R31 - class airship The " R31 " class of British rigid airship s was constructed in the closing months of World War I and comprised two aircraft , His Majesty ' s Airship " R31 " and " R32 " . They were designed by the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors – with assistance from a Herr Müller who had defected to Britain and previously worked for the Schütte - Lanz airship company – and built by Short Brothers at the Cardington airship sheds . The airship frame was made from spruce plywood laminated into girder sections , weatherproofed with varnish , and also fireproofed . These enclosed 21 gas bags . " R31 " was the largest British airship to fly before the end of the war , and the class remains the largest mobile wooden structures ever built . As the airships were intended for fleet protection operations , they were to be fitted with defensive machine guns on top of the envelope , at the stern and in the gondolas . A 12 - pounder gun was to be fitted in a special position centrally below the airship for use against U - boat s . In the event , this armament was only fitted to " R31 " , as " R32 " was only completed after the armistice with Germany . It had also been intended to fit a bomb load of two bombs and four bombs . but with the end of hostilities these were never installed on either airship . Operational history . " R31 " . " R31 " made her first trial flight of two hours in July 1918 under the command of Squadron Leader W . C . Hinks . A top speed of was achieved : well above the expected and faster than any other airship then in service . She was originally powered by six Rolls - Royce Eagle engines , but in view of the performance and to reduce fuel consumption one was removed , reducing the maximum speed to a still satisfactory ; similarly the " R32 " was built with six engines and later converted to a five - engine configuration . The airship was finally commissioned on 6 November 1918 , just before the armistice with Germany , after having spent four hours in the air . She set off again under the command of Squadron Leader Hincks for the airship base at East Fortune in Scotland . On the journey she encountered bad weather and it was feared that some of the plywood girders were failing , so she diverted to the airship base at Howden , East Riding of Yorkshire , for examination and repair . Unfortunately , the sheds had not been repaired since the " R27 " had caught fire three months earlier and the roof in particular leaked badly . This caused the glue holding the plywood together to deteriorate ; as a result , the airship became un - airworthy and beyond repair . In February 1919 she was dismantled . The covering was removed and returned to Cardington while the frames were sold for £200 ; these were broken up and sold for firewood but due to the fireproofing treatment they had received they would not burn . " R32 " . After being formally accepted by the Royal Navy , " R32 " made her first trial flight on 3 September 1919 and then on 6 September went to RNAS Pulham , Norfolk . On 10 September in formation with the " R33 " she made a flight over the Netherlands , Belgium and Northern France and back to Pulham . In October 1919 the " R32 " with the rest of the airship fleet was formally handed over to the Royal Air Force . There then followed a period when the airship was used by the National Physical Laboratory for structural testing . On 20 March 1920 she was flown to the base at Howden , East Yorkshire , to be refurbished and used for crew training by the American party who had come to accept the R38 ( ZR - 2 ) . When the metal - framed R80 became available , the use of the by now obsolete wooden - framed " R32 " stopped and , to save money , she was decommissioned and used to assess the effect of a gas - bag bursting . Once the covering had been removed and the engines taken away , cell No . 18 was overpressurised until the expansion caused the bracing and structure to fail . The frame was subsequently dismantled .