If I was a billionaire, this would be one of my fantasies, to some how have huge airships cruising the word for people who want to do casual sight seeing. I love seeing the interior. Great job on this!
Today a large rigid airship could be made both lighter and safer than the R 191 with: - carbon fiber construction - silicon aerogel insulation (heat, noise, and fire) - helium lifting gas - electric vectored propeller motors - hydrogen fuel cells for power with the hydrogen separated from the ship in easily-jettisoned pods - LED lighting, induction and microwave cooking - micro-electronics I am sure many other modern technologies could be added to this list to allow for huge airships like this to take to the skies again.
If you ever get the chance, go to the airship Museum in Friedrichshafen Germany. They have a piece of original Hindenburg structure and the carbon fiber equivalent for people to feel the weight. If you built it today, one of these airships could easily take ten times the passengers.
@@feynthefallen The one thing that would be much heavier today than back then would be the passengers (especially in the United States). But even that is changing. The airship class (those who could afford the steep prices of the tickets) are using Wegovy and Mounjaro to shed the extra pounds. So hopefully in the near future it would not be necessary to weigh the passengers to determine their ticket prices😀.
Stunning video of the huge R101. As a Bedfordian I can remember standing on the wall of our front garden in Brickhill and gazing at the two huge hangars in Cardington, always fascinated me. In 93 my Dad and I managed to get a tour through one of them, it was like a massive cathedral. My Dad remembers seeing the R101 flying over Bedford as always remarks on it unique engine note as she used diesel propulsion. What I love about these two clips, R100 and R101, is the computer renderings give a far better idea how good looked on board as opposed to the dull black and white images, they look spacious and bright.
The Zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen has a mock up of the passenger accommodation & looks somewhat similar to the renderings. Worth a visit if you are near Lake Constance (Bodensee).
"[The smoking room] was deemed safe, because the floors & ceilings were made of asbestos" Ahh, the good ol' days! I wonder if you had as much fun writing & saying that line as I had hearing it.
Was there an air lock to keep any sparks inside the smoker? _Hindenburg_ had one, and a bulkhead mounted gas jet that was the only open flame allowed on board.
Actually despite the hysteria asbestos in panel form is and remains perfectly safe and is still in many buildings. So no I wouldn’t have had a problem. It’s when you break it or punch a hole in it and release the fibers is when it becomes dangerous.
It's incredible that something like this was ever created and worked at all. I wish I had a time machine, not to go back to the 20s, but to go back to the 3rd century BC to show Archimedes just what was going to eventually happen.
Always thought bigger control car that included the navigation and wireless rooms would have made more sense - better communication between them and the officer on watch - and easier for the navigator to see where they were !
Indeed, there are lots of changes which could be made. I think the R.101 team were going for the aerodynamic shape for the control car and less air resistance. Again both the the R.100 and R.101 were prototype ships, and the best ideas and experience from both ships were going in to the R.102. Remember, in 1926-29 no one had built ships this big and shape. Both were true innovations in their own right. Each country learned from each others ship design and layout.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 I was 'into' airships when I was at college quite a few years ago - I read 'To Ride The Storm' back to front and even managed a visit to the sheds when Airship Industries were there ! R102 would have been a very interesting airship - it's a shame that rhey just don't 'work' - even filled with helium, they're still at the mercies of inclement weather. Would have loved too have seen one though - Dad could remember seeing R101 when he was a boy. Are there any plans or ideas on preservation of the mooring whinch sheds at Cardington ? I did walk around them a few years ago and they were very rusty even then - it would a shame to see them disappear. I always thought they'd be good candidate for a small airship museum ... .. .
Your videos on the R-100 & 101 are very clear & informative & thanks to these 3D renderings I can finally visualise the interior spaces & compare them to the Hindenburg Class. If you ever get time I’d like to see similar videos for the LZ 126 & 127 Los Angeles & Graf Zeppelin.
There are some videos which show interior of Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg quite well. For example, British Pathe videos 'Flying Down to Rio' have great footage on travelling on GZ. Graf Zeppelin had pretty simple interior, just 1 deck for passengers. It was not very roomy, but looked more cozy than larger airships, with windows on cabins and the dining room also probably offering better views. Hindenburg had plenty of room, but IMO the interior is a bit sterile compared to R101 or GZ. It is very functionalistic, kind of a 'lunch restaurant' feel.
I‘d like to mention Bill Hammack‘s (The Engineering Guy) „Fatal Flight“ book and Podcast (read by the author). Many thanks to creators for this marvelous tour!
I can highly recommend visiting the Zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany, to anone who wants to experience an airship interior like this in real life.
Just read a book about Boulton and Paul in Norwich the R101 frames were constructed in their factory at Norwich and sent to Cardington for assembly. The original entrance to the factory still exists, and is the entry to the block of flats my grandson lives in.
Even the hangars were a sight to behold! I've been thru the remaining Tillamook OR hangar, built back in the '30's for airships, amazing! It's lesser drag V. earlier skinnier Zeps interests me, a bit "plumper" is less drag, also giving more interior volume. Too bad it was a total pig once airborne!
