| Airship
Sheds |
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| Country
: United Kingdom
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Location:
Wormwood Scrubs West London |
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Situated closer to London
than the Farnborough aircraft establishment, and after the
purchase of the Clement Bayard II airship from it’s
French Designer, it was decided that a new base would be
needed.
The site of land located
at Wormwood Scrubs situated east of East Acton, North of
White City, and West of Ladbrook Grove on the western side
of Central London was a perfect spot.
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Location
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Facilities
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Actual
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Proposed
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Sheds 1 - (354ft
Long 75ft wide 98ft high)
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| The Clement
Bayard Number 2 arriving from Paris at Wormwood Scubs. The
first crossing of the English Channel by airship in 1910. |
Construction
of the shed began on 15th July 1909, supported and funded
by the Newspaper, the Daily Mail who had assisted in the purchase
of the Clement Bayard ship, the site became known locally
as the Daily Mail Airship “Garage”. |
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The Clement Bayard ship was completed in August of 1909
however the ship did not arrive in London until nearly a
year after the shed had been completed due to steering difficulties
and underperformance of the engines.
The ship arrived in October 1910, however was not long afterwards
dismantled and deflated, having never making a single flight
from it’s new London home.
The shed itself over
the next few years had little use as an airship hanger but
was put to use as an army storage facility. I
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| The Clement
Bayard airship leaving from the Astra Clément-Bayard
airship hangar at La Motte-Breuil, France, carring 6 passengers. |
n the pre
war years, it only saw the visit of the army airship “Gama”,
from the Farnborough airship shed in 1912. |
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During the First World
War, the site and shed was handed to the Admiralty and renamed
RNAS Wormwood Scrubs.
In this time the shed
was mainly used as a constructional shed for the new Submarine
Scout class airship, where they would be assembled, tested,
but not flown, and often shipped out to other RNAS stations
by rail.
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| Beta airship
outside the Wormwood Scrubs Shed 1914 |
The site was later closed
in 1919 after the armistice but retained in the 1930’s
as site for an emergency landing ground close to central
London for any aircraft.
Today the site is occupied
by the Linford Christie Athletic Stadium.
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| Graham-White's
aeroplane with the Wormwood Scrubs airship shed behind showing
the scale of the building |
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| The Silver
Queen by John Lavery 1915 showing early SS ships inside the
shed |
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| The wireless message
room at Wormwood Scrubs |
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| Submarine Scout Twin
S.S.T 14 inside the shed. The last ship to be made at Wormwood
Scubs. |
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| A close up of the gondola
of the S.S.T 15 in the shed. |
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