Airships around the world!

Texas Man Has Sky-High Dreams of an Airship Race Around the World

Going back a mere 12 years for the origins of this next post we switch from the road to the air and a mode of transport oft-championed by this blogger; one that is slowly (as is its wont!) continuing its renaissance in a new 21st-century reimagining but still with positive links to its past - the airship.

Even more of an enthusiast of this form of lighter-than-air travel than yours truly (and in a far better position to do something to promote it!), Texas native Don Hartsell has spent over 40 years dreaming and nearly 20 years planning the inaugural World Sky Race for airships.  As reported back in 2012, Hartsell had been attempting to raise commercial and financial interest for his fantastic scheme since at least 2006, with the nascent plan to have the race ready to begin from London in 2014.  Alas, as is often the way with these sorts of huge undertakings, that vision was forced to go by the wayside (as had an earlier start date of 2011) due sadly to a lack of necessary funds.      

Now, however, Mr Hartsell seems confident enough to speak again publicly about his marvellous idea - with what would seem to be some credible expressions of interest from a variety of parties representing all different sorts of markets and the advantage of a far more advanced airship industry that looks poised to take on this epic challenge to their (and the world's) benefit.  Things seem to have progressed to such a degree that Mr Hartsell has even bought six(!) airships for use by any entity who might wish to join the race and I genuinely wish him the very best of luck in his search for entrants into his World Sky Race.  The chances of that seem all the more heightened thanks to the remarkable number of airship manufacturers that have sprung up over the last fifteen years or so and the progress they have all made in that time.

French airship to fly around the world nonstop, fossil fuel-free

French concern Euro Airship is just one of several companies at an advanced stage of airship development and to promote their latest vessel Solar Airship One have, in a similar vein to Mr Hartsell, announced their intention to undertake a 20-day long nonstop flight around the world without using any fossil fuels whatsoever (as the name suggests, the airship is 100% solar-powered). Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if the two were to team up, or at least for Euro Airship to enter the World Sky Race?!  What a boost it would be for the industries involved - not only airship design and application but all the associated machinery that goes with it; a true melding of old and new technologies, a showcase for 21st-century know-how in a long-neglected pre-war ideal!  I look forward to continuing to follow the progress of Euro Airships as they gear up for the planned 2026 launch - they certainly seem to be well set to succeed, with some experienced aviators signed up to the project (not least famed French adventurer Bertrand Piccard).  This is definitely one to watch!  

Flying Whales eyes cargo revolution with a familiar solution

Likewise, fellow Gallic airship engineering business Flying Whales (great name!) seem well on their way to becoming airborne, their new Large Capacity Airship scheduled to gain its type certification within the year with the aim to be fully operational by 2027.  They already have an eye on the international cargo market with plans to set up production plants in Canada and Australia to complement their Bordeaux HQ; I wouldn't bet against them either!

source - Wikimedia Commons

Hybrid Air Vehicles kicks off Airlander 10 certification

British-based Hybrid Air Vehicles, working out of the old airship hangers at Cardington in Bedfordshire (where the R.101 was built and departed from on its ill-fated maiden flight to India in 1930), is another airship manufacturer that has spent the last fifteen years refining its own designs into the Airlander 10.  Now they have finally reached the exciting stage of applying for type certification with the UK's Civil Aviation Authority which, if given, should allow HAV to begin full-scale production with commercial flights envisaged to start in around four years' time.  Airships gracing the skies of Britain (and the world) again before the end of the decade?  What's not to like?!

Never ones to be left behind in any race - technological or otherwise - American expertise is also working on its own airship design with the US company Aeros' Dragon Dream concept having been in development since 2013 and although the prototype suffered a setback in 2015 when it was damaged in a hanger accident it would seem the company is still pushing ahead with the search for a production site; I see no reason why we should not see their eVBAs criss-crossing the globe again within a similar timescale.  

The world’s largest aircraft breaks cover in Silicon Valley 

EDIT 09/03/24: I knew I'd forgotten one - and how embarrassing that it should be the largest of the lot!😳 (I say, emojis - are they new?  Sorry, I'm digressing!)  Apologies to LTA (Lighter Than Air) Research, the brainchild of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose Pathfinder 1 prototype has recently taken its initial steps towards regular test flights over its California base after 10 years in development.  Once again utilising the very latest in aeronautical technology the Pathfinder nevertheless retains much of the traditional airship design and will doubtless make a mightily impressive sight sailing over the San Francisco Bay area.  That an even larger Pathfinder 3 is planned - and to be headquartered at Akron, Ohio (to the USA what Cardington is to Britain) - is almost too much to imagine but I'll wager that, with this level of backing, if anyone can do it these chaps can!  A fleet of Pathfinders, joining with the other airships mentioned above to deliver urgently-needed cargo to inhospitable areas, carry passengers to anywhere in the world - or even just take part in an around-the-globe World Sky Race! 😉 - feels more and more like an attainable goal if these projects achieve their potential, as I'm sure they must.  