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 I think it's just too cost prohibitive and dangerous, unfortunately. To remain lighter than air, the passenger cabin/quarters could only reasonably carry a few number of passengers, which means VERY high ticket prices that very few people can afford. Those who could afford it would invariably choose the much quicker route of jet travel. Why take 2 or 3 days to lumber across the oceans when you can be at your destination in just a few hours? You might get passengers who would pay for a nostalgia flight, but that would be about it.
Such a wonderful way to travel albeit with the associated dangers, my father told me when the R101 went down the whole nation rose up in mourning church bells were rung and schools closed. It was a national disaster, He told me he manage to get a trip on the R34 airship, bet that was a very good memory.
Wonderful, very wonderful indeed, it always amuses me how this giant of the skies could have been, alas, it's now only a majestic mark left behind in history..
This is an amazing review on the R-101. I've just finished Final Flight, an account of the work on, and fatal voyage of, this amazing airship. It's great to see the ship in such detail. Thanks to you for doing this video and to Marshall Young for providing such rich graphics!
The vintage map of the "British Empire" is hilarious. In 1924, Canada had been a nation (no longer a colony) for 57 years; it's still in the "British Empire" on the map, but only the eastern part... even in 1924, Canada stretched from Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic, extending thousands of kilometres beyond the range shown, so Ottawa wasn't a "far corner" of anything. The intention seems to have been to limit operations to coastal areas - replacing travel by ship, with overland travel continuing by train - so this makes sense, but that hardly covers the far corners of the Empire.
To me, it's interesting that, given the length of the airship, they didn't extend the passenger areas, including the dining room, salon, smoking room and passenger cabins along the outer hull of the airship, to maximize the view (which, to me, would have been the selling point of this mode of travel), and use the inner parts for ballast, gas, storage, etc. There must have been an engineering reason for this, as other passenger airships had a similar layout. I get that the idea was that most passengers would spend their time in common areas rather than in a sparse cabin, but that seems more like marketing backfill.
It's Cloud Nine Thousand for an airship aficionado. Super delightful job - a hearty and bombastic bravo! And now, a couple of questions. The smallest and centrally located of the crew's quarters, the one with the fewest bunks - would this be for Captain Carmichael Irwin and his officers? (I don't seem to see a separate room for the Captain in the delineations.) Also - since there were only a dozen or so passengers on the maiden flight, presumably none of them would be expected to "double up"; have you any idea which staterooms would have been occupied by Lord Thomson and Sir Sefton Brancker? 😀 🤨
Looking at photographs of the control cars being assembled, I find it difficult to imagine working in the small space between the wall and the massive Tornado diesel. The noise, heat and smell must have been terrific and the dizzying ladder up to the ship, even a relief.
Yes, we often overlook the life of the engineers. On all airships the engine cars were outside the hull and so often were noisy places to work for the crews. Alas we don't have very much footage of sound with the recordings of the day to hear what it was like.
Those illustrations really make it look much nicer than it looks in the photographs. Traveling on that airship looks like traveling in a run-down prison. While I’m sure looking at the ground go slowly by might have been entertaining for an hour or two, the sheer boredom of being trapped in that tiny space with absolutely nothing to do for days at a time must have been awful. At least on a boat you had multiple large and small spaces where all manner of activities could be held, as well as decent kitchens and well-appointed cabins. On an airship, you had…a smoking room.
Yes, having the power of colour makes a huge difference to give an idea of what it was like inside the ship. They were built along the lines of a "small hotel" - in 1920's size, and so at least there was space to move around and talk.
The R101 crashed near Noailles, about 10 miles from where my father grew up. He told me how his father took him by car on the morning of the accident to see the smouldering remains. Must have been an impressive sight for a 5-year old child.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 Strangely, my mother's elder sister, who would have been about 5 too at the time, said she remembered seeing the R101 in the skies above Essex. I don't know whether it was on that fateful flight or if it was when they were doing the trials, but it's weird to have someone one both sides of my family (and in different countries) who saw the airship (albeit the remains of it in my father's case).
I would have loved a small recap of the ending for r101. Never heard of it before and video condensed it to "we all know what happened, it didn't reach xx"
Thanks for the idea, we are working on more videos and we'll add that one to the list. We don't want to make them too long, so breaking down the events and subjects. As you can see, they take a long time to produce, but we're getting there!
Truly excellent effort on this video... may I ask which software was used to create the realistic visuals? I'm in the brainstorming stage of designing a large seaplane.. Thanks
Thanks and that's a really good idea! We'll add it to the list as we do have a couple of engineering experts in our midst who have done some excellent research on the engine cars. As you can imagine, Barnes Wallis did some clever stuff in there with the design.
Thank you! Airships cruised at about 60 -70 miles an hour and so with a headwind of say, 30 knots, it would reduce the overall speed. However in the 1930's with the later commercial Zeppelins, the routes were chosen to take adavantage of wind directions, and so a lower route used to get to the USA, across the Atlantic, and more northern route back. With this having the wind behind the ship did increase their overall top speed.
Ineed, at the time asbestos was seen as fireproof. It's only decades later the discovery about the effects of the fibers in the lungs. Asbestos was a popular insulation and fireproof product, even my school had it in the 1980's but was horrible thing to remover. Like all things, we learn.
