"On the 5th of October, 1930, a passenger airship crashed to the ground and burst into flame, killing almost everyone on board..."
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As always, THANK YOU to all my Patreon patrons: you make this channel possible.
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► Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueHorrorTales
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► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
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#Documentary #History #TrueStories
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LearningTranscript
00:00On the 5th of October, 1930, a passenger airship crashed to the ground and burst into flame,
00:18killing almost everyone on board. It wasn't the Hindenburg. Instead this was the R101,
00:25an experimental British airship on its first overseas voyage. The conception, creation,
00:31and testing of the R101 had been a fraught process, and its tragic end would be the death
00:38knell of the British airship industry. Zeppelins, blimps, and other airships are a rare sight
00:47nowadays. So rare, in fact, that it's difficult to imagine just how popular they once were.
00:53At one point in time these powered balloons were seen as the future of air travel.
00:59In fact the Empire State Building was constructed with a mooring mast on its roof,
01:04in the full expectation that visitors in the future would arrive by airship. Of course this
01:11vision of the future wasn't to be, but for a brief period between World War I and World War II it
01:17did seem that airships were the future of long-haul travel. Motivated by a desire to lead
01:23the world into this future the British government launched the Imperial Airship Scheme in 1924.
01:31Their intention was to create fast, comfortable airships that Britain could use to manage its
01:36many far-flung colonies. At the time heavier-than-air planes simply couldn't cover some of
01:42the distances involved, so lighter-than-air travel was the way to go. Airship travel was
01:49considered so important for the future that its development couldn't be left to private companies
01:53alone. Therefore the Imperial Airship Scheme funded not one but two teams of designers and
02:00engineers who would work on two separate airships to be known as the R-100 and the R-101. Both
02:09airships would ultimately have to meet the same specifications, but the two teams would take
02:14radically different approaches to getting there. The R-100 team was drawn from an existing private
02:21airship company. Conservative in their outlook they would use existing tried and tested technology.
02:28Informally the R-100 would come to be known as the Capitalist Ship. The R-101, on the other hand,
02:36was often called the Socialist Ship. It would be designed and constructed by the government-backed
02:42Royal Airship Works, and would make use of bold experimental techniques and ideas.
02:49The R-101 team were based at the Royal Air Force Base in Cardington. There, inside a vast hangar,
02:57the R-101 was assembled from massive steel beams and wires. These formed a framework that was then
03:04covered with specially treated linen. Housed within were handmade gas bags that were filled
03:10with hydrogen, a lighter than air gas, in order to make the whole craft take flight. Passengers
03:17were to be accommodated in a gondola suspended beneath the gas bags, and they would be accommodated
03:23in style. Though the walls might be made of canvas the furnishings were luxurious. Guests would enjoy
03:31silver service in the dining room, and plenty of space for socializing in the lounge. Incredibly
03:38there was even a smoking room. This was an odd decision as luxuries go, given that hydrogen is
03:45incredibly flammable. A single spark would be enough to destroy the entire airship. Because
03:52of this within the smoking room lighters were chained to the tables to prevent people absent-
03:58mindedly taking them out of the room. You would have to go through an airlock to enjoy your cigar,
04:04and would then do so while surrounded by flameproof asbestos shielding.
04:09Smoking, it seems, was simply too essential a luxury for passengers to go without.
04:17By 1929 this elegant Skyliner was ready for some test flights. These seemed to go off without a
04:24hitch. Spectators in London were awed by the size of the ship when it passed over the city,
04:31and during another test flight were impressed when the massive craft dipped its nose in a
04:37salute to the king who was watching from the ground below. What these spectators perhaps
04:42didn't realize is that this salute was unintended. It was actually just a result of the crew on board
04:50struggling to control the craft, which would sometimes list or dip unexpectedly.
04:56There were a few reasons for this, but the main one was a lack of lift. The gas bags simply
05:02weren't sufficient to carry the weight of the gondola and all its crew and equipment.
05:08The solution to this problem was twofold. First, they stripped out every single bit of unnecessary
05:14weight, including removing cabins, reducing the number of toilets, limiting the luggage crew
05:21members could take on board, and replacing the glass windows with plastic. At the same time they
05:27added an extra gas bag, splitting the aircraft in the middle and sewing it in to give them some extra
05:34lift. No sooner had they remedied the lack of lift, however, than another problem came to light.
