R101 - Aftermath

Aftermath

R101 was the end of British attempts to create lighter-than-air aircraft. Thos W Ward Ltd of Sheffield salvaged what they could of the wreckage, the work continuing through 1931. Although it was stipulated that none of the wreckage should be kept for souvenirs, Wards did make small dishes impressed with the words "Metal from R101", as they frequently did with the metal from ships or industrial structures they had worked on.

The Zeppelin Company purchased five tons of duralumin from the wreck. Its competitor, R100, despite a more successful development programme and a satisfactory, although not trouble-free, transatlantic trial flight, was grounded immediately after R101 crashed. The R100 remained in her hangar at Cardington for a year whilst the fate of Imperial Airship programme was decided. In November 1931, the R100 was sold for scrap and broken up.

At the time, and even today, scholarly opinion about R101 varies from the best airship ever designed to an appallingly bad piece of engineering. Any controversy is due to a number of factors. At the time the entire airship programme was controversial, since large sums of public money were involved. The extremely poor relationship between the R100 team and both Cardington and the Air Ministry created a climate of resentment and jealousy which may have rankled. Neville Shute's autobiography was serialised by the Sunday Graphic on its publication in 1954, and misleadingly promoted as containing sensational revelations, and Barnes Wallis later expressed scathing criticism of the design although these may in part reflect personal animosities. Nevertheless, his listing of Richmond's "overweening vanity" as a major cause of the debacle, and the fact that he himself had not designed it as another, says little for his objectivity.

Although the design had some innovative features, and the workmanship was superb, the airship had basic flaws, only some of which were due to shortcomings in the design.