There are different forms of asbestos. In the form that would have been used for the walls it is not dangerous. The dangerous form is when it's the fluffy asbestos that we used to pretend have snowball fights with when I was a kid. Those are the fibers that Lodge deep in your lung and give you mesothelioma cancer
Can you even begin to imagine the stench permeating the clothing, hair, etc, of anyone coming out of the smoking room? Perhaps a hundred people sharing space to accomodate 20-something at a time (who - from the picture - I presume would be packed in rather tightly). I wonder what sort of ventilation set-up - if any - they used.
My grandfather watched this fly, and others, from pulham, and l still live nearby. Interesting to point out Thorpe Abbotts 100th bomb group only 2 miles away from pulham station.
Yes, we have many people who have recalled saying when they saw an airship, and it's been stuck in their mind for 90 years. They leave a mark on the memory.
I know, people often overlook the British ships, but they were really the first to move the accommodation inside the hull at the design stage, and giving so much more room. Indeed, the idea concept of a small "floating hotel".
Thanks for the feedback and there is already a lot on the Hindenburg but not so the Graf Zeppelin. We can add it to the list! We are just finishing our next project which I think will amaze, and again is covering things about airships people don't tend to know
Fascinating, I hope giant airships make a proper comeback, would love to fly in one. Was the smoking room on the R101 pressurised like the Hindenburg's smoking room was?
Glad you liked ti. We'd love to see airships as the cruise ships of the sky and I think the current timing is right with the advancements in lighter-than-air technology. The smoking room was a first on an airship, and not pressurised, but had a fireproof floor and ceiling. The idea of putting it in the lowest part of the ship, away from hydrogen which leaked.. upwards, and thus not perceived to be the initial danger.
Very well made video. However why is there no mention of the R100, built at the same time and a great success. It’s a fascinating story of private verses public enterprise. I recommend you read Neville Schute “Slide Rule”
Well. Now everyone needs to check out the astounding 17-minute EPIC song about R-101 called "Empire Of The Clouds" by Iron Maiden. Simply stunning. Trust me . Thank me later.
From what we know, the forward engines could be heard however the three rear engines were behind the passenger accommodation so it would have been quite. Also a very smooth ride.
If the vents froze or iced up at night the sun would make it shoot skyward and approach 180 mph like a torpedo and at high enough altitude it would burst
Indeed it was seen as costly but compare it to the first class on a ship, it was priced about the same, but faster! People pay for speed, as they do now.
If the airship ever had an accident over the open ocean were there any safety provisions? Life vets, Inflatable rafts etc, or was it just a case of "make your peace, chaps."
Alas at the time, life vets and inflatables were not thought to be included. There was some limited safety equipment on some ships like parachutes which had been included, emergency signalling flares and even fire extinguishers. It's early days aviation in the 1920s and 30's, and so with further accidents, lessons learnt and more safety equipment was added.
I had a book that characterized it as a difference between two philosophical thoughts of design…Socialism as represented by the R101 and Capitalism which was the R100. Why either ship did not use Helium which although it would have cost a few passengers, but would have kept the passengers that were on it much safer. That carpet added many extra pounds in just the dust it attracted alone, that is why engineers should have been consulted in the design, even if carpet looks better. I wish I could have been able to book passage on the R100 on its Trans-Atlantic flight since no one would build such a massive glorious airship today even using Helium. The Banks would torpedo any attempt at such a design even using modern lightweight designs and materials such as Carbon Fiber, unless you can cram 1000 passengers and 1000 tons of cargo with 10 crew members….not going to happen 😂! Happy Easter and have a great day!
@@rowlybrown I was not aware of the blog, no it was an “Time/Life” Airship book, however, they credited Neville with being the lead designer on the R100’s interior cabins etc.
I bet those curtains acting as cabin doors weren't very effective when the person in the cabin was a loud snorer. It must have echoed around the whole lounge.
We'd often thought of that! The curtains were something which were already employed on sleeper bunks on overnight trains in the past, so ... the same problem... unfortunatly.
It seems to me that on all these big passenger airships, the washing facilities were very sparse indeed. Just how did the passengers (and crew) keep clean?
Good question! There were washrooms, and toilets available for both passengers and crew. In those days, people showered a lot less than we do today, indeed a bath would be weekly. The first showers were installed on the Hindenburg, but the water supply was rationed due to weight saving.
Would someone please explain why nobody has ever built a modern replica of a Zeppelin or any of the British or American rigid airships? I know it would be extremely expensive now, but if I had the means I would certainly do it!
Well in all honesty i personally think that R101 was poorly designed in her frame work which add extra weight compare to her sister and the german airships hence the reason she wasn't able to get good lift in her first as build design
In the 1920's most people has baths, once a week. They washed daily, and so washrooms were plumbed in. It wasn't until the Hindenburg in the 1930's that a shower was added. Because of the weight of the water, and weight on a airship is permium, they were limited to a couple of minutes shower time. Again a first for fligth.
Actually, I have been pondering a question related to a creative hobby, and you seem like the people who might have an answer: do you think rigid airships like this or similar, could have been built with Victorian, Age of Steam-era technology? Certainly there was Giffard's dirigible in 1852; and the patent for the Aerial Steam Carriage in 1842; but do you think material & technology of that era could have built a large, rigid airship? I have a feeling materials science & metallurgy of the airframe is what might let it down.
