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The author acknowledges the use of information
obtained from the 'Wikipedia', 'Airship Heritage
Trust' and 'Roll of Honour' websites and other
sources in the preparation of this page.
In 1924 the Imperial Airship Scheme was proposed
as a military project to enable a single movement
of 200 troops or 5 fighter aircraft. This was
expected to require the construction of an
airship with a volume of 8 million cubic feet. As
a result two prototype airships of 5 million
cubic feet (140,000 m³) were to be
constructed.
To encourage the promotion of new ideas, two
separate teams would be used: one, under the
supervision of the British Government's Air
Ministry, would build the R101, and the other
airship would be constructed by a subsidiary of a
private company, Vickers. The latter would build
the R100 under contract and for a fixed price.
Among Vickers' engineers were the designer Barnes
Wallis, later to become famous for the 'Dam
Busters' bouncing bomb and, as Chief Calculator
(Stress Engineer), Nevil Norway, later known as
the novelist, Nevil Shute.
CARDINGTON became one of the major British sites
involved in the development of airships when
Short Brothers bought land there to build
airships for the Admiralty. They constructed a
700 ft long hangar (the No. 1 Shed) in 1915 to
enable them to build two rigid airships, the R-31
and the R-32. Some 800 people worked there in
1917 and most of them travelled daily from
Bedford. Shorts also built a housing estate
opposite the site which they named
'Shortstown'.
The airship site was nationalised in April 1919
and became known as the 'Royal Airship Works'. In
preparation for the R101 project Number 1 shed
was extended between October 1924 and March 1926.
The roof was raised by 35 feet and its length
increased to 812 feet. The No. 2 shed (southern
shed), which had originally been located at
Pulham, Norfolk and dismantled in 1928, was
re-erected at Cardington.
The airfield and sheds were used by No 1 Balloon
Training Unit which was formed as part of a
(barrage) balloon defence system on 9th January
1937 with Grp. Capt A.A. Thompson, MC, AFC as
Commanding Officer. One month later the first
Barrage Balloon Group, No 30, was formed and the
first training courses for balloon crews were
started.
In November of 1938 30 Group became the Balloon
Command. By September 1939 almost 50 squadrons
had been formed manning about 600 sites
throughout the UK. The balloons were to remain a
familiar site in our skies for the duration of
the war.
In November 1943 No 1 Balloon Training Unit was
closed and the command was disbanded in February
1945. Also in 1937 (September) No 2 RAF
Recruitment Centre transferred to Cardington from
Henlow to be followed by Aircrew Selection and
Medical Boards.
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Cardington manufactured its own hydrogen in its
Gas Factory for both airships and barrage
balloons and using the steam reforming
process.
In 1948 the Gas Factory became 279 MU
(Maintenance Unit), RAF Cardington; and then, in
1955, 217 MU. The unit produced all the gases
used by the Royal Air Force as well as gas
cylinder filling and maintenance until its
closure in April 2000.
The two airship hangars ceased to be part of the
RAF Cardington site in the late 1940s and were
put to other uses. The fence was moved so that
they became situated outside the main RAF
Cardington site. After the war the RAF site
continued to be used as a recruitment centre
until the termination of National Service in the
late 1950s. Known as No 102 Personnel Despatch
Centre, many of those who had joined the RAF at
Cardington passed through the unit again when
they were demobilized. The headquarters buildings
still stand on this site.
For many years, until around 2001, one of the
sheds was used by the Building Research
Establishment as a building testing facility.
Here, multi-storey steel, concrete and wooden
buildings were constructed and then destructively
tested. A company, Airship Industries, tried to
revive the fortunes of the airship industry in
the other hangar in the 1980s, but the efforts
ended in failure.
In 1968 some scenes for 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'
were filmed at the airsheds. Also during the
1960s, much of the film 'Those Magnificent Men in
Their Flying Machines' was shot in the vicinity
of the village. Hangar 2 was leased to Warner
Bros and used as a studio for film and television
productions, including the 'Batman Begins' film
in 2005, its sequel, 'Dark Knight' and a Harry
Potter film. 'Fred Claus' is programmed to be
filmed in Hangar 2 in 2007.
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The R101 airship was built at Cardington and made
her first flight in October 1929. At 777ft, she
was the largest airship in the world. Here is a
view of the airship on the mooring mast
(dismantled in 1943) at Cardington with the
airsheds in the background (above
left).
There were a number of mishaps on her initial
flights including sluggishness and lack of lift.
In June 1930 she went into a steep dive for over
500ft when returning from the Hendon air show.
The crew managed to bring her back under control,
only to have to deal with a second and a third
dive.
The R101 plainly had significant problems but
Lord Thomson, the Secretary of State for Air,
insisted that the R101 be ready for a flight to
India on the 4th October 1930. Lord Thomson had
personal political ambitions in India and wanted
to see a regular airship service from London to
Karachi, via Egypt. To achieve the additional
lift, R101 had a new central bay and gas bag
installed.
 It was
expected that the new gas bag would give her
another nine tons of disposable lift bringing her
up to some 50 tons. The alterations were
completed by Friday the 26th September and the
R101 was gassed up and floated in the shed.
It was at 06.30 on the 1st October that the R101
emerged from the shed and was secured to the
mast. The new ship had a more elongated look as
she had been extended by 35 feet to insert the
new bay. At the same time, R100, which had been
constructed simultaneously with R101 by the
private company, Vickers, to a design by Barnes
Wallis, was removed from Shed No 2, and walked in
to shed No.1 where she too was to be altered in
the same way to obtain more lift. (It was the
last time the outside world would see the R100
which was later dismantled.)
On the evening of 4th October the R101 left
Cardington. She carried 42 crew, 6 officials and
6 passengers. A crowd of over 3,000 came to watch
the departure. The start of the journey was not
propitious; ballast had to be dumped to
compensate for over loading, strong winds were
encountered and the aft engines broke down.
At approximately 2 am the R101 passed over
Beauvais, a French city to the north-west of
Paris. Already flying at very low altitude she
went into a dive and despite all the efforts of
the crew she crashed into hills south of the
city. The airship ran along the ground for some
distance before being engulfed by flames. Forty
eight people died in the tragedy. Great national
feeling surrounding the disaster followed the
disaster and the funeral procession through
London was watched by thousands. The bodies were
afterwards taken by special train to Bedford to
be laid to rest in a communal grave in Cardington
cemetery (below)
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The church of St. Mary the Virgin (right and
below) is situated across the road from the
cemetery. Small parts of the building date from
the 12th century (these were incorporated in the
later reconstruction) but most of the church was
rebuilt between 1898 and 1902 except for the
early 16th century chancel and chapels.There are
a number of medieval tomb slabs set into the east
wall of the south chapel, one dating from the
11th century.
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The pennant from the ill-fated R101 in Cardington
Church (right)
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