From A. M. Clay
Your article on airships
(6 January, p 20) raised a doubt in my mind. You say
that the R101 airship had been lengthened and modified because the original
design was unstable, which I believe to be contrary to the facts. According to
J. E. Morpurgo’s biography of Barnes Wallis (Longman, 1972), R101 was lengthened
in 1929—and modified in other ways—simply to increase its lift, with
unknown aerodynamic consequences. During the Hendon Air Display in June 1930 it
showed “…extraordinary and sinister behaviour…overcontrol, plummeting when
she should have dived gently, bucking . . . and pitching as much as 25 degrees
from the horizontal.” Compare this with the eyewitness report in your
article.
Leeds
