The R.38 class of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were originally ordered by the Admiralty, but orders for three of these were cancelled after the armistice with Germany and R.38, the lead ship of the class, was sold to the United States Navy in October 1919 before completion.
R38-class airship
The R38/ZR-2 leaving its hangar for trials, showing the top gun platform.
Rescuers scramble across the wreckage of British R.38/USN ZR-2, 24 August 1921.
R38 memorial, Western Cemetery, Hull
A rigid airship is a type of airship in which the envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps and semi-rigid airships. Rigid airships are often commonly called Zeppelins, though this technically refers only to airships built by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company.
Construction of USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), 1923, showing the framework of a rigid airship
LZ 1, the first successful rigid airship
The extended Spiess airship in 1913
The British R34 in Long Island during the first ever return crossing of the Atlantic in July 1919