05:41The envelope of the airship was beginning to develop holes and tears, possibly as a result
05:47of an innovative new process that had been used to treat the airship's outer skin.
05:53This process, new and untested as it was, clearly had some faults. The R101 team rushed to patch the
06:02holes and then to replace the faulty envelope altogether. They couldn't help but rush. Despite
06:10working with many brand new experimental techniques the team was under a lot of pressure
06:15to get things right, and quickly. Promotional efforts surrounding the R101 had built an almost
06:22unbearable level of excitement for the craft in the general public. So beloved was it that almost
06:29a million people came to see it when it was displayed at its mast for public view.
06:35Worse still, the politicians who had argued for the state funding of the R101 were pushing for
06:41the project to get results, sometimes with unrealistic expectations. Lord Thomson, the Air
06:49Minister of the UK, was extremely keen for the craft to be ready to fly overseas in time for the
06:56Imperial Conference in London in October 1930. He wanted to fly from London to India and back again
07:05during the conference itself to demonstrate the power and speed of his pet project.
07:12No excuses could dissuade him. After all, the rival R100 had just completed a test flight to Canada.
07:20Why shouldn't the government-backed R101 be able to equal this feat?
07:26Failure wasn't an option. If the R101 team couldn't keep up that would be the end of
07:32state-funded airship development, and the end of Lord Thomson's ambitions too.
07:37The trip to India had to happen on schedule. Despite misgivings on the part of the crew
07:43the R101 team rushed their final flight tests and readied themselves for departure.
07:49It was very clear that they knew their margins were thin. To save on weight each crew member
07:55was allowed to take only a single change of clothes wrapped in paper. Lord Thomson, meanwhile,
08:02was oblivious to this attempt to cut down on the load. He would be riding along on the R101,
08:08accompanied by several crates of champagne and a heavy antique carpet to be rolled out on his
08:15arrival in India. The R101 set off on October 4th in driving rain. It was a bad flight from the
08:24beginning, with the airship having to jettison a huge quantity of water ballast almost immediately
08:30in order to complete its takeoff. As it headed off towards the English Channel
08:35observers noted that it was surprisingly low in the sky. The airship did make it across the
08:41channel despite foul weather. It radioed back to base with the crew insisting that all was well.
08:49Observers on the ground in France were positively alarmed when they saw the ship passing overhead.
08:55To some of them it was so close to the ground that it looked as though it was heading straight
09:00for them. At around 2am in the morning the R101 went into a steep dive. The crew were able to pull
09:09it out of this dive momentarily, but after just a few seconds the nose dropped again. Unknown to
09:16the crew on board a gas bag had split, unbalancing the craft. There would be no pulling out of this
09:24second dive. The R101, moving at a stately pace of around 20 kilometers or 13 miles per hour,
09:33smashed into the ground. One of the engines slammed into the envelope, and moments later
09:39fire rippled through the whole craft. Of the 54 people on board only six survived. Lord Thompson,
09:49along with many of the designers and crew who had worked so hard on the R101, were instantly killed.
09:57An inquiry launched in the aftermath of the disaster revealed the problems which many of
10:02the designers had long been aware of. The lack of lift, the holes in the outer skin,
10:08the failed test flights, the pressure to complete the project on a schedule.
10:13It was concluded that the disaster might never have happened were it not for the pressure
10:18under which the R101 team was placed. The crash of the R101 effectively put an end to Britain's
10:26dream of an airship-connected future. Though the rival R100 had been more successful,
10:33the accident had put paid to any public appetite for airship travel. The R100 was broken down for
10:39scrap, and seven years later the crash of the Hindenburg in New Jersey would put the final
10:45nail in the coffin for airship travel worldwide. Though airships would see some limited service
10:51during the Second World War, they would never again be considered a viable means of passenger
10:57travel. The story of the R101 can be seen as a story of hubris, and certainly some of those
11:04behind the project pushed development too far and too fast. The majority of those who died, however,
11:11were smart, capable, dedicated workers. Engineers, pilots, cabin crew, and designers. They were
11:19people who were just doing a job that they knew was important. In a world shattered by World War
11:26One great civic projects like an airship network were viewed as vital. It is likely that many of
11:34the crew on board the R101 knew that disaster was possible, and yet they boarded the craft anyway,
11:41and did the very best they could to keep it afloat. Though they may have feared for their lives, just
11:47as they had done during the war, they considered it their duty.