Beschreibung:

Airships. An archive of material relating to the Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) Cardington and the R101 Airship, early 20th-century, approximately 42 black and white photographs, including thirteen of Cardington, showing staff at work, group photos, construction of Airship sheds, airships over the aerodrome, aftermath of the R101 crash (5 October 1930), the rest including numerous images of airships (including R34), crew, barrage balloons, a small archive of black and white photos and a blazer badge relating to Hector Ford, Assistant Coxswain on the R101, approximately 35 items of ephemera including various documents and magazines relating to the RNAS, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Air Ministry Meteorological Office, Vickers Aircraft Company, the Aircraft Rag, the Imperial War Museum, an auction catalogue, newspapers, general correspondence, overall in good condition, most held in individual plastic sleeves (Quantity: approx. 75) Cardington Airfield started life as a private venture when aircraft manufacturing company Short Brothers bought the land to build airships for the Admiralty. It constructed a 700-foot-long (210 m) Airship hangar in 1915 to enable it to build two rigid airships, the R-31 and the R-32. The airship site was nationalised in April 1919, becoming known as the Royal Airship Works. The site began building the R101 airship a few years later, but after the crash of the R101 in October 1930 all airship work in Britain stopped. Cardington then became a storage station. During 1936-7 Cardington started building barrage balloons; it became the main RAF Balloon Training Unit responsible for the storage and training of balloon operators and drivers.