As well as the many commercial enterprises that are pursuing the 21st-century airship concept, so smaller businesses and private designers have also recently been reimagining them for modern personal use in the wonderfully futuristic form of "air yachts" - the term dating from the golden age of pre-war flying boats, especially the smaller private variety, but now meaning an airship/boat hybrid!  While admittedly the idea of superyachts in this day and age is understandably looked upon in some circles as vulgar and unnecessary one has to admit the engineering, not to mention the execution, can still stir the soul and remind one of the technical skills and spirit of adventure that mankind possesses.

AirYacht reveals radical 52m airship-yacht crossover concept

Swiss-based company AirYacht (a relative newcomer formed in 2017), is one of the few airship designers to be exclusively targeting the passenger market with its AirYacht concept.  Attractively billed as "the sky's cruise ship" and again harking back to the glory days of international luxury travel, the AirYacht seems to be intended for private owners or select travellers wishing to take small group holidays and sightseeing tours to otherwise remote places - as with all of these ventures much being made of the sustainability, advancements and slower pace afforded by the application of modern technology to these incredible craft.  Although I fear that, at least initially, a flight in the AirYacht will be beyond the reach of most of us mere mortals it is to be hoped that again success will lead to similar, more accessible craft taking to the skies and so to greater economies of scale in the future.  I certainly wouldn't say no, given the opportunity!

Colossea in photos: Airship with detachable upper structure to sail

Another airship enthusiast (witness his reference to the 1924 airship Norge, which I also previously blogged about) and imaginer of airship-yacht crossovers, Perpaolo Lazzarini's Colossea is his second design following his 2022 concept but, whereas that was intended to land directly on the water, so the Colossea has a separate airship attached to a boat's superstructure, able to detach at will to fly independently!  Again aimed at the ultra-luxury mega-yacht market the Colessea nevertheless boasts some fantastic modern engineering again married to traditional airship design and - if one must have these things - I can't help but again feel enthusiastic that such a project even exists. 

With all these at various advanced stages of development I can't see why Mr Hartsell's World Sky Race shouldn't have a whole slew of entrants from across the private and commercial sectors lining up to take part.  What amazing publicity it would be for all these airship manufacturers to be involved in such a great adventure, circumnavigating the globe and showing whole new generations the wonderful potential of airships and so finally throwing off the terrible images of the Hindenburg and R.101 - tragic though they were - that have unfairly dogged this mode of transport for too long.  The airship cannot - must not - go on being judged in such outdated fashions (to be fair, I feel that these have been somewhat overrated in recent times - I fancy that the younger generation will be far more open to this revised mode of transport, particularly given its new ecological credentials) and a World Sky Race featuring the best current lighter-than-air design has to offer has to go some way towards continuing the revival of this splendid form of travel.  Could the 2020s be the decade that airships finally enjoy their long-overdue resurgence?  With all this positive development I think we can do more than hope!   

R101 airship crash: 'Hope and sadness' on 90th anniversary

R101 airship crash: 'Hope and sadness' on 90th anniversary

More from the excellent Airship Dreams project now, which first featured on this blog back in July and which celebrates the amazing vehicle that is the airship - in particular the ill-fated R.101 and its links to the town of Bedford close to where it was built.

With this week having seen the 90th anniversary (on Monday) of its unfortunate demise over the hills of Beauvais, France, in the early hours of the 5th October 1930, those involved in the Airship Dreams exhibition have rightly taken the opportunity to remember all aspects of the disaster while at the same time looking forward to the hopefully bright future that lighter-than-air travel may still enjoy.

Once again I am thoroughly impressed with the approach taken by this project and the positivity and approbation of those involved - the passion for airships and their firm place in Bedford's history is clearly palpable amongst all those involved (and rightly so).  It is wonderful to hear the thoughts of surviving family members of those involved in the R.101's development - an incredibly valuable resource that I'm sure the curators appreciate and which no doubt forms a cornerstone of the exhibition - as well as the views of the artists and exhibitors in expressing both their hopes for the future of airships and in remembrance of those who sadly perished in both this and other airship crashes.

