British naval airship plans drown in Humber
Exactly 100 years ago, on 24 August 1921, during its fourth trial flight, the R38 (ZR-2) rigid airship, purchased by the US Navy from Britain's Royal Air Force, broke into two parts and fell into the Humber River at Hull, England.
The airship with a payload of 46 t, the biggest until the construction of LZ 127 (Graf Zeppelin) in 1928, carried to their deaths 28 British nationals and 16 Americans, including Air Commodore E. M. Maitland, who served on the first East-West Atlantic crossing of R34 in 1919, and Louis H. Maxfield, the prospective US commanding officer.
The first of the great airship disasters marked the end of the British naval airship plans. It was followed by the Italian-built semi-rigid airship Roma in 1922 (34 dead), the French Dixmude in 1923 (52), R101 in 1930 (48), the USS Akron in 1933 (73), the USS Macon in 1935 (2), and the Hindenburg in 1937 (36). (ah)