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| The men in uniform are (l. to r.) A. Disby (sp?)--radio, R. Sturgeon --engineer, G.K. Atkins--radio, S.T. Keely--chief radio, C.W. Larkins--radio, V. Rumsby--rigger. The uniform in the back row is L. Cutts--rigger. It's unknown who the men in suits are at either or or why they are posing with a floor model radio. This studio photograph might have been for the purposes of an advertisement. |
The Airship R-100 dirigible (similar to zeppelins, blimps and so forth) sat at the St. Hubert Airport in 1930.
The R100 left Britain on 29 July, 1930 manned by 37 officers and seven passengers on official business. When it landed in Montreal's South Shore aerodrome 78 hours later, averaging around 68 kmh over the Atlantic it was big news. Montreal's phone systems were crippled temporarily as every husband called from the office to tell his wife to stick her head out the window to watch. Crowds were so dense that people got hurt on the road. It was well worth it as one journalist described it:
ST. HUBERT, Que--Indescribably beautiful was the sight of the R-100 as it appeared over Montreal after its transatlantic trip--a floating palace in the early dawn. Until the eastern sky had paled to green, then turned to rose, it cruised slowly over the wide meadow
It stayed in Montreal for 12 days and over 100,000 visited it. Singer La Bolduc sang a popular number mocking people's fascination with the thing. It returned to Cardington England on August 13 and reached in 57 1/2 hours. Within a couple of years people were paying $9,000 to circle the planet on slow tours in such
Although the aircraft was comfortable, with bedrooms and a 56 seat dining room, one description described a phonograph on board but no mention of a domestic radio. aircraft, which was quite a sum at the time.
There is actual footage of the mooring at the British Pathe site: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=53278
ReplyDeleteI can see that Bell Canada was really screwing the populace in those days with those extravagant "low" long distance rates -- 20c/min to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue??? $5/min to the States???...80 years later they can still make an exorbitant profit with a 5c/minute long distance rate...
ReplyDeleteI think I've mentioned in these cyberpages before that there's a piece of the R-100 fabric in the Peabody family archives.
ReplyDeletePeabody
Sir,
ReplyDeleteas someone who had his “flight baptism” aboard a blimp, I must protest for your woefully inaccurate use of the word “blimp”.
The R-100 was, strictly speaking, a “rigid dirigible baloon”. This means that beneath the canvas outer envelope, lies a (very lightweight) metallic structure that keeps the airship’s shape. Within the structure are several envelopes filled with hydrogen gas, for buoyancy, as well as the passenger & crew quarters.
On the other hand, “blimps”, as they were to be called, had no such rigid structure and their shape was solely maintained by the internal gas pressure (the name came from the sound the inflated envelope made when flicked). The “Goodyear blimps” are examples of such airships. “Blimps” were developped during World War II to serve as antisubmarine patrol; they could stay aloft for days on end, which was a definite advantage over aircraft.
So, the R-100 (and R-101) were most definitely not “blimps”.
By comparison, later rigid airships (“zeppelins”) were strictly luxury transport. The ultimate airship was the LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin II, which never saw revenue service but whose appointments were more luxurious than it’s doomed predecessor, the LZ-129 Hindenburg (“Oh! The humanity!”).
The film “The Hindenburg” provides a good reconstitution of the LZ-129’s passenger accommodation, as well as the third installment of the Indiana Jones movies (except for the part where they escape aboard an embarked aircraft — a military technology that was solely used by the U.S. Navy).
Lastly, the “dangerousness” of hydrogen has been way overblown. Yes, hydrogen is highly inflammable/explosive, but the LZ-129 was far more doomed by it’s fuel and envelope paint (aluminium dust + iron oxyde. Nowadays, this mixture is used in the space shuttle’s solid-rocket boosters to help it reach space) than by the hydrogen. As it happens, the Deutscheluftshiffgesellshaft had no accidents prior to the LZ-129 in thousands of flights worldwide that carried thousands of passengers.
As it happens, the R-100 was unceremoniously scrapped some time after it’s sister ship R-101 met it’s doom on it’s maiden voyage to Karachi in 1930, killing more people than the LZ-129 Hindenburg.
Oh, and for those curious about what a blimp looks like from inside, well, it’s just like a flying bus: bus benches and bus windows you can open to peer downwards. Quite not as luxurious as a Zeppelin…
edmx failed to mention the US's ban of helium sales to Germany during the period. Perhaps a followup is needed.
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up (unless it was pasted from Wikipedia)!
- ex-hydrogen plant guy
Thanks. The sources for this writeup are several of newspaper articles from that era courtesy of google, there might be a touch of wikipedia in there too but I don't recall.
ReplyDeleteMore photos and text about the R-100 (and the ill-fated R-101):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/assets/pdf/e_R100.pdf