Indeed the wishful attitudes conveyed by those involved in the project gives one to contemplate what might have been for British airships had not the R.101 not met its untimely end 90 years ago.  Would a successful flight to India have galvanised the industry and resulted in a new age of lighter-than-air travel across the British Empire, or would the decade's later events of the Hindenberg disaster and the Second World War have put paid to any thought of rigid airship progress?  Having read into the subject somewhat, the production of airships at the time was a rather fragmented affair with R.101 being a government-backed concern built by the Royal Airship Works at Cardington while its sister ship the R.100 was a private venture built by the Airship Guarantee Company (under the auspices of aircraft and armaments company Vickers-Armstrong) in Howden, Yorkshire.  R.101 was subject to much government interference (the insistence of Minister for Aviation Lord Thomson of Cardington that it should be ready for its maiden flight to India in time for him an Imperial Conference, which it was hoped would lead to his being offered the post of Viceroy of India, is usually cited as a primary factor in its lack of testing and the subsequent crash), was constantly being redesigned (at one point literally being cut in half to have extra gasbags inserted into its structure to improve lift) and was generally regarded as over-engineered, featuring many untried and dubious technologies.  R.100, on the other hand, was designed by Barnes Wallis (of later Dambusters fame) to a simple and well-established layout but suffered from the lack of government support - essentially the two projects were set up in competition to one another, so jeopardising the success of both.  Each ship had more than its fair share of teething troubles but R.100 was at least able to make a successful maiden flight to Canada in July 1930 before the R.101 calamity a mere 3 months later led to the curtailing of British airship development.

While we are now perhaps seeing the beginnings of an airship renaissance with the likes of the Airlander craft (also coming out of Cardington) and others of similar ilk, one has to ask where we might have been now had airships continued to progress throughout the 1930s and beyond.  It is an interesting exercise in "what if?" theorising if nothing else and a fascinating rabbit hole to travel down.  Would we have seen the further development of the aerial aircraft carrier?  Would those of us lucky enough to be able to afford it be cruising around the world in luxurious zeppelins in much the same way as today's well-heeled travel on ocean liners across the Atlantic?  Would the "space airships" that are only now just being mooted have been deployed to the upper atmosphere and even to other planets?  We can only look back and wonder.  

Returning to the real world and Airship Dreams I'm also delighted to see that coronavirus has not seriously impacted the putting on of this exhibition, with a physical display set to be unveiled at The Higgins Bedford museum in April 2021.  Previously the project was looking to be an online-only affair thanks to the lock-down restrictions in place at the time and although - as I mentioned in the original post - that would at least allow it to reach a wider audience and provide the opportunity to create some fascinating interactive displays, the equal benefits of having a tangible display that the people of Bedford can enjoy first-hand cannot be denied so I am pleased to see that the museum is open and the exhibit is going ahead early next year.

All-in-all then this is very welcome news of a well put-together exhibit on a fascinating subject that I am certain will be of interest to airship enthusiasts, historians and Bedfordians alike.  I wish the Airship Dreams project every success, as I'm sure it will, and I for one look forward to immersing myself in its ongoing exposition in lieu of actually being able to go to Bedford in person - perhaps one day when all this Covid malarkey is over!

Airship's 'glorious' history project goes online

Airship's 'glorious' history project goes online

We haven't had a decent airship-inspired story on Eclectic Ephemera for a while - not since I restarted the blog at any rate - so this article from one of the historic homes of lighter-than-air flight is a welcome one in all respects.

The history of airships has been rather unfairly overshadowed - even after 83 years - by the image of the Hindenburg falling in flames over Lakehurst, New Jersey, while British interest in lighter-than-air travel had - until recently - ended when the R.101 crashed into a hill near Beauvais in France during bad weather on the night of the 5th October 1930, killing 48 of the 55 people on board (including the Minister for Aviation and staunch airship supporter Lord Thomson of Cardington).  Since then the airship has existed mainly as the non-rigid "blimp" variety best known as the type used by Goodyear and still built today by the Zeppelin company in what was once Germany's airship centre - Friedrichshafen.

Cardington Sheds, Bedfordshire.

Bedford Creative Arts receives over £100k funding for Cardington 'Airship Dreams' project

Now, judging by this latest news, the story of airships in Britain looks to have been given a much-needed boost thanks to an exhibition due to be set up in the former home town of the R.101 and its ilk - Bedford, where the giant sheds at nearby Cardington Airfield that once housed these incredible liners of the skies still stand (thanks to their Grade II listed status) and continue to be used in the development of modern airships like the remarkable-looking Airlander 10.  Arranged by local arts charity Bedford Creative Arts and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and the Bedford-based Harpur Trust, the excellent-sounding Airship Dreams project has as its aim the celebration of all things airship and that extraordinary craft's enduring link to the town of Bedford.

