Incredible Negligence: the R101 Disaster

it's October 1930 looming High over the countryside is a flying giant this is the Airship r101 the pride of British Aerospace and the very latest thing in aviation technology she's over 700 feet long and can soar over land and see alike the Airship is about to make an historic Voyage flying from Britain to Karachi in Pakistan but as it looms over onlookers just after takeoff nobody aboard could know that this would be the r101's last flight and things were about to go horribly wrong oh the r101 slammed into the French Countryside and erupted in a ball of flame killing nearly everybody on board but how could the r101 dream have ended so dramatically after years of careful planning well ladies and gentlemen I'm your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs this is the true story of Britain's doomed Airship the r101 foreign [Music] aerial symbol of Britain's might for those watching it during testing flights it is a magnificent and Majestic sight the Airship is longer than most ocean liners of the day and is painted in a dazzling silver color well where did the r101 come from and what was its intended purpose most importantly of all how did it all go so horribly wrong the first truly successful airships appeared throughout Europe and America in the 1890s several attempts at airships have been made prior to the 20th century with some examples in the mid-1800s even proving themselves a viable means of Transport however they remained closer to Novelties than useful vehicles those few that were built were difficult to control low in capacity and dangerous to Pilot despite these teething troubles they flew and mostly worked however having had their concept proven and with public successes fresh in people's minds the world was set for an Airship boom and it was Germany that would find itself at the Forefront of the new technology count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin was the leading figure in Airship development whose company was the first to use rigid airframes in their airships providing a more stable structure these new Rigid airships named Zeppelins are for himself became the gold standard developing into a comfortable means of travel for the wealthy in an era before passenger planes before and during the first world war airships were also utilized for military purposes by all the major nations of Europe Zeppelins in particular became notorious for their long-distance bombing raids on Britain over the course of the first World War despite these raids being hugely ineffective and frankly a waste of resources Germany couldn't spare the propaganda effect on the British was massive paranoia of German airships swept the country and images of Germans bombing with impunity were shown around the world at this point in the minds of the public the Airship was no longer merely a form of Transport but became an essential arm of the government after the end of the war Britain was faced with a very dramatically changed environment the Empire that had seemed so secure only a decade before was now coming apart at the seams from bankruptcy and Independence movements it was in this environment that the imperial Airship scheme was conceived to meet the challenges of a new age a new technology would be utilized in order to bind the empire together and secure the power of Britain airships would fly across the world removing the barriers of distance and permanently linking the Empire and its people together the idea of airships keeping the empire together seems almost quaint in the modern world but it's a lot less so when you consider the Primitive state of airplanes at the time despite their low capacity airships allowed at least theoretically for comfortable and quick long distance transport for important people in cargo the end of the Empire might seem obvious in hindsight but at the time was an almost Unthinkable Calamity to the British government the Imperial Airship scheme was first proposed at the 1921 Imperial conference but was not acted upon until after the 1923 election it called for the construction of a fleet of airships that would bind the distant corners of the empire together and were spearheaded by Lord Thompson the decision was made to build six airships with two prototypes to be completed to kick-start the entire program 1.3 million pounds were allocated for the construction of two airships though they would run over budget and the r-100 and r101 were expected to be designed and completed by the end of 1927. these airships were intended to conduct trial flights to Canada and India in preparation for regular Imperial connections the r100 and the r101 were intended to encourage innovation in air travel and in order to maximize the spread of funding and knowledge construction would be split between the private and public sectors the r100 was to be built by the private Vickers limited company while the r-101 was built at the Royal Airship Works in Cardington with the greater leeway provided by having government backing the r101 was considered a riskier design than the r100 because it implemented a number of design changes and technologies that had not been tested on airships before for example on the r101 five diesel engines were included for the first time on airships this was due to concerns that the heat of India would cause petrol engines to ignite unfortunately this new