Hugo Eckener and Vice-Admiral Charles Rosendahl, who flew with each other many times.

[@InternetUser-xo2uw]

@@awuma True

[@tomlewis2880]

@@awuma Interesting writeup. I had thought both ships where made of steal.

[@xetalq]

@@awuma It is also germane that whilst the R100 was designed and built by private enterprise, the R101 was designed and built by the Air Ministry of the United Kingdom. Although they were built in parallel, they were also designed and built in deliberate competition: the aim was to decide the question as whether it was better for such projects as the R101/R100 should be built by private enterprise or by government-owned companies?

[@davidthelander1299]

I never knew that R101 was built out of stainless steel, and no guy wires. I’ve read ‘Sliderule’ several times, but missed that little detail.

[@skyfeelan]

I kinda hate Lord Thomson, had for not his greediness, the Brits might still continued their endeavor on rigid airship

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

It's a tough one, as they continued planning the R 102 and also possible further flights with the R100 in to 1931... it was also the financial crisis of that era which also brought British airships to a close.

[@cerberus6654]

It's pronounced as 'saint uhbear'. It's French.

[@airshipheritagetrust1419]

Thank you.

[@GrrMeister]

*Good Idea at the Time but just like EV's today flawed and with Runaway Thermal Ignition - you are Doomed and turned into **_Stardust_** in no time at all, by the Power of Hydrogen and Lithium Batteries stored under your seat (The Tesla has 7000 of these) !*

[@BillyBoy1235]

Well one lives and learns !

[@wp40]

Gasoline burns a larger percentage of cars than lithium batteries do. Don’t let facts get in the way of whatever dumb vendettas you might have though.

[@GrrMeister]

@@wp40 *The Simple Fact is there are far more of them, but Thermal Runaway in EV Batteries is mostly Fatal, where most ICE Fires can be extinguished with a cheap Fire Extinguisher !*

[@wp40]

@@GrrMeister EV Cars catch fire 25 times per 100k vehicles. For gas the number is 1530. Those are the facts if you had bothered to look them up. And when your vehicle catches fire you get out, not try to fight it from inside. I imagine you claim about more deaths is probably pulled from your ass as well.