Statistics Length 643ft Diameter 79ft Speed 62mph Engines 5 x 240 hp Sunbeam Maori 4 V12 Volume 1, 960, 000cft Range at cruising speed 4,600 miles Static ceiling 13,000ft Crew 22

Brief Construction History

The manufacture of the components for the R33 and her sister ship R34 had begun in the summer of 1917, but the actual construction of the ship in the shed did not commence until the summer of 1918. The ship had a marked resemblance of the L33 at Little Wigborough, Essex in September 1916, although the similarity in numbering was purely coincidental; the R33 has been designated in early 1916 before the crash. The order for the R 33 had been allocated to the Arstrong-Whitworth company, and would be built in the Barlow shed based outside of the village of Barlow in North Yorkshire. Some of the component features such as the construction of the control car and engine cars were allowcated to the Elswick workshops at Newcastle-upon-Tyne..

The ship design was semi-streamlined fore and aft, with a parallel mid-ships section. Information had been recently gained from the landing almost complete of the L33 which gave the Admiralty the chance to see Zeppelin designs and innovations at close hand.The main control car was positioned well forward on the ship, and on closer inspection was separated from the engine in the rear of the car by a small gap. This was designed to stop vibrations from the engine car being transmitted down to the forward control car, with its two radio detection finding and wireless instruments. One wireless transmission set was for a 500 mile range and under, and a second set capable of sending up to 1,000 miles. Hence, the forward control car and engine car looks as if it is one combined piece, but serviced by two ladders into the hull above. The R 33 was fitted with complete electrical generating equipment and emergency power was provided by batteries in each car.

Two more power cars were suspended in the wing positions further aft along the hull and a single engine aft car was positioned amidships at the rear of the craft. All five engines were 275 hp, Sunbeam Maori water-cooled petrol units. The power cars were another technical advancement in airship technology, which included two gearboxes for each engine, enabling the engines to be started up and running without the propellers rotating. The ship carried enough fuel for 48 hours engine running, but to increase range it was possible to fly the ship on only 3 engines, giving the ship a speed of some 40 knots with petrol consumption of one mile a gallon. The petrol was held inside the hull and fuel flowed from them by gravity to header tanks in the engine gondolas. The reasoning behind this change of arrangement was to feed a smoother and more precise fuel supply than the older arrangements in earlier ships of direct gravity feed.

The radiators in the forward engine gondolas had the flow of air regulated by the use of movable shutters, however the rear gondolas had the old type of traditional "elevated" radiator. Twenty main frames and thirteen longitudinals made the main structure of the ship. There were 19 gasbags within the hull giving a capacity of 1,950,000 cubic feet of hydrogen giving a disposable lift of almost 26 tons. The total construction of the R33 came to £350,000 (£9,536,000 today).

Armstong Witworth had 205 employees at the Barlow site and could provided presses and construction materials for the the ship order, however they did not have the fabric shop capabilities and so had to rely on the Vickers Company to provide the gasbags for the ship.

Girder construction followed the latest Zeppelin practice, as found in L 33, and were cut and formed from duralumin sheeting. This new type of girder was made up of formed channel pieces, held together by stamped diagonal bracing pieces to form a latticework structure. The bracing pieces were riveted to the scantlings of the channel pieces in the form of crosses, riveted firmly in the centre where they crossed. The girders were triangular in cross-section in the main and intermediate transverse frames, in the longitudinals, and in other parts where convenient. There were 19 gasbags made of high quality single-ply cotton fabric, rubber proofed on the inner surface and lined with one layer of goldbeater's skin. The whole inner surface was then varnished. Each bag was contoured to fit in the bays between the transverse frames and over the top of the bottom keel corridor. Through the centre of each bag was threaded the axial cable which passed through a sleeve with special glands at each end to prevent leakage of gas. Situated near the bottom of each bag was an automatic gas valve that discharged into an exhaust shaft
between each pair of bags, except for bag No 1 which had a shaft of its own. Eight of these shafts led to the top of the hull but the two foremost ones discharged lower down on either side of the hull so that gas did not escape near the forward top gun platform

After almost 9 months in construction, the R 33 was launched on 6th March 1919. Getting the R 33 out of the shed Armstrong Whitworth Barlow shed illustrates one of the difficulties of airship operations. The Barlow shed doors were 100ft high and 75ft wide, weighing some 175 tons each. It took 40 men thrity minutes to winch open the four sections of doors. Another 400 men were temporarily employed to walk the R 33 out of the shed.

As soon as her test flights were over she was delivered to Pulham Airship Station. The ship had been designated as a long-range rigid scout ship to have operations over the North Sea. During the period from 18th June 1919, to 14th October 1920, the R33 carried out 23 flights totalling a flying time of over 237 hours. One of her tasks during 1919 was to fly over London and the main cities to publicise the sale of Victory Bonds One flight from Pulham to south Wales and back was recorded in having taken 25 hours.

The forward part of the control car of the R33 can be seen at the RAF Museum in Hendon in the upper gallery.