R.101 departing Bedford on its ill-fated maiden flight to India, October 1930. 

I'm particularly pleased with the positive nature of this exhibition, not only in not allowing coronavirus to get in the way of putting it on (as with many a physical exhibition turned digital in some ways Covid has done it a favour by forcing it online where it will hopefully find a wider audience and provide interesting and interactive displays) but also for the approach it is taking in focussing on the innovation and forward thinking of the time, the hopes and dreams that this fantastic technology must have engendered and the pride the people of Bedford would have felt having the development of it right on their doorstep.  As with all local history projects the desire to get the modern people of Bedford involved through family recollections or retained memorabilia is a splendid way to engage the townsfolk, generate a new sense of civic pride and an appreciation of heritage while adding a personal level to the exhibits.  I'm utterly impressed with the attitudes of the curators and exhibitors, in fact, as well as the thoroughly commendable aims of the project in general and am delighted to see once again that local schools are to benefit from related workshops.  I can do no better than repeat the quote from the Airship Dreams website, which really struck a chord with me:

 “Only when men sense the waning of a civilization, do they suddenly become interested in its history and, probing, become aware of the force and uniqueness of the ideas it has fostered.  Hegel said that the owl of Wisdom appears only at twilight.” Dr Julie Bacon

Photos remember 90 years since R100’s maiden overseas voyage

With the coming of this exhibition - in part marking the 90th anniversary of the R.100 and R.101's maiden flights - and the continued development of the airship concept for the 21st century, not to mention the possibility of a R.101-based film in the works, the history of this marvellous method of travel will hopefully be enlarged far beyond the current narrow and half-forgotten remembrances, reaching new audiences and inspiring the next generation of engineers who may well end up working on future lighter-than-air machines, the renaissance of which continues apace.  I for one will be keeping a close eye on Airship Dreams and look forward to immersing myself in their no doubt fascinating exhibits.

Space Zeppelins of the Future!

Nasa planning to build cloud cities in airships above Venus

For my first post of 2015 I thought that, in the spirit of all things new and exciting, I might look to the future for a change - albeit a future with a firm link to a technology of the past.

Airships have long been a favourite form of transport for this blogger, evoking as they do images of stately and luxurious air travel between the wars - of huge cigar-shaped behemoths, true liners of the air carrying well-heeled passengers across the Atlantic far quicker than any ship could hope to.  If ever there was a vessel to symbolise the peak of 1930s technological advancement, then the airship was it.  Then in May 1937 the Hindenberg exploded over Lakehurst, New Jersey.  Footage of the falling mass of flaming wreckage and the commentators anguished cries has passed into history but at the time was seen around the world by millions and the image of the airship was almost irrevocably tarnished.

sourceR.101 on its maiden flight over Bedford, October 1929

I say "almost" because, like any gas-filled envelope, you can't keep a good airship down(!).  For the last fifty-odd years, since the end of the Second World War, airships have slowly begun their comeback in a myriad of new roles - flying advertisements, mobile weather stations and tourist transport, to name but a few.  In recent years there has been much talk of using modern airship designs for heavy payload lifting or accessing inhospitable areas, at the fraction of the cost of fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft - some articles about which have appeared on this very blog.  Now in the last year have come two new, somewhat interlinked ideas for new airship uses - in space!

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Astronomy From High Altitude Airships

Back in early 2014 the University of California, at the behest of NASA and the Keck Institute for Space Studies, came up with a splendid-sounding idea for a future space telescope and potential Hubble replacement - a telescope mounted on a high-altitude airship!  Designed to fly in the thin air of the stratosphere (upper atmosphere, 60,000ft+), these "HAAs" would carry an ultraviolet telescope, similar in function to the one on Hubble and able to carry out much the same functions.  Of course, as this article makes clear, there are still several technical hurdles to overcome but so impressed have NASA and KISS been with this proposal that it is hoped they will run an open prize challenge for similar projects.  So with any luck we may see a few more high-altitude airship designs in 2015!

NASA Seeks Comments on Possible Airship Challenge

One such proposal - or rather a variation thereof - has just recently been announced by NASA (which bodes well for HAAs), who have had the wonderfully science-fiction/steampunk idea of exploring Venus using airships!  That's right - Space Zeppelins!

