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BRITAIN - Tragic Rise And Fall Of R101 - SC GWYNNE
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OCTOBER 1930 Tragic Rise And Fall Of R101 S. C. Gwynne, author of His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine: Gwynne chronicles the ambition and tragic demise of Britain’s rigid airship program, centered on His Majesty’s Airship R101. Gwynne details how postwar imperial ambitions, political rivalries, and technological hubris led to building the massive hydrogen airship. The narrative highlights Lord Christopher Birdwood Thomson’s political pressure to launch the untested vessel toward India. R101 crashed in France in 1930 during a severe storm, killing forty-eight passengers and ending British airship development. (1)