| Country
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United
Kingdom |
Locations: |
Cardington |
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It may be seen as rather a simple fact, but before you build
an airship, you need somewhere to build it in. This is the
main factor which dictates the design and size considerations
of an airship. The simple fact is that the size of the ship
is dependent on the size of the shed it is built in.
Today, the two Cardington Sheds can be seen dominating the
skyline for many many miles around.
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Facilities
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Actual
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Proposed
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1
Mast
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2
Masts
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2
Sheds
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3
Sheds
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Constructional
& Base Facilities
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Extended
Base Facilities
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Cardington
sheds in the mist |
Why
Cardington?
How
did a small village some 5 miles from the centre of Bedford
come to be the centre of Airship operations and excellence?
The
story starts not with the village but with the Shorts Brothers
Engineering Company. Having won a contract for the construction
of an airship in 1916, the original design team had set
up offices in a private house in Hampstead, London. In September
of 1916 they decided to move to Bedford, choosing this market
town for its sufficiency of high grade light engineering
works and its population of about 35,000. Outside the town,
at Putnoe, was a stretch of farmland being used as an aerodrome
for the Royal Flying Corps as part of the United Kingdom's
defence network against the Zeppelins. Within sight of Putnoe
was, and still is, the village of Cardington.
The
man who headed up the enterprise for the Shorts Company
was a young man by the name of Claude Lipscomb. At 29, Claude
had already served his apprenticeship at Woolwich Arsenal
but had joined Shorts at the outbreak of the war in 1914
attracted by the prospect of technological advancement in
the new aviation world. Claude set up his first drawing
office in a loft of the coach repair shop in Bedford. Having
been attacked by Zeppelin Raiders that September and with
the threat of the new Super Zeppelins, agreement was reached
to develop our own ships. With its gentle prevailing wind,
the site of farmland south west of Bedford and the site
of Cardington was chosen.
|
Dawn
by the imposing sheds |
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Shed
Internal Dimensions:
Length: 812 ft
Width: 180 ft
Height: 157 ft
Total weight of steel: 4,000 tons

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The
Project.
Cardington
having been chosen, the airship project was begun and proposals
were framed as to what was needed in the way of resources
to actually build airships of this scale. When the proposal
was reviewed, it was realised that it could take an act
of Parliament to release the thousands of tons of steel
to construct the hanger alone!
The
shed was the biggest to be built in Britain at that time.
It was to provide a minimum of space for two ships under
one cantilever roof. The dimensions were such that it would
be possible to build ships that at that time would in no
way be inferior to the biggest Zeppelins. Additional steel
was needed for the enormous windbreaks which were set up
at both ends of the shed. These screens, as long as the
shed itself, were designed to protect an airship during
the time it was being manoeuvred in to and out of the sheds
from either end.
|
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| The
imposing doors of shed no 2. (large file to download) |
The
Airships and Imperial Airship Service.
The first ship to come out of
the Cardington airship facility was the R31. The ship was
commissioned only 5 days before the Armistice on 11th November
1918, and exactly two years and two months from the time
that Claude Lipscomb had set up in Bedford. The shed was
an impressive construction and design project, admirable
even in retrospect in a time of high powered computers and
modern communication. Today it is easy to forget that it
was hand designed and hand built. Cardington became one
of the World's best airship facilities. Due to the economic
depression of the post war years, the Airship station was
closed in 1921 after the construction of the R38 and the
scrapping of the R37. However the station was reopened in
1924 following the announcement of the Imperial Airship
Service and the undertaking of the construction of, amongst
others, the R101. For communications, a wireless station
and Cardington control tower was constructed in 1928 behind
the Administration block.
The
huge airship mast was constructed for the civil programme
in 1926. 202 feet high and 70 feet in diameter at the base,
the tower was the first ever cantilever mooring mast to
be built. It was demolished in 1943 to help the war effort.
Discussions
in Parliament following the crash of the R101 in October
1930 led to the Committee on National Expenditure's final
decision to dismantle the R100 in shed no.2. In 1931, the
Station was nearly closed, with only a skeleton maintenance
staff of some 44 people remaining. However work soon resumed
with resurrection of the old WW1 national defence system
of barage balloons as a deterrent to the German Bombers.
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Inside shed no 1. (large file to download) |
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| Cardington
mast and winch houses under construction |
The
War Years
With
the threat of war looming at the end of the 1930s Cardington
was back in business with the development and creation off
thousands of kite balloons. It sounded simple but every
balloon had to be large enough to carry a couple of miles
of steel cable and required a trained crew who could monitor
the balloon 24 hours a day. Also required for each was a
winch and motor transport. Preparation for meeting this
demand started in November 1936 when the station became
known as Royal Airforce Station Cardington. At its peak
Cardington was producing some 26 balloons a week. Simultaneously
the station was a training centre and by 1943 some 10,000
balloon operators and a further 12,000 driver/operators
had been trained
Today
It's all still here. With the
exception of the windbreaks and the addition of many more
houses in Shortstown and the impressive second shed from
Pulham, the whole site is complete as it was constructed
and planned back in 1916. It is also intended that airship
activity of a kind will return in the form of the new AHT
Museum to be situated at Cardington, returning many of the
original artefacts.
However....
the administration building is under threat and shed number
1 is in poor condition. We need petition support and funds
to help save these historic buildings. Please go to our
appeal page to find out how you can help.
Airships have also returned to Cardington in the form of
ATG Group who are developing the AT 10 airship and the huge
SKYCAT. The prototype SKYKITTEN can be seen on occasion
flying from shed number 1 where the R101 was constructed.
Following
the collapse of ATG, the future of shed 1 remains uncertain.
Shed 2, was sold to Warner Brothers and used as film set
for the film "Batman Begins". This shed is now
up for sale by the film company.
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View of the mast from the nose of the R101.Steam
from
the winch houses can be clearly seen |

The Administration block in 1917
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The same Administration block today - which is under THREAT
of demolishion by Bellway Homes.
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The original workshops by the Cardington Sheds |
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Activity at Cardington today
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| AT10
and the"SkyKitten" |
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| A
recently produced Skyship 600 built and flown from Cardington
in May 2002 |
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| Did
You Know... Both the RMS Mauritania and the RMS Lusitania
could comfortably fit in each shed with the doors closed and
the RMS Titanic would have almost fitted with only 40ft of
her bow sticking out of the open doors. Also, did you know
that the size of an airship is dependent only on the size
of the shed she is built in! |