Zeppelinheim

Yes indeed, the iconic Empire State Building was designed to act as a mooring mast for dirigibles: Illustration from the ESB Dedication Booklet Hendrick Stoops

    The R-100... faired much better [than the R-101] even though it was further from the public eye. The ship was designed to fly on the Transat route and, on July the 29 th,  1930; it departed for the mooring mast in St. Hubert with a full contingent of reporters. The flight was as well received as it was stunning: Before departing back to Cardington, the passengers had breakfast in an ornate and distinctly British atmosphere over Niagara Falls, lunch was served over Toronto, and dinner above the white caps of the Atlantic. The ship arrived safely at Cardington twenty-two days later. It would never fly again. ~ excerpt from my essay "A Fallen Dream: The end of commercial airships". The full essay will be up on the blog within a few days to a week. R-100 Main Lounge publicity photo (Courtesy of A.H.T.) R-100 promenade windows (Courtesy of A.H.T.) Hendrick Stoops

I Had to post this full-size

 Did you know: The R-100 was very likely earmarked for the name "Pollux". More commonly known as Hercules, Pollux was one of the two Aurgonauts to travel with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece; The other, Castor or Apollo, would have been the name of the R-101. R-101 over Toronto Hendrick Stoops

  And my featured airship for the month of December is: the H.M.A. R-100. The featured airship for the month will be (obviously) the airship I will be featuring for one month. Over the course of a month I will include photographs, Mini-essays, facts, and links featuring the chosen airship. To start off here are a few photo's of the lesser known "sister ship" to the ill-fated R-101: the "Capitalist Ship" His Majesties Airship R(igid)-100.  The old and the new.      An extremely rare colorphoto of the R-101 in St. Hubert, Canada Hendrick Stoops