Cardington Airship Shed - Currell.net

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For almost a century two huge structures have dominated the skyline near Bedford, England: the Cardington airship sheds. Originally built to manufacture military dirigibles at the end of the First World War, these sheds were enlarged to hold the gigantic passenger airships envisaged by the British government in the 1920s. The first two airships, R.100 and R.101, were housed in the sheds and it seemed Cardington would be the hub of a world-spanning airship fleet. The tragic loss of R1.01 in 1930 ended these dreams, and in subsequent years the sheds have been used to house barrage balloons, multi-story buildings for fire safety testing, and as movie sound stages. Currently the sheds have returned to their original purpose, Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. using them for development of modern airships.

Sheds No.1 and No.2 in 1930, housing airships R.101 (left) and R.100.

For almost a century two huge structures have dominated the skyline near Bedford, England: the Cardington airship sheds. Originally built to manufacture military dirigibles at the end of the First World War, these sheds were enlarged to hold the gigantic passenger airships envisaged by the British government in the 1920s. The first two airships, R.100 and R.101, were housed in the sheds and it seemed Cardington would be the hub of a world-spanning airship fleet. The tragic loss of R1.01 in 1930 ended these dreams, and in subsequent years the sheds have been used to house barrage balloons, multi-story buildings for fire safety testing, and as movie sound stages. Currently the sheds have returned to their original purpose, Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. using them for development of modern airships.

Cardington sheds
Sheds No.1 and No.2 in 1930, housing airships R.101 (left) and R.100.

Information on the Cardington sheds from other sites:

Airship Heritage Trust: The Cardington Airship Station - The home station of the British airship fleet, including information on the mooring mast and airship sheds.

RAF Cardington - Wikipedia article on the Cardington air base.

Information on the Cardington sheds from other sites:

Airship Heritage Trust: The Cardington Airship Station - The home station of the British airship fleet, including information on the mooring mast and airship sheds.

RAF Cardington - Wikipedia article on the Cardington air base.

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Cardington Airship Shed

Illustration of airship shed

Photo of airship shed model

Skill Level 3/5
Previous experience recommended.

This model builds into an accurate 1:700 scale replica of the Cardington Number One shed during the R101 era. The completed model is over 15 inches long.

You will need a colour printer capable of handling card or cover stock to print the parts sheets. 67 lb cover stock (approx 8.5 thousandths of an inch or 0.2 mm thick) is recommended.

See photos of the finished model.

Brief history and related links.

The model files

shed_instr.pdf - 314 KiB - This document contains the instructions only (5 pages).

shed_parts.pdf - 7.43 MiB - This document contains the parts for the model (7 pages).

shed_base.pdf - 6.37 MiB - This document contains the parts for the optional display base (2 pages).

The parts and instructions are in Adobe PDF format. Your web browser may allow you to read and print these files, otherwise you'll need a PDF reader such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader.

Last updated on 5 February 2021
Copyright 2005-2021 by Ralph Currell.