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As the fascinating article at the top of this post makes clear, the upper atmosphere of Venus is far more hospitable than the hellish surface (where the average temperature is over 400­­°C, pressure is 92 times that of Earth's and sunlight barely 10% and where it rains sulphuric acid).  At 30 miles or so up, however, it would be possible to travel above the sulphur clouds.  There would still be the ability to conduct many useful experiments - probes could be sent down, samples taken and, well, there's always just the wonder of human exploration.  Yes, these Venusian airships could easily be manned since the pressures and temperatures at such a height would be much more Earth-like.  In fact in the long term NASA may be considering so-called "cloud cities" - a collection of airships grouped together as a sort of floating base station.  What a hugely exciting prospect it all sounds!



Of course, airships as a means of exploration is nothing new.  Before their [relative] success in a commercial role airships were being touted as the future of air travel even over aeroplanes and both before and after the First World War several airships performed feats of great exploration, some unrivalled by other aircraft before or since.

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America moored at Spitsbergen, Norway, c.1906

The airship America made several attempts to reach the North Pole between 1906 and 1910, all unsuccessful but among the first to be tried in such an aircraft.  In late 1910 its pilots endeavoured to make the first transatlantic crossing by air, nine years before Alcock and Brown, but again without success (although they did travel a total of 1,370 miles, albeit south along the east coast of the USA!).  The centenary of that attempt has been the subject of an earlier blog post.

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Norge over Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen, Norway, 11 May 1926

It was the Italian-built airship Norge (above) that entered the history books as the first aircraft of any kind to fly over the North Pole on the 12th May 1926.  Constructed in 1923 for the famed Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, the Norge left Rome in April 1926 and by way of Pulham in Norfolk, Norway, Russia and Spitsbergen succeeded in flying over the North Pole - marking the first time humans had travelled there - a month later.

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Italia, April 1928

Two years later the Norge's larger sister ship Italia made a couple of polar expeditions but on the third trip crashed badly during its return trip from the North Pole, killing eight of the sixteen crew and wrecking the airship in an incident that has never been satisfactorily explained.



By the end of the 1920s aeroplanes had advanced to the point where they were able to undertake individual exploration and record-breaking far more freely than airships.  Nevertheless the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, among others, continued to prove the worth of the airship as a long-distance aircraft in a series of flights including the famous round-the-world trip of 1929 (which was the subject of an interesting documentary a few years ago).  Two years later, in 1931, it too made a highly-publicised journey to the Arctic Circle culminating in a rendezvous with a Russian icebreaker.  Meteorological and magnetic field studies were undertaken successfully, hundreds of photos were taken and the Graf Zeppelin proved categorically that airships had a practical use in polar exploration.

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It has taken nearly 70 years, but I am pleased to see we are now once again waking up to those same practical uses for airships today - plus a couple of new ones! Another example of a past technology still having a useful application today - and what a thrilling example!  We may yet see a new heyday of lighter-than-air exploration - perhaps even taking us to other planets - and I for one can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for science and the airship.

First World War fighter plane restored at air museum

First World War fighter plane restored at air museum

Here now is one of the first of many posts that are destined to appear on this blog in the next 12-48 months as the commemorations for the centenary of the First World War start to get underway.  In this instance the story is of a long-forgotten World War One aircraft prototype and one museum's attempt to construct a working replica in time for this year's events.

The Eastchurch Kitten - or to give it its full designation, the Port Victoria P.V.8 Eastchurch Kitten - was borne out of an Admiralty specification created in 1916 for a small, light single-seat fighter designed to fly at high altitude and intercept the Zeppelin airships that were then terrorising the south-east of England.  Two front-runners soon emerged from Royal Naval Air Service stations based in Kent.  One was the brainchild of designer W. H. Sayers, based at the Port Victoria Marine Experimental Aircraft Depot on the Isle of Grain.  The other was the Kitten, designed by the pen of G. H. Millar, located further along the north Kent coast at the RNAS Experimental Flight in Eastchurch. When the commanding officer of the Experimental Flight then took over at the Port Victoria station it was decided that the competing aeroplanes should both be further refined together at Port Victoria, therefore the Eastchurch design was called the P.V.8 Eastchurch Kitten while the other was renamed the P.V.7 Grain Kitten.  Both were of a similar layout to meet the Admiralty requirement for a compact, lightweight interceptor that could be launched from the cramped confines of a Navy destroyer's fo'c'sle.

