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R-34 Airship Centenary Profile picture
R-34 Airship Centenary
@R34Airship
On 2 July 1919, Airship R.34 left East Fortune airfield to make the 1st successful double air crossing of the Atlantic. Tweeting the story 100 years on #R34100
Jan 27, 2021 • 43 tweets • 17 min read
Thread: Just after midday, 100 years ago today, Airship R.34 set off from RAF Howden on a training & test flight following repairs/mods, her 1st flight for months. Crew incl. 8 trainee navigation officers and her new captain of 6 days Fl Lt Hadley V. Drew #R34100 In addition to inadequate charts, inexperienced officers & incomplete mooring equipment, the crew were to discover, too late, a faulty wavemeter in their vital radio equipment, perhaps the most important factor in what was to follow #R34100
Sep 21, 2020 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
Here’s an appropriate military anniversary for an East Lothian-raised laddie to share. 275 years ago today, the Battle of Prestonpans took place, during the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

scotclans.com/the-battle-of-…

Thread follows. 1/ This week on the Facebook ‘Old Haddingtonshire’ group, someone shared this image of a 1799 map of the area, just 54 years after the Battle, noting that it says simply: 'Battle fought here...'. Lasting less than 30 minutes, it made a disproportionate historical splash! 2/
Jan 25, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Thread. More ‘then and now’ photo comparisons showing parts of #EastLothian and how they have changed (or not). Goose Green in #Gullane from some unspecified long past (when very few parked cars outside their houses - 1930s?) and today. There’s still a tree on the near corner! Aberlady Church and the Loupin’-on Stane from some time pre-Second World War (#Aberlady lost nearly all of its iron railings during the war) and January 2020. Actually very little change! #EastLothian
Sep 4, 2019 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Aha, I found an answer to this question I asked previously (but raised initially by @CardingtonSheds I think?) about the fate of Wopsie, the kitten mascot aboard the airship R.34’s record breaking double Atlantic crossing in July 1919. #R34100 Thread follows... I just received, through the post, a batch of (this week’s guest publication) ‘Dirigible’, the Journal of the Airship Heritage Trust @Airshipsonline. No. 85 from Autumn 2018 has a feature on Fl. Lt. ‘Rex’ Durrant AFC, chief Wireless Officer on the R.34 Atlantic flights #R34100
Apr 16, 2019 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Although this account is all about airship R.34's fabulous record-breaking flight centenary #R34100, the R.34 was a 'class R33 airhship' named, obviously, after her sister-ship the R.33 which had her maiden flight at Barlow, N. Yorkshire, on March 8th 1919, 6 days before R.34's. Encouraged by @SheilaMossKing at the @PennoyerCentre by Pulham's former airship station in Norfolk, my R.34 account is acknowledging the 94th anniversary today of the day that R.33 accidentally broke free from the Pulham mooring tower and came close to wrecking at sea.
Apr 13, 2019 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
So, a family trip on Friday to visit Glasgow’s Riverside Transport Museum, with a side objective of checking out if there is anything on display related to the airships constructed a few miles up the Clyde by William Beardmors & Co at Inchinnan in Renfrewshire #R34100 However, despite the Museum being a fascinating place to visit, there’s nothing on display about Glasgow’s contribution to airship manufacture & surprisingly little about air transport in general. The focus is very much on mass transport, motor cars & sea travel.
Apr 3, 2019 • 33 tweets • 11 min read
Following up on my thread last night about the 1916 zeppelin bombing raid on Edinburgh & the port of Leith, I visited the sites of the bombs dropped on Leith. Thread follows... I was accompanied by my friend John whose late grandparents, it turns out, saw the zeppelin over Edinburgh. John’s Grandma lived on one of the bombed streets. Pure chance that I asked John to come along so the synchronicity is pleasing!
Apr 2, 2019 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
103 years ago tonight & early tomorrow morning (2/3 April 1916), two Zeppelin airships, L14 & L22, of the Imperial German Navy, conducted a bombing raid on the City of Edinburgh and the docks and district of Leith on the north side of the city. This was a slow-motion form of terror attack. While the first bombs wouldn’t fall on the city until 23.50, at 7pm this evening in 1916, a telephone message was recv’d-as prearranged with the Military authorities in the event of a threatened air raid-to be prepared to take action.
Mar 30, 2019 • 10 tweets • 7 min read
A splendid spent today at @NtlMuseumsScot National Museum of Flight, the former RNAS airship base where HM Airship R.34 was stationed. A veritable cornucopia of #R34100 delights to see there, including this memorial plaque for R.34’s Atlantic crossings Also delighted to see one of the RNAS airship and aeroplane station’s gates and, behind it, some original panels of glass from the rigid airship shed windows. Tinted glass was used to prevent sunlight causing photolytic degradation of the airships’ outer skin