Can you bild a steam power air ship, yes, can you bild a PRACTICAL steam power air ship using Victorian age tecnology? No, the heavy steam plant and coal will eat up most of the "carrying capacity"
Bit late but my natural inclination is that steam power would be much too heavy as it would require enough coal and water for the trip, and that's not even considering the weight of the engine, It would be extremely impractical. You probably wouldn't have any carrying capacity left over to carry anything if you could get it off the ground at all.
@@FullMetalFeline My question was more about the metallurgy of a large airframe; we know a steam-powered dirigible/airship is possible, because the first powered flight of any kind was by such a craft: the Giffard airship of 1852, which I mentioned in passing. So a 'steam Zeppelin' would surely be just a matter of scaling it up. Sure, there are other practicalities: like whether a recycling steam condenser, if it too is even possible using that era of technology, would eat up too much of the carrying capacity. But my question was about whether the metallurgy of the day could even allow an airframe of sufficient strength, yet lightness, to make a hypothetical scaled up steam airship possible.
@@PRH123 I mean, that technically still includes the tail-end of the Victorian era; but aluminium is key, is it? Duralumin, and all that? Not any kind of wood, or steel?
Lord Thompson's rug really pulls that lounge together
@tomtask_YT your out of your element
If I was a billionaire, this would be one of my fantasies, to some how have huge airships cruising the word for people who want to do casual sight seeing. I love seeing the interior. Great job on this!
Today a large rigid airship could be made both lighter and safer than the R 191 with:
- carbon fiber construction
- silicon aerogel insulation (heat, noise, and fire)
- helium lifting gas
- electric vectored propeller motors
- hydrogen fuel cells for power with the hydrogen separated from the ship in easily-jettisoned pods
- LED lighting, induction and microwave cooking
- micro-electronics
I am sure many other modern technologies could be added to this list to allow for huge airships like this to take to the skies again.
If you ever get the chance, go to the airship Museum in Friedrichshafen Germany. They have a piece of original Hindenburg structure and the carbon fiber equivalent for people to feel the weight. If you built it today, one of these airships could easily take ten times the passengers.
@@feynthefallen The one thing that would be much heavier today than back then would be the passengers (especially in the United States). But even that is changing. The airship class (those who could afford the steep prices of the tickets) are using Wegovy and Mounjaro to shed the extra pounds. So hopefully in the near future it would not be necessary to weigh the passengers to determine their ticket prices😀.
@@vulpo 😂
Stunning video of the huge R101. As a Bedfordian I can remember standing on the wall of our front garden in Brickhill and gazing at the two huge hangars in Cardington, always fascinated me. In 93 my Dad and I managed to get a tour through one of them, it was like a massive cathedral. My Dad remembers seeing the R101 flying over Bedford as always remarks on it unique engine note as she used diesel propulsion. What I love about these two clips, R100 and R101, is the computer renderings give a far better idea how good looked on board as opposed to the dull black and white images, they look spacious and bright.
Thanks for the feedback - we love doing these to bring life in to, as you say, the old black and white world. More coming soon.
The Zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen has a mock up of the passenger accommodation & looks somewhat similar to the renderings. Worth a visit if you are near Lake Constance (Bodensee).
Brilliant, that was the best way of showing the layout of the R101 I have seen and has been well worth the wait, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it! we'll keep trying to do more with the time!
"[The smoking room] was deemed safe, because the floors & ceilings were made of asbestos"
Ahh, the good ol' days! I wonder if you had as much fun writing & saying that line as I had hearing it.
Was there an air lock to keep any sparks inside the smoker? _Hindenburg_ had one, and a bulkhead mounted gas jet that was the only open flame allowed on board.
The furniture in the smoking room was wicker too.
Ironically, such a room was likely one of the (relatively) safer places to be on a hydrogen airship.
Actually despite the hysteria asbestos in panel form is and remains perfectly safe and is still in many buildings. So no I wouldn’t have had a problem. It’s when you break it or punch a hole in it and release the fibers is when it becomes dangerous.
Should be called Cancer room
Wow. Just wow. What a magnificent job you've done of recreating the experience of being on the R101. Thank you. Thank you ever so much!
Glad you enjoyed it! and we've got more in the pipeline!
It's incredible that something like this was ever created and worked at all. I wish I had a time machine, not to go back to the 20s, but to go back to the 3rd century BC to show Archimedes just what was going to eventually happen.
Enjoyable walk through the corridors of history.
Beautiful! With safety lessons learned, and modern materials and weather monitoring, I do hope they bring these back one day.
Couldn't agree more! Let's hope one day
There are only two gases you can use. He or H. H is half as heavy - so you can have living rooms. But H explodes. So no, never again. Unfortunately.
@@andrewtschesnok5582And no more planes, no more cars any more, because their fuel explodes. Unfortunately.
Always thought bigger control car that included the navigation and wireless rooms would have made more sense - better communication between them and the officer on watch - and easier for the navigator to see where they were !
Indeed, there are lots of changes which could be made. I think the R.101 team were going for the aerodynamic shape for the control car and less air resistance. Again both the the R.100 and R.101 were prototype ships, and the best ideas and experience from both ships were going in to the R.102. Remember, in 1926-29 no one had built ships this big and shape. Both were true innovations in their own right. Each country learned from each others ship design and layout.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 I was 'into' airships when I was at college quite a few years ago - I read 'To Ride The Storm' back to front and even managed a visit to the sheds when Airship Industries were there !