© IWM (Q 67564) 1917 Port Victoria P.V.8 Eastchurch Kitten

Volunteers restore 100-year-old First World War prototype fighter plane at Yorkshire Air Museum 

The P.V.7 was in fact the first to fly, on the 22nd June 1917, but it was found to be tough to handle and tail-heavy in flight.  The P.V.8 finally took to the air on the 7th September 1917 and although like the Grain Kitten it was hampered with the temperamental 35hp ABC Gnat engine it soon became apparent that - despite being larger and heavier than the P.V.7 - the Eastchurch machine was the more advanced. In the end, however, the Admiralty chose not to pursue the P.V.8 design.  By the time both aircraft were at the test-flight stage the sturdier and better-performing Sopwith Pup and Sopwith Camel had been adapted for higher-altitude work, aircraft carriers were developing apace and the threat of Zeppelin raids had receded.  Neither the P.V.7 or P.V.8 ever flew again; the original Eastchurch Kitten airframe was due to be sent to America for further evaluation but what became of it from that point remains a mystery.



‘Zeppelin zapper’ returns to life

Obviously some plans of the P.V.8's design survived, though, as an attempt to create a replica of the aircraft was made as far back as the 1980s.  Now thanks to the sterling efforts of the volunteers at the Yorkshire Air Museum a remarkably accurate copy of the Eastchurch Kitten is finally nearing completion, with appearances (albeit sadly static) scheduled at both the museum's own displays and also in Leeds town centre later this year.

I'm happy to see so much going on at the museum's preservation hangar and it's splendid to see a project such as this come to successful fruition, with volunteers and aviation design students keeping alive the skills needed to help ensure that an interesting part of First World War aviation history is not forgotten, hopefully inspiring and engaging all those who come to see it at York in the next four years and beyond.

WWI airfield Stow Maries to be restored

Crikey, has it really been 4 weeks since my last post?  Between a little bit of work, a little bit of play and re-learning how to knit (yes, I've tentatively picked up the needles again after a near twenty-year gap - more on that later!) I've not had much chance to blog lately, for which I again apologise.  Now's the time to get going again, though, with this excellent article about a First World War airfield right here in my home county of Essex. 

WWI airfield Stow Maries to be restored

With the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War less than a year away now, the wheels have already begun to be set in motion to mark this important centenary.  The B.B.C. has announced over 2,500 hours of related programming and the government has pledged £50,000,000 to remembrance commemorations, with commenters from every corner of the country discussing what should or shouldn't be done and how the money should be spent.  (Personally I'm delighted to see the Imperial War Museum London earmarked to get even more "massive" improvements and major events all around the country mooted too.  Not to mention the all-important educational aspect as well.  It all sounds good so far!)   

Stow Maries WWI aerodrome saved by £1.5m grant

RFC Stow Maries, c.1914
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Already a small part of that £50m has been well spent saving an original First World War aerodrome in Stow Maries (near the town of Maldon in the mid-east of Essex) with the aim of restoring it to its 1916 condition in time for the commemorations.

One of only ten remaining from the total 250 RFC stations built during the war, Stow Maries is the most complete example in Britain with all of its buildings still intact - more than 24 in total, many with their original windows and other features still intact as you can see in the accompanying clip.  Built for one of the new Home Defence squadrons - otherwise known as "Zeppelin Busters" - to counter the new menace of aerial attacks by airships and Gotha bombers, Stow Maries was ideally placed to allow quick interception of zeppelins bound for London, Southend and northern towns.  Along with Suttons Farm (later RAF Hornchurch and from where Lt. William Leefe Robinson became the first pilot to shoot down a zeppelin on the 2nd-3rd September 1916),  Hainault Farm (RAF Fairlop), North Weald and Rochford aerodromes and also Joyce Green aerodrome in Kent, Stow Maries made up part of the London Air Defence Area.



Stories still abound of zeppelins bombing Southend and Purfleet, being spotted over Canvey Island and perhaps most famously being shot down in Billericay so it is wonderful to see this locally and nationally important historical site preserved and restored for future generations.  Already there is talk of using it as the base for some flying WW1 exhibits at future Southend airshows and the plan to have it as a place to teach the restoration skills needed to keep these aircraft airworthy is inspired.  I can't wait to see what else Stow Maries has in store!

By remaining unused (save for the occasional farm storage purposes) and overgrown from the end of the Second World War until only four or five years ago Stow Maries has managed to survive miraculously untouched.  It was on the market only a year ago with the very real risk of being redeveloped but it is now in the safe hands of aviation & history enthusiasts and successful businessmen, the Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome Trust and the Friends Of Stow Maries Aerodrome.  Thanks to the National Heritage Memorial Fund it is now in a position to begin realising its full potential as a fully restored First World War aerodrome, working museum and of course a lasting memorial to all the brave men (and women) who fought and served in the "war to end all wars".

