Framed Original Photo of His Majesty's Airship R100,

His Majesty's Airship R100, known simply as R100, was a privately designed and built British rigid airship made as part of a two-ship competition to develop a commercial airship service for use on British Empire routes as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. The other airship, the R101, was built by the British Air Ministry, but both airships were funded by the Government.

R100 was built by the Airship Guarantee Company, a specially created subsidiary of the armaments firm Vickers-Armstrongs, led by Commander Dennis Burney. The design team was headed by Barnes Wallis, later famous for his invention of the bouncing bomb and Knighted by the King. David Hawkins Senior, formerly of our family business, was Sir Barnes Wallis's bodyguard during his time that he served in the RAF. The design team also included Nevil Shute Norway as the senior stress engineer.

R100 first flew in December 1929. It made a series of trial flights and a successful return crossing of the Atlantic in July?August 1930, but following the crash of R101 in October 1930 the Imperial Airship Scheme was terminated and R100 was broken up for scrap. We show [for illustration only] a photo R100 over Canadian Bank of Commerce building in Toronto, Canada, then the highest building in the British Empire (August 1930).

Code: 21487