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Rewind

The Great Grey Ghost

You may remember the crash of the great airship Hindenburg in 1937. But seven years earlier there was an airship with Canadian connections that had an even higher death toll. Rewind presents the story of the R101, a dirigible that crashed in 1930 killing 48 of the 54 people aboard.
CBC Radio ·
The German dirigible Hindenburg crashes to earth, tail first, after exploding at the U.S. Naval Station in Lakehurst, N.J. on May 6, 1937. (The Associated Press)
The Hindenburg seen in Brigus Harbour, Newfoundland. (Provincial Archives)

"Oh, the humanity!"
This was the unforgettably emotional phrase exclaimed by radio reporter Herbert Morrison as he witnessed the crash and burn of the mighty airship Hindenburg in 1937. Thirty six people died in that tragedy and put an end to the dreams of a huge hydrogen filled passenger airship.  

The crash of the Hindenburg spawned movies, several books and much speculation about the cause. But not as well known is the crash of an airship with Canadian connections that had an even higher death toll. It happened seven years before the Hindenburg. It was called the R101, and on October 5, 1930 it crashed in northern France on its maiden voyage, killing 48 out of 54 people on board. Among the dead were Lord Christopher Thomson, Secretary of State for Air in the British government. Many other senior government officials also perished, as did nearly all the designers of the dirigible.
Len Chapple. (CBC Still Photo Collection/Roy Houghton)
 Rewind remembers the tragedy of the R101 with a documentary called The Great Grey Ghost. It tells the story of the airship through the voices of five of the six crash survivors, along with men who were involved in the planning and construction of the airship. The Great Grey Ghost was produced by the brilliant CBC documentary maker Len Chapple and originally aired on CBC Radio fifty years ago in 1966.

The R101 was a model of luxury and comfort. Known as "the giant of the air," it was bigger than most ocean liners of the day. It was the result of an ambitious plan by the British government to build a series of airships - huge cigar shaped dirigibles - to transport both passengers and mail from Britain to the countries of the empire, primarily Canada, India and Australia.

Just to back up a little, in July 1930, the R100, which was built by a rival British company made its debut in Canada. It had left England and arrived in Montreal in a record 78 hours. That was just half the time it took for the fastest ocean liner to make the crossing. There were throngs of people who met the ship when it landed. The R100 was moored in Montreal for 12 days with more than 100,000 people visiting the huge airship each day. After that it took a 24 hour flight and carried passengers to Ottawa, Toronto and Niagara Falls. The return trip to England took only 57 ½ hours, a triumph. Surely this was the future of air travel! After the successful completion of that voyage, there was immense political pressure to launch the R100's sister ship - the R101- on its first voyage in October 1930. It was to fly to India. 

The weather on the day of the R101's maiden voyage, October 4, seemed good early on but there was trouble with one of the engines which delayed its take-off. By the time of the launch, it was pouring rain and the wind was up. The prospects for a smooth flight didn't look good. 

"The main memory I have was the top of the mast on the evening she left. It was blowing more or less a gale and I was hoping all the time that they would cancel the flight because of conditions. But they didn't."-  R101 Crew Member

 
Once the ship started to cross the English Channel, the weather deteriorated hour by hour. At this point, the captain of the R101, Capt. Carmichael Irwin, reported that it was raining hard with a strong southwest wind. He was also concerned by the low altitude at which the ship was flying. After midnight, the ship took a sudden dive, and then a second. It was pitched at a sharp angle with the bow pointing towards the ground. It was at this steep angle that the ship crashed. Forty eight men were killed with only six survivors.

What caused the disaster? No one is likely to know for sure, but one contributing factor seemed to be the weight of the ship. Not only was Captain Carmichael worried about the ship's low altitude on the night of the disaster, but the Captain of the R100 had the same concerns when he had taken the ship out for a test flight. At 113 tons, she weighed much more than the intended 90 tons, and her disposable lift was only 148 tons instead of the specified 156 tons. A contributing factor to the excessive weight was the engines. Instead of using standard petroleum engines, the R101 employed significantly heavier railcar-type diesel engines.

"We stuck to diesel engines which proved so terrifically heavy that I think they were one of the chief causes of the final trouble. Had they been lighter engines, we should not have been in the weight difficulty which indeed, in the end, we were."- member of the R101 Design Team


Another red flag pointed to the ship's test flights: they were considered short and inconclusive, but there was a reluctance to admit any deficiency in the ship's performance record. And although alterations had been made to the hull of the R101, only one test flight was made after those adjustments were completed and before that fateful flight on October 4. In fact, the R101 was 83 hours short of the required trial flight time. Also of concern were the ship's giant gas bags that were exposed to damp, cold air and violent, high winds for six hours during the flight. These conditions put stress on the seams of the bags at the bow of the ship, causing a loss of gas. This, in turn, led to a decrease in altitude,  the steep nosing over of the bow, and the inevitable crash.

"It took about six years to build it, and we destroyed it in two minutes."- Arthur Disley, Wireless Operator of the R101 in a call to the British Air Ministry after the crash

                                                                                                                                                                              Even though the design team of the R101 considered the ship to be merely a prototype, the pressure on the team, the Captain, and the crew to make the flight on October 4 was undeniable. It was said that unless the airship got to India and back, no more money would be available for airship development. In fact, following the crash of the R101, research into passenger airships in Britain was halted. Even the R100, on record for making a successful transatlantic flight among others, was never flown again.

The wreckage of the naval dirigible USS Akron is brought to the surface off the coast of New Jersey. April 23, 1933. (The Associated Press)

Other countries continued to push ahead with research and trials with airships, invariably with disastrous results. In 1933, the USS Akron was destroyed in a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73 people on board. And in 1937, the Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed with 37 fatalities. That pretty well ensured the end of large passenger carrying dirigibles. Rigid airships are still in use, mostly for advertising or geological surveys. But these days they use helium, which is not flammable, rather than the cheaper hydrogen which is highly flammable.  

The survivors of the R101 heard in Len Chapple's documentary The Great Grey Ghost are Joe Binks, Arthur Bell, Harry Leech, Alfred Crook, and Arthur Disley.

Also heard were the voices of the Captain and First Officer of the R100, Designer Dr Barnes Wallis, The Director of the Airship Guarantee Company, Commander Sir Dennistoun Burney, members of the R101 design and construction group 

The widows of First Engineer William Rose Gent, Air Ministry Duty Officer Sir Morris Dean, meteorologist Colonel Ernest Gold, chemist J.W.W. Dyer were also heard briefly.