1. REDIRECT

R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry-appointed team and was effectively in competition with the government-funded but privately designed and built R100. When built it was the world's largest flying craft at in length, and it was not surpassed by another hydrogen-filled rigid airship until the Hindenburg flew seven years later — the U.S. Navy's twin helium-filled rigids USS Akron, which first flew in late September 1931, and USS Macon were each some 784 ft (239 m) long, each longer and with approximately one million cubic feet greater lifting gas capacity each, than the hydrogen-filled R101.

1. REDIRECT

R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry-appointed team and was effectively in competition with the government-funded but privately designed and built R100. When built it was the world's largest flying craft at in length, and it was not surpassed by another hydrogen-filled rigid airship until the Hindenburg flew seven years later — the U.S. Navy's twin helium-filled rigids USS Akron, which first flew in late September 1931, and USS Macon were each some 784 ft (239 m) long, each longer and with approximately one million cubic feet greater lifting gas capacity each, than the hydrogen-filled R101.