design required the engineers to join multiple engines together which resulted in constant leakages too much weight and too little power poor connections between the engines also meant that they had a propensity to Rattle themselves apart when operating for extended periods of time in a final irony the engines required petrol starters to function which rendered their inclusion pointless to begin with the engines themselves are in a way representative of the Airship as a whole a good an exciting idea on paper that was hastily thrown together for political purposes before underwhelming in every way upon completion the rigid structure also used steel for the first time in an Airship which strengthened the structure but also increased the weight another attempted Innovation was hollow metal reversible propeller blades intended to save on weight but these were not successful and weren't implemented before the eventual First Flight when it came to luxury the r101 was the most comfortable craft in the sky Heaven helped those unfortunates rattling and shaking away in small wicker chairs aboard at Douglas dc-3s r101's passengers could stretch their legs on Long promenads take meals in the dining room and even smoke but the Airship with two decks with a Promenade walk on both as well as sleeping quarters for more than 50 passengers a dining room that could seat 60 people and an asbestos lined smoking room it was a sparse he had comfortable space and the highlight of the whole thing was a spectacular viewing Gallery with huge windows from which passengers could stare down at the world beneath their feet the i-101 and r100 were finally completed in 1929 and subjected to heavy publicity upon being completed however the ships were actually something of a disappointment to the British government despite the heavy publicity and one of the trial flights actually being viewed by King George V and Queen Mary the engineering community was also generally not impressed with the results of the program one article in the engineer written in the September of 1929 complained that the ships cost more than 2 million pounds or around 147 million pounds in today's money to build two years later than planned or underpowered overweight and unable to carry enough passengers to make the vast expense worthwhile the article concluded by calling the airships obsolete before they even left their sheds even the designs had been criticized before the ship had actually been built EF spanner appropriately named Naval architect had ominously predicted in 1927 that 40 men or more will probably lose their lives on or soon after the trial trip nevertheless the public was enamored with the r101 and what it promised to do for the United Kingdom well it was on display outside its shed in Cardington it continually attracted huge crowds wanting to catch a glimpse of the new vessel numerous trial flights were arranged that served little purpose Beyond showing off the airships to the public and providing Joyrides to selected officials it was immediately apparent however that the r-101 had some issues it was tail heavy which made maneuvering difficult it also made flights to India impossible as the change conditions in a tropical environment meant that the loss of lift would be disastrous additionally in early 1930 the inspector in charge of the aeronautical inspection directorate at Cardington sent a letter to the air Ministry in London advising that the r101 have its permit to fly revote due to gas leakage and buoyancy issues this letter was ignored and the permit to fly remained the manager in charge of the construction of the Airship was also the man responsible for advising the Secretary of State on the airship's safety this conflict of interest meant that he would have been unlikely to raise any issues for fear of damaging his own career both ships lacked the 60 tons of lift required by the initial design request the r101 was particularly heavy due to the new design features that had been included on the ship the steel frame large engines and luxurious accommodations meant that the Airship could only lift just over 30 tons of cargo the outer covers on the lift balloons were also proving to be a concern it lacked the strength to withstand inclement weather and quickly developed rips and tears along the entire length both airships had to be modified in order to meet the requirements of the initial design and safety but even after the Retro fits the r101 was still well short of its required carrying capacity being capable of only 40 tons of lift in its final design the r101 was 777 feet long and 131 feet in diameter it was made up of frames joined together by girders the frames divided the balloon into around 16 compartments Each of which contained a gas bag filled with hydrogen the issues with the covering were never fully resolved and it would be this oversight that likely caused the eventual crash of the airship test flights began in 1929 before the ship had been fully refitted they continued in a haphazard manner until the final flight on the 4th of October 1930. despite his final flight intending to travel all the way from Britain to India there had been no real long distance endurance testing in the final certificate of airworthiness was only issued on the day of departure the maiden voyage was set for October of 1930 in order to coincide with the Imperial conference occurring that year in