Cardington Airship Hangers
The Cardington Airship Hangers were originally built to house the R101 airship which was intended to be used to ferry cargo and passengers from the UK to India in the 1930s. These airships, as you can tell from the size of the hangers were huge, over 700ft long. Unfortunately on its maiden voyage the airship crashed into a hillside near Beauvais, north of Paris. The crash ignited the hydrogen gas bag and fire quickly engulfed the entire airship. This spelled the end of the British attempt to create lighter-than-air aircraft and the R101’s competitor, the R100, was scrapped despite a safe trans-atlantic trial flight.
The South hanger is now owned by Airship Technologies, who are trying to revive the airship business. The North hanger is used as a super big sound stage for films. Most of the outdoor Gotham Cty scenes for Batman Begins were filmed inside the hanger, aswell as several recent James Bond films.
Thanks: Loz
A bit weird that they would name the sequal airship 100 after the 101!
(wikipedia information disclaimers apply)
They were actually built at the same time. The idea was that if you had two competing teams trying to design the same type of craft, they’d try to out-do each other, hence you’d end up with better airships.
Sadly, instead you ended up with a rushed design and major flaws.
Frickin hell! They’re **huge**!
The R-100 flew to Canada and back safely, before the R-101 set off…
they are huge but actually they should be called airship sheds not hangars. airships are built in sheds.
the airship heritage trust have loads of info on the airships and the site in general, and video clips too.
trev
http://www.airshipsonline.com
i was in them a few years ago, a guy there said each hanger has 44 million cubic feet in each, not sure if thats floor coverage ? there is also a 10 story block of flats in one and thats not even close to the roof ! it took me 30 mins to get to the roof by the stairs in them.
They also filmed the last series of Red Dwarf in them ! and did u know they werent built in Bedford, they were first Built in Sounthampton and dissmantled in 1902 and transported up to Bedford and reasembled.
Vauxhalls use to keep their cars in hanger 1 but the rusted bolts from the roof were dropping and going through the bodys of the cars
well the age you give them is not quite right, shed 1 was origionally built in 1916 at cardington for the shorts bro, shed 2, (the building and batman one) was origionaly errected at pullham norfolk.
for the Imperial airship scheme the R101 and R100 project shed 1 was enlarged from 700 ft to 812 ft and heightened too, shed two was dismantled from pullham and the same alterations were made, they are not identical if you look closely however.
ford used to store cars up there but as you said the bolts kept damaging them, also in the early 90’s paul mcartney practiced up there with a husge stage for a world tour.
trev
http://www.airshipsonline.com
English Heritage, in their formal description of the Grade 2* Listed Building (”Cardington no.1 shed at RAF Cardington”), give the dimensions as 812 by 275 by 180 feet. If the shed were flat topped, that would suggest a cubic capacity of 1,140,539 cubic metres. It adds that in 1926/7 the shed’s length was increased from 700 to 812 feet and its height was raised from 145 to 180 feet to take the R101 airship.
i go past these on a regular basis and can tell you that they also filmed some of the new charlie and the chocolate factory there. there are some of the ‘wonka’ vans parked outside the hanger and can clearly be seen when driving past!!
OMG i hate those i am at the under 11 and i am very scared when i pass it, i pass it every 2 months to goto ipswich and it scares the life out of me! i think they should be demolished! i also know that bat man was filmed there ! and charlie and the chocolae factory wasnt please let them be knocked down however they cant be knocked down because they are now listed hopefuly aliens will take them away! 1 time we came write close to it and i could see the lock, i hated the rust looked like blood yuk!
I went past these yesterday on the train, they are collossal. Glad they are listed, nice to preserve a hit of recent history