R38 class airship
| R38 class (A class) airship | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The R38/ZR-2 making its first flight trial on 23 June 1921 | |
| Role | Patrol airship |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Short Brothers |
| First flight | 23 June 1921 |
| Primary user | United States Navy |
| Number built | 1 (orders for 3 others cancelled) |
The R38 class (also known as the A class) of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were originally ordered by the Admiralty, but orders for three of these (R39, R40 and R41) were cancelled after the armistice with Germany and R.38, the lead ship of the class, was sold to the United States Navy in October 1919 before completion. On 23 August 1921, R-38 was destroyed by a structural failure while in flight over the city of Hull. It crashed into the Humber estuary, killing 44 out of the 49 crew aboard. At the time of its first flight it was the world's largest airship. Its destruction was the first of the great airship disasters, followed by the US airship Roma in 1922 (34 dead), the French Dixmude in 1923 (52 dead), the British R101 in 1930 (48 dead), the USS Akron in 1933 (73 dead), and the German Hindenburg in 1937 (36 dead).
The R38 class was designed to meet an Admiralty requirement of June 1918 for an airship capable of patrolling for six days at ranges of up to 300 miles from home base and altitudes of up to 22,000 ft (6,700 m). A heavy load of armaments was specified, to allow the airship to be used to escort surface vessels. Design work was carried out by an Admiralty team led by Constructor-Commander C. I. R. Campbell, of the Royal Corps of Navy Constructors. The construction contract was awarded to Short Brothers in September 1918 but cancelled on 31 January 1919 before work had been started. It was then re-ordered on 17 February: on the same day Oswald Short was informed that the Cardington, Bedfordshire works, recently built as a specialised airship production facility, was to be nationalised. Construction of R38 started at Cardington in February 1919. It was intended to follow R.38 with orders for three airships of the same class: R39, identical to R38, to be built by Armstrong-Whitworth and two others R40 and R41, of a design variant with the length reduced to 690 ft (210.31 m) due to the limited size of existing manufacturing sheds.
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