R100
His Majesty's Airship R100 was a privately designed and built British rigid airship made as part of a two-ship competition to develop a commercial airship service for use on British Empire routes as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. The other airship, the R101, was built by the British Air Ministry, but both airships were funded by the Government.
| HM Airship R100 | |
|---|---|
| R100 at its mooring mast in St. Hubert, Quebec, Canada | |
| General information | |
| Role | Passenger airship |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Vickers |
| Number built | 1 |
| Registration | G-FAAV |
| History | |
| First flight | 16 December 1929 |
R100 was built by the Airship Guarantee Company, a specially created subsidiary of the armaments firm Vickers-Armstrongs, led by Commander Dennis Burney. The design team was headed by Barnes Wallis, later famous for his invention of the bouncing bomb. The design team also included Nevil Shute Norway as the senior stress engineer.
R100 first flew in December 1929. It made a series of trial flights and a successful return crossing of the Atlantic in July–August 1930, but following the crash of R101 in October 1930 the Imperial Airship Scheme was terminated and R100 was broken up for scrap.