Hindenburg mystery solved after 76 years

Hindenburg mystery solved after 76 years 

Last week various news wires were abuzz with the findings of a group of aeronautical scientists who, after a series of painstaking experiments and recreations, claim to have finally laid to rest any question of what exactly caused the airship Hindenburg to explode over Lakehurst, NJ, in May 1937.

I'd intended to post this link - probably the best of the bunch - at the time the story first broke, so as to tie in with the TV documentary that aired recently on Channel 4 (and previously on the Discovery Channel) explaining fully how the discovery was made and which precipitated the news.  My cold(s) put paid to that idea, though, so here I am a couple of weeks later hopefully still in time to spread the fascinating discovery further.

Thanks to the efforts of British scientist Jem Stansfield and his team of engineers one theory above all others has been shown to be the most likely - and it appears to have been accepted by most historians (and the wider world).  After nearly 80 years of theories and conspiracies and with that iconic image of the Hindenburg burning above its mooring mast never having gone away, one of aviation's enduring mysteries looks like having been put to bed.  One wonders what other historical events and unknowns are just waiting to be resolved with the aid of modern science.

The airship industry has taken as long to recover from the Hindenburg disaster but, as other articles about modern airships featured on this blog have shown, they certainly still have a future and the final solving of the 1937 riddle may go some way to cementing it.

Man seeks to stage around-the-world airship race

Man seeks to stage around-the-world airship race

I promised you a corker of a story for the next featured article to appear on this blog and I do believe this delivers.  On my birthday (near enough) too; what a bloggy present!  This could easily enter my personal top ten, if not the Stats' most popular.  Why, because it features airships!  A particularly vintage mode of transport that regular readers will know I am quite enthusiastic about and which is long overdue for a resurgence.  If that isn't enough it also marries these fantastic machines to an undertaking of historic and thrilling proportions - an around-the-world race!

I'm struggling to find the words to convey my enthusiasm for this idea - I mean, airships... flying around the world... visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites!  It sounds incredible - a never-before-tried, once-in-a-lifetime event.  Although even I started off thinking the accompanying video was a trifle hyperbolic in its language the more I think about it the more excited I become.  Is it too much to ask, though?  The World Sky Race, as it is known, has already had a long gestation period with launch dates having come and gone.  It would be a monumental task in both monetary and logistical terms and is the brainchild of just one man.  But some big names in aviation seem genuinely interested and more importantly members of UNESCO appear quite sympathetic to the idea, so there may be a good chance for it.  I certainly hope so!



It wouldn't be the first circumnavigation of the globe by a lighter-than-air ship, of course, as the German airship LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin undertook its own around-the-world flight in 1929.  That journey captured the public's imagination and cemented its place in aviation history.  Many dozens of books have been written, articles published and documentaries recorded - including the recent 2009 Dutch drama-documentary Farewell (shown on B.B.C. Four as Around The World By Zeppelin, as you may recall).  Why should it not be the same for the World Sky Race?

Those involved in the enterprise speak of its potential attraction to the public of today and I for one agree with them.  I'd even accept the airships having to be plastered in advertising if that's what it takes to realise this idea.  In this age of the Internet and instant communication, where distances are forgotten and travel is sanitised, a global airship race could serve as a reminder of the thrill and excitement of travel, the great expanses that make up our planet and the human endeavour it can still take to cross them.



Such was the kind of reaction to the famous long-distance aeroplane races of the 1930s, when friendly competition and national pride combined with cutting-edge technology to create spectacles that enthralled thousands - if not millions - of people as they followed these pioneering aviators as they raced across land and ocean in their attempts to be the fastest.  Like the 1929 Graf Zeppelin circumnavigation these journeys were the great adventures of their day.  As the human race becomes ever more sedentary with its computers and automated machines, events like the World Sky Race take on an even greater rôle - a challenge that requires strength, endurance and skill; proof that long-distance, circumnavigational racing by air still has its place in the 21st century.



Eleven years ago the 2001 London-Sydney Air Race gave me some idea of what it must have been like to follow the pilots of the 1930s in their similar England-Australia flights and proves that there is still an appetite for this kind of event.  Indeed record-breaking and endurance flights are still happening on a regular basis, but the suggestion of using airships is a novel yet worthwhile variation.  Worthwhile thanks in no small part to the involvement of UNESCO and the desire of the man behind the World Sky Race for these majestic "sky ships" to visit heritage sites throughout the world on their journey inspiring children everywhere to discover more about these important locations in a fun new way and showing these remarkable natural and man-made landmarks in a new and stimulating way to people all over the world.  For this noble reason alone the World Sky Race deserves to succeed.