R102 would have been a very interesting airship - it's a shame that rhey just don't 'work' - even filled with helium, they're still at the mercies of inclement weather.
Would have loved too have seen one though - Dad could remember seeing R101 when he was a boy.
Are there any plans or ideas on preservation of the mooring whinch sheds at Cardington ? I did walk around them a few years ago and they were very rusty even then - it would a shame to see them disappear.
I always thought they'd be good candidate for a small airship museum ... .. .
I love these airship walkthroughs
Thank you and we'll add some more soon
Wow finally!! Thank you!
It took a bit of time to get finished as I caught COVID, but happy to share it. Glad you like it
Your videos on the R-100 & 101 are very clear & informative & thanks to these 3D renderings I can finally visualise the interior spaces & compare them to the Hindenburg Class. If you ever get time I’d like to see similar videos for the LZ 126 & 127 Los Angeles & Graf Zeppelin.
Glad you like them! and we'll be looking to do more in the future
There are some videos which show interior of Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg quite well. For example, British Pathe videos 'Flying Down to Rio' have great footage on travelling on GZ.
Graf Zeppelin had pretty simple interior, just 1 deck for passengers. It was not very roomy, but looked more cozy than larger airships, with windows on cabins and the dining room also probably offering better views. Hindenburg had plenty of room, but IMO the interior is a bit sterile compared to R101 or GZ. It is very functionalistic, kind of a 'lunch restaurant' feel.
Magnificent! I hope you make more models of those 3d interiors of airships! :)
Thanks, will do! All the good feedback helps us
Excellent video...incredible graphics.
Thank you very much
I‘d like to mention Bill Hammack‘s (The Engineering Guy) „Fatal Flight“ book and Podcast (read by the author).
Many thanks to creators for this marvelous tour!
Thanks very much indeed
I can highly recommend visiting the Zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany, to anone who wants to experience an airship interior like this in real life.
YES! having been there a number of times - it's FANTASTIC in real life!
Just read a book about Boulton and Paul in Norwich the R101 frames were constructed in their factory at Norwich and sent to Cardington for assembly. The original entrance to the factory still exists, and is the entry to the block of flats my grandson lives in.
Yes, and it was reported how excellent the metal work was being contracted out. No fittings had to be sent back.
Even the hangars were a sight to behold! I've been thru the remaining Tillamook OR hangar, built back in the '30's for airships, amazing! It's lesser drag V. earlier skinnier Zeps interests me, a bit "plumper" is less drag, also giving more interior volume. Too bad it was a total pig once airborne!
Yes the sheds are something to see to get the scale of the ships.
It would be so amazing if we could explore these airships in VR.
We're working on it!
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 If you manage it, I would buy this in a heartbeat.
No, it’d be cool if we saw them in real life, bring back the airship!
@@spookedspooks I think that might be a bit outside their budget! 😂
Would really love to travel across the ocean on one of these. What an experience that would be!!
Indeed, and who knows with the future of airship travel, it might be possible.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 I think it's just too cost prohibitive and dangerous, unfortunately. To remain lighter than air, the passenger cabin/quarters could only reasonably carry a few number of passengers, which means VERY high ticket prices that very few people can afford. Those who could afford it would invariably choose the much quicker route of jet travel.
Why take 2 or 3 days to lumber across the oceans when you can be at your destination in just a few hours?
You might get passengers who would pay for a nostalgia flight, but that would be about it.
This is so well done! And fascinating. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow. Just wow...
Thank you
Such a wonderful way to travel albeit with the associated dangers, my father told me when the R101 went down the whole nation rose up in mourning church bells were rung and schools closed. It was a national disaster, He told me he manage to get a trip on the R34 airship, bet that was a very good memory.
Thank you, as you say, it's a totally unique way of flying and this is what we wanted to show. Amazing feats for the 1920's and 30's
Wonderful, very wonderful indeed, it always amuses me how this giant of the skies could have been, alas, it's now only a majestic mark left behind in history..
Thank you!
Wow! Hopefully we solve all the problems that we didn't solve way back then....and touring the world by airship because a reality again!
This is an amazing review on the R-101. I've just finished Final Flight, an account of the work on, and fatal voyage of, this amazing airship. It's great to see the ship in such detail. Thanks to you for doing this video and to Marshall Young for providing such rich graphics!
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it
a fascinating era of flying that only a few could experience.
Indeed - certainly was, but who knows it might come back again if there is demand and environmental flying. Airlander team are looking to do this.
The vintage map of the "British Empire" is hilarious. In 1924, Canada had been a nation (no longer a colony) for 57 years; it's still in the "British Empire" on the map, but only the eastern part... even in 1924, Canada stretched from Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic, extending thousands of kilometres beyond the range shown, so Ottawa wasn't a "far corner" of anything. The intention seems to have been to limit operations to coastal areas - replacing travel by ship, with overland travel continuing by train - so this makes sense, but that hardly covers the far corners of the Empire.
Fascinating….spectacular graphics and excellent presentation! (new subscriber, Virginia)
Welcome aboard! and thanks! We'll be doing more soon
Thank you for posting this
You're welcome!
That was fascinating, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Check out some of our other videos as well.
Fantastic video thank you 😊
Glad you enjoyed it Thank you
oh cool i can listen to music while im eating!
