| 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 and are seeing a new change
with the buildings surrounding them.
Why
Cardington? |
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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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Shed
Internal Dimensions:
Length: 812 ft
Width: 180 ft
Height: 157 ft
Total weight of steel: 4,000 tons
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| 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 defense
network against the Zeppelins. Within sight of Putnoe was,
and still is, the village of Cardington. |
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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. |
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| The
original siteplan circa 1916 |
The
Project. |
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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! |
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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 maneuvered in to and out of the sheds
from either end
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|
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| Shed
1 completed in 1916, then entended and raised, and shed 2
added in 1925 |
The
Airships and Imperial Airship Service. |
|
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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. |
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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.
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|
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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.
For more information on the Cardington Mast site, and an insight
in to life after the airship service,
please click here |
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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 defense system of barage balloons
as a deterrent to the German Bombers. |
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| The
sheds 1990, (prior to shed 2 being restored in 1994) |
The
War Years |
|
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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
one day.
Airships have also returned to Cardington in the form of
Hybrid Air Vehicles who are developing the prototye Airlander
10. The Airlander 10 successfuly few two flights in August
2016, but a heavy landing on the third flight damaged the
cockpit. The ship has been returned to the shed and is expected
to undertake repairs and return to flight programme in early
2017.
The
visit of the first Zeppelin in 80 years was commemorated
by the visit of the Zeppelin NT as part of it's 2008 tour.
Cardington
is ever changing and shed 2 has been leased out to a film
company and is enjoying a second life as a "sound stage".
Shed 1 has come under the ownership of Fosbern Hangers,
and the company undertook the restoration of the shed, which
shots of the restoration work can be found
here
The original construction buildings and workshops which
were situated behind the Administration Block (also known
as the
Shorts Building) were demolished as part of the RAF
selling the site in 1999 and 2000. The site was left as
bare land but later developed in the latter part of 2007
with the expansion and re-development of the site. A new
village was created opposite the original Shortstown village
which was created in 1917 on the site of the workshops.
This new housing development was named New Cardington. Further
development of the old site is being considered and proposed,
however is being subject to acceptance and review by the
Bedfordshire planning authorities. Also under review is
the development of the north and eastern side of the flying
field.
Inside the Shed, it has also housed limited airship and
lighter than air activities, of which a Goodyear
Lightship was constructed, and launched from shed 1 in 2011
More
information on the activities in the sheds can be found
here and on our links
page
http://www.cardington-hangars.co.uk
Planning
permission has been granted to the area surrounding the
north side of the shed, and around the original 1917 administration
building.
The Shorts Building
The original Shorts Building, constructed in 1917, which
housed the design and administration block, and later the
control tower during World War 2, has been restored and
utilised. This is seen as the imposing building on the A600
road between Shortstown village and the village of Cotton
End. Today the town of New Cardington is being developed
and the Administration Block is still a prominent building
in part of the new development, containing community services
such as a crèche, doctors surgery, and apartments.
The AHT has been fundamental in ensuring that the communal
areas open to visitors have pictures of the work which was
carried out at the site, and of the R101 and construction,
to ensure that the importance and history of the building
is known to it's visitors and tenants.
More pictures can be found
here
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!
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|
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| The
imposing doors of shed no 2. (large file to download) |
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| Opening
the doors was by hand and required a team of men to winch
the 70 ton doors open, before they were later motorised. |
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| Inside
shed no 1. (large file to download) |
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|
Cardington
mast and winch houses under construction
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| View
of the mast from the nose of the R101.Steam
from
the winch houses can be clearly seen |
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| The
Administration block in 1917 |
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| The
same Administration July 2000 block prior to sympathetic and
extensive re-development by Belway Homes Limited |
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| The
Shorts Building today 2011, centerpiece of new development.
and apartments. |
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| The
original workshops by the Cardington Sheds
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Early 2002' Activity at Cardington
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AT10
and the"SkyKitten"
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| The
new Goodyear "Spirit
of Safety" built at Cardington 2011 |
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| The
Airlander 10 in August 2016 |
