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In the mid-1920s the British government developed the Imperial Airship Scheme to connect the far-flung British Empire by air. The plan began with the contracting of two huge dirigibles, R100 and R101. The R100 was designed and constructed by a private subsidiary of Vickers, while R101 was built by a competing government agency. The R100, when completed in 1930, was the size of an ocean liner and could carry 100 passengers in comfort at a speed of 81 miles per hour. In 1930 she made her first transatlantic flight to Canada, and in spite of minor problems the new airship was considered a success. However, the crash of R101 with heavy loss of life later that year spelled the end of the Imperial Airship Scheme, and though she had proved to be a good design, R100 was scrapped in 1931. This model builds into an accurate and detailed 1/700 scale replica of R100 as she appeared on her transatlantic voyage. 11-Apr-2002 A simplified version of the R100 parts file is now available for modelers who wish to print onto metallic paper. Canford "Frosted Silver" stock, manufactured by Daler-Rowney, looks like it would work well with this model. Go to the file download page to obtain this model. Click here to see photos of the finished model. Note to webmasters! If you want to offer this kit on your site, please read this first.
To print your own model 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. The parts and instructions are in Adobe PDF format, and have been compressed into ZIP files for faster transfer. They should work on any Windows, Macintosh, OS/2 or Unix/Linux computer. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader and an un-ZIP program. If files are unavailable or slow to download, try at a different time of day, when the file servers may be less busy. Primary site: Follow this link to download the instruction and parts files.
Secondary site: If you have trouble downloading files using the above link, you can try getting them from another site.
To purchase a pre-printed model The model may be purchased as a pre-printed kit from Paper Models International for those who want high quality laser-printed parts sheets without the bother of downloading and printing. This kit also includes the mooring mast model. Go to the pre-printed models page for more details.
Related links The R100 in Canada - From the Canada Aviation Museum, this document tells the story of R100 and her successful transatlantic flight. Many photos are included. This is is a PDF file (size approx. 1.3 Mb), not a web page. Airshipsonline: The Imperial Airship Service - A wealth of information about the R100, R101 and the British airship programme. Les dirigeables R-100 et R-101 - Many rare photos of the great British airships. This site is in French, but is worth a visit for non-French speakers.
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Last updated on December 6, 2005 Copyright 2002-2005 by Ralph Currell |
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