R101
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R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance
R101 on the day of its first flight, 14 October 1929
One of the airship hangars at Cardington
R101 under construction
Beardmore Tornado engine on display in the Science Museum in London
USS Akron
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USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the U.S. Navy, the lead ship of her class, which operated between September 1931 and April 1933. She was the world's first purpose-built flying aircraft
R101
…in the better-known Hindenburg disaster of 1937, though fewer than the 52 killed in the French military Dixmude in 1923 and the 73 killed when the USS Akron crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey in 1933. R101 was built as part of a British government initiative to develop airships to…
Akron approaching the mooring mast at NAS Sunnyvale
Akron under construction in the Goodyear Airdock at Akron, Ohio, in November 1930: Note the three-dimensional, deep rings.
Sample of the duralumin from which the frame of USS Akron was built
The maiden voyage of Akron on 2 November 1931, showing her four starboard propellers; The engines' water-reclaiming devices appear as white strips above each propeller. The emergency rear control cabin is visible in the lower fin.