The Story of the R100 and R101 IV: A Big Day Out
R100 at Cardington. When we last saw R100, she was at the docking mast at Cardington, getting ready for her flight to Canada. This post is all about that trip - though it also is about what the Imperial Airship service might have been like, had it been established. R100 was supposed to have taken the trip to the Dominion of Canada as early as May, but minor problems managed to delay the flight to the end of July 1930. So when the chance actually came, the men of the R100 program were chomping at the bit to get going. Having flown an extensive series of flight tests (at least compared to R101), and with all systems working in harmony, departing to Canada was simply a matter of loading enough fuel, in this case, 34.5 tons of gasoline.The Captain for the flight was to be Squadron Commander Booth, and Caption George Meager, one of our narrators, to be first mate. The flight crew for R100's trans-Atlantic trip was its usual crew: a roughly proportional mixture of Navy LTA...