This continued after the war when the coalition government approved a project to build two large airships, the R100 and R101, on the site.
After the halt closed to passenger traffic in 1921, numerous sidings were constructed on the site to serve the camp and these were used to receive materials needed for the construction of the R100 and R101 airships.
R100 | Radeon R100 |
Barnes Wallis, inspired by his earlier experience with light alloy structures and the use of geodesically-arranged wiring to distribute the lifting loads of the gasbags in the design of the R100 airship, evolved the geodetic construction method (although it is commonly stated, there was no geodetic structure in R100).
Experiments involving SSTs were carried out at the end of the war; one notable example being SSE.3 (SS Experimental) that had an envelope design known as shape "U.271", the shape from which the hulls of both R100 and R101 were derived.
A subsidiary called the Airship Guarantee Company Limited was formed under Sir Dennis Burney from 29 November 1923 (lasting until 30 November 1935) specifically to participate in the building of a massive six-engined experimental airship, the R100 in competition with the government built R101 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme.
The biplane Vickers Type 253 design, which used a radical geodesic airframe construction that was derived from that used by Barnes Wallis in the airship R100, was ordered by the Ministry and tested against the specification along with the Fairey G.4/31, Westland PV-7, Handley Page HP.47, Armstrong Whitworth A.W.19, Blackburn B-7, Hawker P.V.4 and the Parnall G.4/31.