London the airships were intended to be a symbol of the Empire after all and confidence was increased by the successful flights of r100 from Britain to Canada that had taken place earlier in 1930. the first leg of its first proper Voyage the r101 would carry 54 people on board mainly comprised of the airship's backers and designers Lord Thompson had conceived the Imperial Airship scheme was aboard along with members of the air Ministry and r101's design team as they boarded their Airship they must have felt a sense of elation as the vast silver bulk of the r-101 towered over them very soon though their Elation would turn to horror it was Saturday October 4th 1930 time for the r101 to depart on what was destined to be its first and only Voyage weather conditions across the route were being carefully monitored so as not to catch the crew of the r101 off guard but almost immediately there arose a serious problem the weather in the north of France was deteriorating and the r101 would be flying right through it as it was operating on a political schedule rather than a practical one the decision was made to press on and try to beat the weather this was made in part due to the presence of Lord Thompson who was eager to see the results of his program in action the departure was arranged for 6 24 in the evening with the passengers being hurried aboard and missed covering the landscape and then she was off the plan was that she would first travel to Bedford for a final visit to her hometown before carrying on to London and to Paris tool to lose now Bon and then across to Egypt as the Airship had never been fully loaded with fuel before there was some surprise when four tons of ballast had to be dropped before she could gain height but all was still going according to plan the r101 was equipped with a water ballast system that would allow it to recover weight from Rainwater at 8 21 PM the r101 was flying over London and sent the message over London all well moderate rain base of low clouds 1500 feet wind 240 degrees 25 miles per hour course now set for Paris from London to the French Coast was another three hours of travel by 11 36 PM the r-101 sent a message confirming they had reached France from 11 till 2 in the morning the crew changed watches and a final message was received from the r101 just after midnight which ended with after an excellent supper our distinguished passengers smoked a final cigar having cited the French Coast have now gone to bed to rest after the excitement of their leave-taking all essential services are functioning satisfactorily crew have settled down to the watch keeping routine this rather cheerful message informing Britain that all was going well and the passengers who were thoroughly enjoying themselves offered no indication what was soon to befall the ship the last message ever sent by the Airship was a navigational pulse sent out at 1 52 am only minutes before the disaster at 2 am the watch changed for the final time all seemed well aboard the Airship there was no concern about the weather and it didn't seem exceptionally bumpy engineer Henry Leach was off duty in the smoking room between 1 and 2 A.M when Captain Irwin entered the room and chatted with him and the chief engineer about the after engine Leach then went to inspect the engine cars after the conversation and found them all to be in good working condition it was then that problems began to arise though eyewitnesses on the ground reported that at 2 am the Airship began to have trouble with the gusting winds above the French city of Beauvais that its Promenade lights were obscured by Cloud this would make sense as the Airship was passing over the bovet ridge which had become well known among aviators for its dangerous winds suddenly just after 2 A.M disaster struck the r101 entered a sudden and steep dive without warning for more than 90 seconds the ship descended at a terrifying 18 degree angle the crew lost their footing and crashed to the deck some hanging on for dear life Furniture clattered across the floor as the Airship dove the crew in the control car tried to balance out the ship by pulling back on the elevator and lifting the nose they managed just to raise the nose to three degrees above the Horizon but then they were faced with another issue the elevator lever was now at its maximum the ship was only just reaching stability Captain Irwin ordered all engines to either be slowed or brought to a stop to prevent any forward momentum Wireless operator Arthur Disney passed the chief coxswain George hunt in a corridor just after the engines had been stopped the chief simply said we're down lads and the captain had most likely decided to attempt an emergency landing r101 was now floating at just 550 feet or so but the Airship was over 770 feet long for what must have seemed like an eternity she hung there but then the inevitable happened rigor Samuel church had been ordered to release the emergency ballast in the nose to try to lighten it but as he made his way forward he felt the nose begin to drop beneath his feet there was little hope of riding the Airship before she hit the ground the r-101 slowly dropped at a fairly shallow angle downward before making contact with the sudden ground foreign snapped out across the Airship but she gently bounced along for 60 feet or so at 13 miles per hour 22 kilometers per hour speed just above that The Perfect Landing