To me, it's interesting that, given the length of the airship, they didn't extend the passenger areas, including the dining room, salon, smoking room and passenger cabins along the outer hull of the airship, to maximize the view (which, to me, would have been the selling point of this mode of travel), and use the inner parts for ballast, gas, storage, etc. There must have been an engineering reason for this, as other passenger airships had a similar layout. I get that the idea was that most passengers would spend their time in common areas rather than in a sparse cabin, but that seems more like marketing backfill.
I wondered about the interior layout on these. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you. Many people don't realise that the passenger accommodation was inside.
For a compelling read about this airship try "Fatal Flight: The True Story of the Britain's Last Great Airship" by Bill Hammack
Lord Thomson's rug really tied the room together.
It's one thing we'd never seen in a photo but from the measurements, it fitted. Again, something we've researched.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 I think it's a reference to The Big Lebowski movie.
3:45
...it really ties the room together
Thank you very much, it's never been seen in a picture before and so this is why we represented it.
you did it! thanks so much!
No problem! Glad you enjoyed it
Nice work!
Thank you! More content coming soon
5:59 ah yes the famously safe material known as asbestos... Ooof
Fantastic! Please inquire if the artist can port this to a virtual reality experience using something like Unreal Engine.
Thanks for the feedback, and we are working on it for bot the R.100 and R.101
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 nice!!!
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 niiiceeee
It's Cloud Nine Thousand for an airship aficionado. Super delightful job - a hearty and bombastic bravo!
And now, a couple of questions. The smallest and centrally located of the crew's quarters, the one with the fewest bunks - would this be for Captain Carmichael Irwin and his officers? (I don't seem to see a separate room for the Captain in the delineations.)
Also - since there were only a dozen or so passengers on the maiden flight, presumably none of them would be expected to "double up"; have you any idea which staterooms would have been occupied by Lord Thomson and Sir Sefton Brancker? 😀 🤨
Love the narrators voice;well spoken and soothing.
Thank you very much.
Looking at photographs of the control cars being assembled, I find it difficult to imagine working in the small space between the wall and the massive Tornado diesel. The noise, heat and smell must have been terrific and the dizzying ladder up to the ship, even a relief.
Yes, we often overlook the life of the engineers. On all airships the engine cars were outside the hull and so often were noisy places to work for the crews. Alas we don't have very much footage of sound with the recordings of the day to hear what it was like.
I like the idea of the asbestos safety feature 😉
Really well done video.
Thank you very much!
Brings a new meaning to “two blokes in a shed” 😂
Those illustrations really make it look much nicer than it looks in the photographs. Traveling on that airship looks like traveling in a run-down prison. While I’m sure looking at the ground go slowly by might have been entertaining for an hour or two, the sheer boredom of being trapped in that tiny space with absolutely nothing to do for days at a time must have been awful. At least on a boat you had multiple large and small spaces where all manner of activities could be held, as well as decent kitchens and well-appointed cabins. On an airship, you had…a smoking room.
Yes, having the power of colour makes a huge difference to give an idea of what it was like inside the ship. They were built along the lines of a "small hotel" - in 1920's size, and so at least there was space to move around and talk.
The R101 crashed near Noailles, about 10 miles from where my father grew up. He told me how his father took him by car on the morning of the accident to see the smouldering remains. Must have been an impressive sight for a 5-year old child.
That would have been amazing to hear about.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 Strangely, my mother's elder sister, who would have been about 5 too at the time, said she remembered seeing the R101 in the skies above Essex. I don't know whether it was on that fateful flight or if it was when they were doing the trials, but it's weird to have someone one both sides of my family (and in different countries) who saw the airship (albeit the remains of it in my father's case).
I would have loved a small recap of the ending for r101. Never heard of it before and video condensed it to "we all know what happened, it didn't reach xx"
Thanks for the idea, we are working on more videos and we'll add that one to the list. We don't want to make them too long, so breaking down the events and subjects. As you can see, they take a long time to produce, but we're getting there!
Truly excellent effort on this video... may I ask which software was used to create the realistic visuals? I'm in the brainstorming stage of designing a large seaplane.. Thanks
I was always in awe as my first year junior teacher .Had watched the R101 fly over her and her classmates hockey filed as a girl .
Wow.. that must have been a sight. We love these eye witness comments
Absolutely brilliant. Well done! As an airship nerd, may I request a walkthrough of an engine car? Or even a glimpse inside?
Thanks and that's a really good idea! We'll add it to the list as we do have a couple of engineering experts in our midst who have done some excellent research on the engine cars. As you can imagine, Barnes Wallis did some clever stuff in there with the design.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 I been in this disaster it crashed I aboarded a new one
It's interesting to see the differences but also similarities in design philosophy compared to the German Hindenburg.
Thank you - and remember the design was about 8 years earlier than the Hindenburg.
Fantastic detail - Thank you. Question - How much headwind component would prevent the airship making headway?
Thank you! Airships cruised at about 60 -70 miles an hour and so with a headwind of say, 30 knots, it would reduce the overall speed. However in the 1930's with the later commercial Zeppelins, the routes were chosen to take adavantage of wind directions, and so a lower route used to get to the USA, across the Atlantic, and more northern route back. With this having the wind behind the ship did increase their overall top speed.
