A curve ball pitched amongst a weekend based around other things, the Cardington airship hangers are no secret and no grail. They're marked discreetly on the SuperSize A-Z in small red text a few millimeters high. If you turn your eyes from the motorway for a moment you might notice their twin forms looming over the surrounds. Like MCAS Tustin these hangers, these ziggurats overwhelm everything around with little effort.
Hanger
Exterior of the hanger in use by the Airship company. The green hanger in the background is filled with Warner Bros trinkets (and workers).
Their quiet somber demeanor may be deserved however, for involvement in the history of airship R101. You've probably never heard of R101, I certainly hadn't. The 777ft long (that's 137.88 indian elephants end to end) R101 was assembled inside the massive Cardington Hangers, with a final volume of 5.5 million cubic feet (160,000 m³). On October 4th 1930 R101 departed Cardington on a flight to India, a journey of ~7000km. Most cars won't make it that far without one problem or another, our forefathers were clearly batshit fucking insane. On the 5th of October, over France, R101 burst into flames and plummeted into the ground. Even the claimed non-inflammable heavy fuel oil caught alight, and burned on for 24 hours. The small world of airship disaster real estate is dominated by the Hindenburg though it's behind R101 on the fatality leader board. Forty eight people died in the crash, most in the blazing inferno before R101 even hit the ground.
Under the sea
An odd fish indeed, below the tranquil seas of blue.
Today one hanger is owned by Warner Brothers for use as a massive sounds stage, it holds many of the Batman sets and even the Batmobile. The other is owned by Airship Technologies. Not dissuaded by the ominous history of Cardington they're building and testing airships, one of which we were lucky to see moored (parked?) inside. That's humankind right there as I see it. We'll build these monstrosities and know we're crazy for doing so, but bold enough to say "Fuck it, we're building it anyways." R101 had a smoking room, lined with asbestos no less, to accommodate 24 people merrily puffing away on their pipes, cigars and cigarettes, as was the fashion of the day.
Scorched Earth
I must tip my hat to these crazy motherfuckers; they weren't afraid of lung cancer or asbestosis, not a care in the world. Today you can't smoke within 5 meters of the door to a government building. You can't smoke on bus, a plane or a train. The final bastion of smoker's resistance, the pub, has been overthrown to. Seventy years ago though you could take to the skies in a giant balloon full of hydrogen, wrap yourself in an asbestos room and puff to your heart's content. Hydrogen burns, but the trusty asbestos will protect me. Heaven help the poor drunken soul who got a lil rowdy and punched in a few asbestos walls. If the giant floating hydrogen bomb doesn't get you, the damn asbestosis will. This is lunacy of the highest order, lunacy endorsed by the government, the military and the paying public. I don't know where this type of thinking went but bring it back. Deep down, us humans are just plain old fucking crazy.
Hanger
Exterior of the hanger in use by the Airship company. The green hanger in the background is filled with Warner Bros trinkets (and workers).
Their quiet somber demeanor may be deserved however, for involvement in the history of airship R101. You've probably never heard of R101, I certainly hadn't. The 777ft long (that's 137.88 indian elephants end to end) R101 was assembled inside the massive Cardington Hangers, with a final volume of 5.5 million cubic feet (160,000 m³). On October 4th 1930 R101 departed Cardington on a flight to India, a journey of ~7000km. Most cars won't make it that far without one problem or another, our forefathers were clearly batshit fucking insane. On the 5th of October, over France, R101 burst into flames and plummeted into the ground. Even the claimed non-inflammable heavy fuel oil caught alight, and burned on for 24 hours. The small world of airship disaster real estate is dominated by the Hindenburg though it's behind R101 on the fatality leader board. Forty eight people died in the crash, most in the blazing inferno before R101 even hit the ground.
Under the sea
An odd fish indeed, below the tranquil seas of blue.
Today one hanger is owned by Warner Brothers for use as a massive sounds stage, it holds many of the Batman sets and even the Batmobile. The other is owned by Airship Technologies. Not dissuaded by the ominous history of Cardington they're building and testing airships, one of which we were lucky to see moored (parked?) inside. That's humankind right there as I see it. We'll build these monstrosities and know we're crazy for doing so, but bold enough to say "Fuck it, we're building it anyways." R101 had a smoking room, lined with asbestos no less, to accommodate 24 people merrily puffing away on their pipes, cigars and cigarettes, as was the fashion of the day.
Scorched Earth
I must tip my hat to these crazy motherfuckers; they weren't afraid of lung cancer or asbestosis, not a care in the world. Today you can't smoke within 5 meters of the door to a government building. You can't smoke on bus, a plane or a train. The final bastion of smoker's resistance, the pub, has been overthrown to. Seventy years ago though you could take to the skies in a giant balloon full of hydrogen, wrap yourself in an asbestos room and puff to your heart's content. Hydrogen burns, but the trusty asbestos will protect me. Heaven help the poor drunken soul who got a lil rowdy and punched in a few asbestos walls. If the giant floating hydrogen bomb doesn't get you, the damn asbestosis will. This is lunacy of the highest order, lunacy endorsed by the government, the military and the paying public. I don't know where this type of thinking went but bring it back. Deep down, us humans are just plain old fucking crazy.
