100 years on from Scotland’s ground-breaking airship launch, could there be a return for lighter-than-air giants?
On this day in 1921 Scotland blazed a hydrogenfilled trail with the launch of the world’s first passenger airship.
Now, one century on, the inter-war transportation phenomenon is gearing up for a return to Scotland’s skies for the first time since the 1930s.
Should everything go to plan, a method of air travel that crashed and burned before it could ever truly take off will rise once more.
Originally designed in 1917 for military use, airship R36 was being adapted for commercial purposes by the time the first signatures appeared on the Treaty of Versailles.
Built by engineering firm William Beardmore and Co, the airship, which was modelled on and featured engines cannibalised from seized German zeppelins, was launched on April 1, 1921 at Inchinnan near Glasgow.
R36 was emblazoned with the civil registration G-FAAF, making it the first airship in the world to be granted the right to carry paying passengers.
Within months, the airship, capable of carrying up to 50 passengers in comfort, was carrying out demonstration flights and being used to help police control traffic at sporting events.
However her working life would prove to be short-lived. R36 was critically damaged on June 21, 1921, and was never used again. In August its sister ship R38 crashed, claiming the lives of 44 passengers and crew and ultimately putting an end to support for airship travel.
But the demise of the R36 and her sisters may not be game over for airships.
Billed as the world’s longest aircraft, the under development Airlander 10 is being tipped to bring airship travel into the 21st century. Prototypes of the Airlander 10 carried out a series of successful test flights in 2016 and 2017, and there could soon be much more to come.
Rebecca Zeitlin, head of communications at Hybrid Air Vehicles, told The Scotsman that the eco-friendly and electric powered hybrid aircraft will launch with 90 per cent fewer emissions than a standard jet aircraft, with a goal of zero emissions by 2030.
And it is filled with helium rather than the highly inflammable hydrogen which made early airships so dangerous.