Iron Maiden song " Empire of the Clouds" is about R101 voyage.
Indeed and a great song
empire of the clouds
Yes, great song!
"It was safe because the walls were made of asbestos" is an unusual sentence.
Ineed, at the time asbestos was seen as fireproof. It's only decades later the discovery about the effects of the fibers in the lungs. Asbestos was a popular insulation and fireproof product, even my school had it in the 1980's but was horrible thing to remover. Like all things, we learn.
There are different forms of asbestos. In the form that would have been used for the walls it is not dangerous. The dangerous form is when it's the fluffy asbestos that we used to pretend have snowball fights with when I was a kid. Those are the fibers that Lodge deep in your lung and give you mesothelioma cancer
Its when cutting asbestos the problem occurred, just being near it wasn’t dangerous
Can you even begin to imagine the stench permeating the clothing, hair, etc, of anyone coming out of the smoking room? Perhaps a hundred people sharing space to accomodate 20-something at a time (who - from the picture - I presume would be packed in rather tightly).
I wonder what sort of ventilation set-up - if any - they used.
amazing
Thank you! Cheers!
Wow we should use that non flammable material today!! What was it called again?
My grandfather watched this fly, and others, from pulham, and l still live nearby.
Interesting to point out Thorpe Abbotts 100th bomb group only 2 miles away from pulham station.
Excellent video. ..although I am curious as to sanitary arrangements of the airship.
There were washrooms and toilets, both set for men and ladies.
Listen to the song of the year 2015 that Iron Maiden dedicated to the R-101 called: "Empire Of The Clouds". 🤘😈🎸
It is an 18 minute long work of art.
Thank you! Will do
Empire of the clouds was my first experience of the r101
My mother as a very young girl watched this airship pass over her house. She described it as huge.
Yes, we have many people who have recalled saying when they saw an airship, and it's been stuck in their mind for 90 years. They leave a mark on the memory.
The R101, built and designed good enough for government work.
Had no idea this ship had nearly as much living space as Hindenburg. Wow!
I know, people often overlook the British ships, but they were really the first to move the accommodation inside the hull at the design stage, and giving so much more room. Indeed, the idea concept of a small "floating hotel".
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 Indeed. I really think that business model would work in today's industry (sky cruising). :)
Indeed, I think the new airship manufacturers are looking at this as a goal and new way of low carbon travel@@ThomasGrillo
Beautiful reconstruction. Shame R101 didn't last long. Curious if you guys will do the _Graf Zeppelin_ and _Hindenburg_ ?
Thanks for the feedback and there is already a lot on the Hindenburg but not so the Graf Zeppelin. We can add it to the list! We are just finishing our next project which I think will amaze, and again is covering things about airships people don't tend to know
I wonder if it would be possible to build a replica of just this area as a museum exhibit?
We'd love to do that! We'll need a big shed and LOTS of money. We'll have to stick to Virtual at the moment.
Fascinating, I hope giant airships make a proper comeback, would love to fly in one. Was the smoking room on the R101 pressurised like the Hindenburg's smoking room was?
Glad you liked ti. We'd love to see airships as the cruise ships of the sky and I think the current timing is right with the advancements in lighter-than-air technology. The smoking room was a first on an airship, and not pressurised, but had a fireproof floor and ceiling. The idea of putting it in the lowest part of the ship, away from hydrogen which leaked.. upwards, and thus not perceived to be the initial danger.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 Many thanks, I understand that now. Was looking at the Hindenburg smoking room earlier, which let to my R101 curiosity.
Very well made video. However why is there no mention of the R100, built at the same time and a great success. It’s a fascinating story of private verses public enterprise. I recommend you read Neville Schute “Slide Rule”
Thank you, and we've done one of the R100. If you want to check out our other videos in the channel, so you can compare the interiors of both ships.
Any details on the R-101 as to its final flight...and demise? And how about the R-100?
Hi there, if you take a look at our other videos we've also done the R-100. We are working on other videos in this series and so stay tuned
Well. Now everyone needs to check out the astounding 17-minute EPIC song about R-101 called "Empire Of The Clouds" by Iron Maiden. Simply stunning. Trust me . Thank me later.
Yes it's really good! Have you also checked out "Cardington" by the band Lifesigns - highly recommended ruclips.net/video/cm__1UdPXpk/видео.html
Iron Maiden brought me here
What are all those meters in the crew quarters?
IRON MAIDEN - EMPIRE OF THE CLOUDS brought me here
Try Curly's Airships!
I wonder if you would feel the vibrations from the engines or their sound.
From what we know, the forward engines could be heard however the three rear engines were behind the passenger accommodation so it would have been quite. Also a very smooth ride.
If the vents froze or iced up at night the sun would make it shoot skyward and approach 180 mph like a torpedo and at high enough altitude it would burst
I'm surprised the 'occupiable' area was that large.
The plan was to provide comfortable accommodation for up to 5 days travel. The interior was about the size of a "small hotel" - 1920's style.
I still think air ship cruises could have a big impact on tourism.
Thanks and watch this space as I think they'll be some coming in the future with the amount of airship activity being undertaken at the present time.
5:59 “It was deemed safe because the floors and ceiling were made of Asbestos” LOL
I know - but at the time asbestos was used as a flame-retardant material. It's only years later it was found to be ... deadly .. like smoking!