The United States Army are known to be testing a new airship design and while the military aspect may not sit well with the peaceful, educational nature of the World Sky Race both it and the worldwide race would do wonders for the public perception of airships and go a long way to ushering in a new age of lighter-than-air travel.  If the World Sky Race stays on course then come 2014 I shall definitely be at Greenwich to cheer the participants on as they start their momentous journey and perhaps begin the renaissance of the airship.

Hindenburg 75th anniversary gathers last witnesses to the airship

Hindenburg 75th anniversary gathers last witnesses to the airship

This year marked a particularly famous centenary of an historic transportation disaster - the sinking of the RMS Titanic - but it is also the anniversary of another well-known tragedy.  Seventy-five years ago yesterday, the airship LZ-129 Hindenburg exploded and crashed over Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 people and effectively putting an end to the airship as a means of passenger travel.

The German airship Hindenburg was destroyed by fire in Lakehurst, NJ, 75 years ago

Just as with the Titanic, a memorial ceremony took place at Lakehurst but unlike the great ocean liner's demise there are still witnesses to the Hindenburg disaster alive to recollect the event and offer their own theories as to why the giant hydrogen-filled airship exploded (although we may never know the exact cause for certain). These memories provide a fascinating and oft-forgotten insight into that fateful day in history.



The Hindenburg should, however, be remembered not just for its fiery death - broadcast on newsreel around the world - but as a truly great wonder of the modern age.  Today's airships may have been relegated to observation and transport work for the military or short scenic flights and advertising, but they are by no means an extinct aircraft and one day in the not-so-distant future we may see their like gracing the skies more widely again.  In the meantime we look back and remember this colossus of the air and its untimely end in which 36 people lost their lives.

The world's biggest collection of airship memorabilia goes on sale

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The world's biggest collection of airship memorabilia goes on sale

Some Zeppelin news now, featuring the largest selection of airship memorabilia valued at potentially £1,000,000 and which is due to be sold off in four auctions over the coming eight months.

Rare Zeppelin items for auction for the first time

The result of 40 years of collecting by a Jersey businessman who had intended to set up an airship museum but who through a combination of old age and other business commitments never managed to, the collection contains many hundreds of photographs, some of which are reproduced here.



These pictures (and the above footage from Youtube, which I make no apology for including every time I blog about airships) give a fantastic idea of the sheer majestic size of the Zeppelins and the wonderful sense of occasion they would have provided.  Not only in seeing them at ground level, from within, in flight and - sadly - at war but also the views they provided to the lucky passengers privileged enough to fly in them.  Never was the advantage of all-round vision as afforded by a gondola more perfectly illustrated than in a number of these photos.

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Comprised quite literally of tons of Zeppelin-related artefacts the collection would have made a wonderful museum, all the more so considering the seller had even bought one of the massive hangars at Cardington Aerodrome in Bedfordshire (home of the British airship industry and the ill-fated R.101) to store it all in and in which he had intended to base his extensive display.  What a gem it would have been - a real counterpart to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany.  Sadly it was not to be and now this incredible collection is about to be broken up.  At least the profits will be given to charity, which is a good thing.  One can only hope that the pieces find their way to the Zeppelin Museum or to collectors who will equally appreciate it and, who knows, maybe even use it to help open up a British airship museum in the future.

One of the Cardington airship hangers

The return of the airship

The new vehicle set to revolutionise the skies

The return of the Zeppelin: not just a flight of fancy

I've been following the progress of this machine for a couple of years now and it's actually beginning to sound like it's on track for success. The promise of 1,000ft-long airships sailing through the skies again sounds almost too good to be true.

Never mind all this nonsense about it being a "Hybrid Air Vehicle" and a "revolutionary new vehicle" - they can say what they like ("airship has negative connotations" indeed!) it is an airship. OK, maybe nowadays it's better than the dirigibles of 80 years ago, but that's only thanks to new technologies and designs. The direct antecedents of this machine are still the wondrous Zeppelins of the 1920s and '30s. In a way, this is a good example of the ideal I've been talking about in previous posts - vintage ideas and solutions revived with modern equipment (and British equipment and know-how at that!).



Airships may have ruled the skies during the interwar years (and what I wouldn't give to have been able to see a zeppelin in flight!) but now they look to be on the cusp of a proper renaissance and will be put to uses Count von Zeppelin and Hugo Eckener could only have dreamed. Who knows, if this new airship is successful in a cargo-carrying capacity it may herald the restart of a passenger service (not to take anything away from Zeppelin NT who have been offering sightseeing tours in Germany, and elsewhere, for several years now) and a new Golden Age of airships may well be on the cards!