Airship on a Shoestring the Story of R 100

by John Anderson

After the First World War, airships were seen as the only viable means of long range air transport for passengers and freight. In Britain, this gave rise to the Imperial Airship Scheme of 1924 to link the outposts of the Empire by an airship service. Conceived as part of this scheme, the R.100 airship, built by private enterprise, successfully flew to Canada and back in 1930. This is the story of R.100, Britain's most successful passenger airship. It is a tale of schemes and politics, over-optimism and rivalry. It tells the full story of its design and construction under difficult conditions, the setbacks and delays, personal antagonism and financial constraint. Two years late and massively over budget, R.100 flew and flew well, achieving her designer's ambition and fulfilling the contract specification. Her Canadian flight in 1930 was the culminating success, but her ultimate fate was dictated by the tragedy that befell her Government-built sister ship, R.101, and economic expediency at a time of national economic depression.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2014

About the author

There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads' database

A professional engineer for more than 40 years, John Anderson obtained degrees in Mechanical Engineering and the History of Science and Technology at Manchester University. He has long been a devote of the novelist Nevil Shute and in 2011 his biography of Shute was published by Paper Tiger. His research for that book, and a fascination for the history of airships, led him to the writing of Airship on a Shoestring.

He worked in industry on tribology consultancy and structural testing before running a small engineering company. Other interests include sailing and astronomy. He is married with one daughter and lives in Cheshire.

Reviews

[Mike Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, covering not only R 100, but also the political shenanigans behind the construction of this airship and her sister ship, R 101. R 100 was the privately built vessel and R 101 the government-built machine; different design teams - R 100 included Barnes Wallis and Nevil Shute Norway among their team - different funding routes and amounts, different planned routes and yet, although achieved in different ways, they both met the same end.
Some careless editing and poor grammar lost the book a star in my rating and there are extensive tracts lifted wholesale from Norway's diaries, but interesting nonetheless.
I've now moved on to 'Fatal Flight: the true story of Britain's last great airship', which tells the story of R 101 and I may amend my rating of this book (I eould have probably given this one 3½ stars, if I could have), after I've read that book.