A one-way transatlantic ticket on the Hindenberg cost as much as a small car.
Indeed it was seen as costly but compare it to the first class on a ship, it was priced about the same, but faster! People pay for speed, as they do now.
If the airship ever had an accident over the open ocean were there any safety provisions? Life vets, Inflatable rafts etc, or was it just a case of "make your peace, chaps."
Alas at the time, life vets and inflatables were not thought to be included. There was some limited safety equipment on some ships like parachutes which had been included, emergency signalling flares and even fire extinguishers. It's early days aviation in the 1920s and 30's, and so with further accidents, lessons learnt and more safety equipment was added.
If you could do one on the empire state building being a moor. Most people have no idea.
Ur! What happens when people wanted to take a shit or have a shower. Would love to see these vessels fly again though
I had a book that characterized it as a difference between two philosophical thoughts of design…Socialism as represented by the R101 and Capitalism which was the R100. Why either ship did not use Helium which although it would have cost a few passengers, but would have kept the passengers that were on it much safer.
That carpet added many extra pounds in just the dust it attracted alone, that is why engineers should have been consulted in the design, even if carpet looks better.
I wish I could have been able to book passage on the R100 on its Trans-Atlantic flight since no one would build such a massive glorious airship today even using Helium. The Banks would torpedo any attempt at such a design even using modern lightweight designs and materials such as Carbon Fiber, unless you can cram 1000 passengers and 1000 tons of cargo with 10 crew members….not going to happen 😂!
Happy Easter and have a great day!
Neville Shute Norway's biog Slide Rule?
@@rowlybrown I was not aware of the blog, no it was an “Time/Life” Airship book, however, they credited Neville with being the lead designer on the R100’s interior cabins etc.
remember the novel The Airmen Whi Would Not Die.
Yes, a fascinating book.
I bet those curtains acting as cabin doors weren't very effective when the person in the cabin was a loud snorer. It must have echoed around the whole lounge.
We'd often thought of that! The curtains were something which were already employed on sleeper bunks on overnight trains in the past, so ... the same problem... unfortunatly.
It seems to me that on all these big passenger airships, the washing facilities were very sparse indeed. Just how did the passengers (and crew) keep clean?
Good question! There were washrooms, and toilets available for both passengers and crew. In those days, people showered a lot less than we do today, indeed a bath would be weekly. The first showers were installed on the Hindenburg, but the water supply was rationed due to weight saving.
@@airshipheritagetrust1419 Ii hope that the airship was properly ventilated! I can imagine the smell after a transatlantic crossing 🤢
Would someone please explain why nobody has ever built a modern replica of a Zeppelin or any of the British or American rigid airships? I know it would be extremely expensive now, but if I had the means I would certainly do it!
Well in all honesty i personally think that R101 was poorly designed in her frame work which add extra weight compare to her sister and the german airships hence the reason she wasn't able to get good lift in her first as build design
1:44 *Bit like EV's today with Thermal Runaways - what could possibly go Wrong !*
sigh - yes... technology at the time.. We learn.
You know I always wondered how they took showers?
In the 1920's most people has baths, once a week. They washed daily, and so washrooms were plumbed in. It wasn't until the Hindenburg in the 1930's that a shower was added. Because of the weight of the water, and weight on a airship is permium, they were limited to a couple of minutes shower time. Again a first for fligth.
Leftennnt Colonel
Um..it was only referred to as the R one, oh, one. Not one hundred and one. Sorry. But it rather grates.
we traded this for airplanes, which by the way, falls down from the sky with almost no survivors all the time
Actually, I have been pondering a question related to a creative hobby, and you seem like the people who might have an answer: do you think rigid airships like this or similar, could have been built with Victorian, Age of Steam-era technology? Certainly there was Giffard's dirigible in 1852; and the patent for the Aerial Steam Carriage in 1842; but do you think material & technology of that era could have built a large, rigid airship? I have a feeling materials science & metallurgy of the airframe is what might let it down.
Can you bild a steam power air ship, yes, can you bild a PRACTICAL steam power air ship using Victorian age tecnology? No, the heavy steam plant and coal will eat up most of the "carrying capacity"
Bit late but my natural inclination is that steam power would be much too heavy as it would require enough coal and water for the trip, and that's not even considering the weight of the engine, It would be extremely impractical. You probably wouldn't have any carrying capacity left over to carry anything if you could get it off the ground at all.
@@FullMetalFeline My question was more about the metallurgy of a large airframe; we know a steam-powered dirigible/airship is possible, because the first powered flight of any kind was by such a craft: the Giffard airship of 1852, which I mentioned in passing. So a 'steam Zeppelin' would surely be just a matter of scaling it up.
Sure, there are other practicalities: like whether a recycling steam condenser, if it too is even possible using that era of technology, would eat up too much of the carrying capacity. But my question was about whether the metallurgy of the day could even allow an airframe of sufficient strength, yet lightness, to make a hypothetical scaled up steam airship possible.
@@thealmightyaku-4153 in a word, no, it was only at the turn of the 19th-20th century that mass aluminum production became possible
@@PRH123 I mean, that technically still includes the tail-end of the Victorian era; but aluminium is key, is it? Duralumin, and all that? Not any kind of wood, or steel?
This would make for an amazing VR experience.
Yes! ideas for the future for us