R33-class airship

R33-class
R34 landing at Mineola on 6 July 1919
Role	Patrol airship
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Armstrong Whitworth (R33) Beardmore (R34)
First flight	6 March 1919
Primary user	Royal Naval Air Service (to 1918) Royal Air Force (1918 onwards)
Number built	2
Developed from	R31 class airship
Developed into	R36

The R33 class of British rigid airships were built for the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War, but were not completed until after the end of hostilities, by which time the RNAS had become part of the Royal Air Force. The lead ship, R33, went on to serve successfully for ten years and survived one of the most alarming and heroic incidents in airship history when she was torn from her mooring mast in a gale. She was called a "Pulham Pig" by the locals, as the blimps based there had been, and is immortalised in the village sign for Pulham St Mary. The only other airship in the class, R34, became the first aircraft to make an east to west transatlantic flight in July 1919 and by the return flight, completed successfully the first two-way crossing, and was decommissioned two years later after being damaged during a storm. The crew nicknamed her "Tiny".

Substantially larger than the preceding R31 class, the R33 class was in the design stage in 1916 when the German Zeppelin L 33 was brought down on English soil. Despite the efforts of the crew to set it on fire, it was captured nearly intact, with engines in working order. For five months, the LZ 76 was carefully examined in order to discover the Germans' secrets.

The existing design was adapted to produce a new airship based on the German craft and two examples were ordered, one (R33) to be constructed by Armstrong-Whitworth at Barlow, North Yorkshire and the other (R34) by William Beardmore and Company in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Assembly began in 1918. The R33 class was semi-streamlined fore and aft, the middle section being straight-sided. The control car was well forward on the ship, with the aft section containing an engine a separate structure to stop vibrations affecting the sensitive radio direction finding and communication equipment. The small gap was faired over, so the gondola seemed to be a single structure. It was powered by five 275 hp (205 kW) Sunbeam Maori engines, with one in the aft section of the control car, two more in a pair of power cars amidships each driving a pusher propeller via a reversing gearbox for manoeuvering while mooring, and the remaining two in a centrally mounted aft car, geared together to drive a single pusher propeller.

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