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    British Airship Shed  
(Illustration of airship shed)  Skill Level: 3/5     

For almost 80 years 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, R100 and R101, were housed in the sheds and it seemed Cardington would be the hub of a world-spanning airship fleet. The tragic loss of R101 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, Advanced Technology Group using them for development of modern airships.

Cardington sheds
Sheds No.1 and No.2 in 1930, housing airships R101 (left) and R100.

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

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.
Go to the download page
 


Related links
 

Airshipsonline: Cardington - A detailed history of the Cardington sheds and the British airship programme.

Cardington shed panorama - An interactive 360-degree view of the No.1 shed interior. Requires Java be enabled in your browser.

Stop the Blot! - A large warehouse building is currently being planned near the airship sheds. While this would not damage the sheds themselves, it would drastically alter their setting in the landscape. This site provides an explanation of the issue and an online form for registering your objection to this project.
 

Last updated on December 6, 2005 
Copyright 2005 by Ralph Currell