Click here to listen: The R101 airship disaster – BBC Sounds
Sunday, October 5th, marks the 95th anniversary of one of the worst ever airship disasters, an event so catastrophic that it effectively ended British airship development. One of the men on board was Shropshire’s Frederick Michael Rope, a highly skilled engineer who had helped design the largest airship in the world. The R101 set off for India on 4 October 1930, from Cardington, near Bedford. The next day,y it crashed in France, killing 48 of the 55 people on board.
BBC Radio Shropshire’s Richard Tisdale tells the tragic story of the R101 with Alastair Lawson from the Airship Heritage Trust