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Airships over Birmingham ?

Radiorails said:
My billet was on the road facing the very large hangars at Cardington. I was there for a short time in 1954 just long enough to get kitted out, take the Queens Shilling and then move on to Bridgnorth. They were still visible, miles away, in the 1980's. I guess they are still there.
Click to expand...
They are very much still there, visible for miles around. There are two hangars right next to each other. It had been planned to operate both the private-industry R100 (built by Vickers) and the state-sponsored R101 (essentially a reverse-engineered WW1 German Zeppelin design built for the government by Shorts) from there. The R101 was built in one of the sheds (the nearby village of "Shortstown" was built to house the workers). Meanwhile, the R100 (Barnes Wallis and Neville Shute Norway were on the design team) was built in Howden in Yorkshire and moved to Cardington when completed. The R100 was a success but the R101 design was flawed and crashed on its maiden flight, bringing an end the British airship development.

In the 2010s the Hybrid Air Vehicle 304 Airlander "Airship/blimp" was operated from Cardington. I was lucky enough to see it in 2017. Production of the Airlander is supposed to be starting in Yorkshire.

en.wikipedia.org

Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander 10 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

HAV

Airlander 10 is a multi-function aircraft offering solutions for Logistics, Luxury Travel, Private Clients, Defence & Security and Maritime & Coast Guard. Find out more.
www.hybridairvehicles.com www.hybridairvehicles.com
 
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