page_title: R38-class airship
section_title: Fatal crash
hierarchical_section_title: R38-class airship / Operational history / Fatal crash
caption_attribution_description: English: Crash of British airship R-38 (U.S. Navy ZR-2), 24 August 1921. Rescue party cutting into the fabric hull covering, near the tail, in an effort to save airmen trapped in the wreckage, "scarcely one-half hour" after the airship broke up, exploded and crashed into the Humber River at Hull, England.
context_page_description: The R38 class of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were originally ordered by the Admiralty, but orders for three of these were cancelled after the armistice with Germany and R.38, the lead ship of the class, was sold to the United States Navy in October 1919 before completion. On 24 August 1921, R-38 was destroyed by a structural failure while in flight over the city of Hull. It crashed into the Humber Estuary, killing 44 out of the 49 crew aboard. At the time of its first flight it was the world's largest airship. Its destruction was the first of the great airship disasters, followed by the Italian-built US semi-rigid airship Roma in 1922, the French Dixmude in 1923, the British R101 in 1930, the USS Akron in 1933, the USS Macon in 1935, and the German Hindenburg in 1937.
context_section_description: Following a spell of bad weather, the airship was walked out on 23 August, and, in the early morning, took off for its fourth flight, which had an intended destination of RNAS Pulham in Norfolk, where it could be moored to a mast (a facility unavailable at Howden).  In the event, mooring proved impossible because of low cloud, and, so, the airship returned to sea for the night.  The next day, after a brief speed trial (during which a speed of 71.9 mph (115.7 km/h) was reached), a series of turning trials was started at a speed of 62.7 mph (100.9 km/h) and an altitude of 2,500 ft (760 m). At 17:37, while close offshore near Hull and watched by thousands of spectators, the structure failed amidships.  Eyewitnesses reported seeing creases down the envelope before both ends drooped.  This was followed by a fire in the front section, and then by an explosion which broke windows over a large area.  The remains fell into the shallow waters of the Humber Estuary. Sixteen of the 17 Americans, and 28 of the 32 Britons, in the crew were killed, including both Maitland and Pritchard. The only American to survive was Rigger Norman Otto Walker. Four of those who survived were in the tail section, and Flight Lieutenant Archibald Herbert Wann, R-38's British Commanding Officer, was in the control gondola and survived. A memorial was erected at Hull.
  There were three official enquiries into the disaster.  The first, chaired by Air Vice-Marshal Sir John Salmond and composed mainly of RAF personnel, was convened on 27 August.  Its remit was to consider the general circumstances of the accident, and, although it came to the conclusion that the structure had failed while extreme control forces were being exerted, it was considered necessary to carry out a more detailed technical inquiry into the airship's design.  The report also criticized the system by which a single authority was responsible both for the airship's construction and for inspection of the work, and, given the great differences between R38 and previous British designs, held that the design should have been subjected to a more thorough scrutiny.
  The Admiralty held a second inquiry into the history of the design of the airship, and into its construction up to the point where it was taken over from the Admiralty by the Air Ministry.  In contrast to the previous inquiry, this one concluded that the design did not incorporate any new features which affected the airship's strength, and further maintained that "there was at the time no body in existence which
  could have been called in to advise on the structural strength of R. 38."
  The technical Committee of Enquiry, chaired by Mervyn O'Gorman, concluded that no allowance had been made for aerodynamic stresses in the design, and that while no loads had been placed on the structure during testing that would not have been met in normal use, the effects of the manoeuvres made had weakened the hull.  No blame was attached to anyone, as this was not part of the committee's remit.
  The novelist Nevil Shute Norway worked on the design of the R100 airship for Vickers Ltd. from 1924. When he researched previous airship calculations and read the reports of the 1921 R38 crash he was "unable to believe the words he was reading" that "the civil servants concerned had made no attempt to calculate the aerodynamic forces ... " and he asked one of his chiefs  "if this could possibly be true. Not only did he confirm it but he pointed out that no one had been sacked over it or even suffered any censure. Indeed, he said, the same team of men had been entrusted with the construction of another airship, the R-101, which was to be built by the Air Ministry in competition with our own ship, the R-100" ("by rights they ought to be in gaol for manslaughter." (the R-101 crashed in 1930).
caption: Rescuers scramble across the wreckage of British R-38/USN ZR-2, 24 August 1921.
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