Airship mooring mast - Currell.net

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In the 1920s the British government developed the Imperial Airship Scheme, a plan to have a fleet of huge dirigibles providing mail and passenger service to the far-flung empire. To support this plan, mooring masts were constructed at Cardington in England, St.Hubert in Canada, Ismailia in Egypt, and Karachi in India. These masts were gigantic 200-foot structures, with lifts and other machinery necessary to bring fuel, crew, passengers and cargo to the airship moored at the top of the tower.

In 1930 the destruction of the airship R101 with great loss of life caused the cancellation of the Airship Scheme. The mooring masts, built at great expense, were now just impressive relics, and over the years were demolished.

In the 1920s the British government developed the Imperial Airship Scheme, a plan to have a fleet of huge dirigibles providing mail and passenger service to the far-flung empire. To support this plan, mooring masts were constructed at Cardington in England, St.Hubert in Canada, Ismailia in Egypt, and Karachi in India. These masts were gigantic 200-foot structures, with lifts and other machinery necessary to bring fuel, crew, passengers and cargo to the airship moored at the top of the tower.

In 1930 the destruction of the airship R101 with great loss of life caused the cancellation of the Airship Scheme. The mooring masts, built at great expense, were now just impressive relics, and over the years were demolished.

Information on the mooring mast from other sites:

The R.100 in Canada - From the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, this document tells the story of R.100 and her successful transatlantic flight. Many photos are included. (Mo longer displayed at the museum site, but I've linked to a saved copy at archive.org).

Airship Heritage Trust: The Cardington Airship Station - The home station of the British airship fleet, including information on the mooring mast and airship sheds.

Information on the mooring mast from other sites:

The R.100 in Canada - From the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, this document tells the story of R.100 and her successful transatlantic flight. Many photos are included. (Mo longer displayed at the museum site, but I've linked to a saved copy at archive.org).

Airship Heritage Trust: The Cardington Airship Station - The home station of the British airship fleet, including information on the mooring mast and airship sheds.

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Airship mooring mast

Illustration of mooring mast

Photo of mooring mast model

Skill Level 3/5
Previous experience recommended.

This model builds into an accurate 1:700 scale replica of the St.Hubert mooring mast at the time of R.100's Canadian visit.

You will need a colour printer capable of handling card or cover stock to print the parts sheets. 67 lb cover stock (approx 8.5 thousandths of an inch or 0.2 mm thick) is recommended.

An optional larger display base for letter or A4 paper is also available.

Flight simulator enthusiast Alan Hart has created a mooring mast scenery file for use with Microsoft FS 2002. He has kindly made this file available for free download. For installation info, view the readme file. The link to the full scenery file is given below.
Thanks, Alan, for this great-looking design!

See photos of the finished model.

Brief history and related links.

The model files

mastinst.pdf - 146 KiB - This document contains the instructions only (3 pages).

mastprts.pdf - 349 KiB - This document contains the parts for the mooring mast model (1 page).

mast_base_lg.pdf - 271 KiB - This document contains the optional large display base (1 page).

Flight simulator scenery files

airship_mast_fs2002.zip - 144 KiB - This document contains scenery files for Microsoft FS 2002 (designed by Alan Hart).

The parts and instructions are in Adobe PDF format. Your web browser may allow you to read and print these files, otherwise you'll need a PDF reader such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader.

Last updated on 4 February 2021
Copyright 2002-2021 by Ralph Currell.