Talk:R38-class airship

message: Just spotted this web site detailing the memorial and the men on the airship that may be useful for expanding the article. I will also try and get a photo of the memorial for the article next time I am in the area. Keith D (talk) 12:58, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I now have a photo of the memorial and the middle panel and will up load them later. The panels with the names are no longer present, do not know if they have been removed for safety purposes or vandalised. Keith D (talk) 16:21, 15 April 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The memorial has been refurbished and the plaques of names replaced so I have uploaded a new image of the memorial :File:R38 Memorial Kingston upon Hull.jpg. Keith D (talk) 23:55, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Useful information

message: It's my understanding (based on Nevil Shute's autobiography Slide Rule) that the entire design of the airship was by the British Government - as the Air Ministry. Short Brothers built to the design and did no engineering. Short's are NOT blamed in the current text. The Air Ministyr then went on to design the R101 (which also failed badly)
I do not know if this is true and perhaps a more learned historian can amend the text accordingly? Offbeam (talk) 19:37, 24 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  design/build 

message: Nevil Shute Norway (Nevil Shute) is my favorite author. I posses every one of his books. Yet I am well aware of certain things he states in Slide Rule which are historically in error. C.I.R. Campbell, the man who was responsible for the deisgn of the R38, was killed by his creation not rewarded by being allowed to design of R.101. Therefore he did not have to be "sacked" as his creation killed him. I understand Mr. Norway's (Nevil Shute's) ideological beliefs and motivations. That does not make them true or explain why they should be included in the Wikipedia article on the R38. One consequence of the R38 disaster was the requirement for future British airships to be designed with a reduced number of longitudinal members so that forces could be accurately determined. The strength requirements placed upon designers of the R100 and R101 were by the standards of airship design extreme and resulted in both the R100 and R.101 being considerably heavier than other (Zeppelin and Goodyear-Zeppelin) rigid airship designs by volume. Mr. Nevil Shute Norway describes in Slide Rule calculating the forces and therefor the strength of the structural members of R100. The volume of lifting gas and thus lift is fixed. Lift less airship weigh determines the efficiency of an airship. The higher the weight the less the disposable lift available for crew, accommodations, fuel and payload. Campbell was negligent in his assumption that the dynamic loads on the Admiralty A design were not of consequence. This was an assumption for which he paid the ultimate penalty. Still Mr. Norway's accusation that the men responsible for the R38 were responsible for the design of R.101 in Slide Rule was in error. I feel that some remediation of the final statement in this article needs to be made. To leave it as it stands reduces the historic accuracy and thus the encyclopedic value. Ether the end of the article need be expanded to explain Mr. Norway's error or removed to ameliorate the historic error. The later seems more appropriate.
Mark Lincoln (talk) 20:53, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Severe Problem With Article End 

message: British airship nomenclature was often consistent and often not. In the case of rigids there was HMS NO. 1 followed by HMA NO. 9r to HMA NO 25r. Thereafter they were designated by R. such as HMA R.26 to HMA R.101. Non-rigid were a bit more confusing with designation varying in the early days from a simple name to HMA NO. followed by a number. This system was replaced by one of the type - number such as SS-31. Then the designation system changed to one similar to rigids with the type designated by letter followed by a period#. such as C.#, SSZ.#. This nomenclature system broke down severely when C.27 was followed by C*1. This was further confused when the practice of painting designations on airships excluding the period was followed by painting periods on airships such as N.S. 12 which was properly designated NS-12. Fortunately there were far fewer rigid airships and they followed the system of the period in which they were contracted though this left similar airships having either the designation HMA NO. 25r or HMA R.26. The proper legal designation for the airship in this article was R.38 For all the grim details see Mowthorpe, Ces. Battlebags: British Airships of the First World War, 1995 ISBN 0-905778-13-8.
Mark Lincoln (talk) 20:49, 17 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proper Nomenclature