the Tails slowly drop level as she leveled out there was a crunch obviously under some severe stresses the airframe probably gave away somewhere inside maybe even breaking the airships back the r101's nose came to rest and would must have seemed like it was all happening in slow motion then all hell broke loose the impact had Twisted the ship's star but the engine car right around the hot engine was coming into contact with hydrogen gas released from one of the torn gas bags in seconds the loose hydrogen had ignited the r101 was engulfed in flames the airship's fabric cover was incinerated in seconds and the entire Airship was reduced to a fireball lighting up the French sky out of the 54 on board there were only six survivors of the crash four of them were engineers named Binks Bell Savory and cook all four were in the engine cars outside the main Hull were able to escape Through the Windows of the car and away from the Airship Arthur Disney who also survived was a wireless operator who had been asleep in the crew quarters when the Airship went down he was awakened by the initial dive before hunt had passed through the crew quarters and informed him of the crash Disney got out of his bed and made his way to the electrical switchboard in order to cut the current fearing that it may spark a fire if the Airship crashed before he could cut the current however the Airship went into its second dive and slammed into the ground Disney described the impact as being so soft that it didn't even knock him to his feet the fire started only a moment later and Disney managed to survive by crawling out of the windows and he was rescued by leech the last survivor he was the former engineer on the staff at Cardington that he had been sitting in the smoking room at the time of the crash he was able to escape through the broken wooden walls of the smoking room and down the ships outer cover to the safety of the ground along the way he pulled dizly to safety despite suffering serious Burns this act of heroism he was personally awarded the Albert medal by King George in the following year another man the rigor George Church survived for a short while but succumbed to his injuries within a few days of the disaster without the testimony of the r101's captain and Senior officers the exact sequence of events is difficult to piece together in its entirety but we are left with some valuable Clues which can tell us what happened on that fateful night as the r101 approached the bovet ridge gusting winds could have torn a hole in the fabric covering at the r101's nose this would have exposed the delicate hydrogen-filled gas bags to the elements and A Tear would see gas quickly escape and the r101's nose suddenly drop the second dive could have been caused by another strong gust of wind and a failed or snapped control cable deprived of crucial lift the Magnificent r101 became little more than a slowly deflating balloon impact was unavoidable and the 5.5 million cubic feet or 144 million liters of hydrogen gas became a ticking time bomb The Inferno was total and the whole Airship was consumed in literal seconds leaving behind a charred and twisted skeleton every death that day was a tragedy but Lord Thompson who was on board his death was particularly notable he had been a staunch supporter of the Imperial Airship scheme from the beginning his death marked the end of Britain's flirtation with airships in the beginning of British Reliance on airplanes over light than air vehicles following the disaster of the r-101 even the successful sister ship the r100 was decommissioned and sold for scrap along with the wreckage of i-101 the other planned airships in the scheme were also canceled [Music] the British Airship dream died with r-101 airships were large slow expensive dangerous and had a low carrying capacity airplanes were clearly the way of the future they were cheaper faster easier to build and less at the mercy of poor weather conditions the Imperial Airship scheme gave way to Imperial Airways which operated a fleet of aircraft effectively in the role that airships had been intended to fill across the globe Nations that had experimented with Zeppelins and airships began to suffer their own series of disasters and catastrophes and pulled them from service and scrapped them the Americans lost USS Shenandoah and Acron in short succession the Italians lost the Italia and it seemed like the days of the Zeppelin were finished but it was the Germans who had been such eager proponents of airships that held on and continued to build them later into the 30s they built the largest airships ever constructed a pair of sister ships on a vast scale over 800 feet 249 meters in length they were called graph Zeppelin and Hindenburg but that is a story for another day ladies and gentlemen it's your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs thank you so much for watching this video please think about liking and subscribing to the channel could support my channel on patreon you'll find the link down in the description until then stay safe stay happy and I'll see you again next time

Channel: Oceanliner Designs

Views: 538,825

Keywords: great ocean liners, maritime history, ocean liners, famous oceanliners, ships documentary, history of ships, engineering, history, ships, documentary

Id: ZxlV_GGU5YQ

Length: 22min 5sec (1325 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023