Inside Shed No. 2 at Cardington

No. 2 Shed was the home of the R.100 during her flying career. It is now the Building Research Establishment's testing facility and is strictly off-limits to the public, but on Sept. 18th 1994, the BRE held an open day, and the gigantic structure could at last be seen from close quarters in all its splendour. I was at a very early stage in the writing of Curly's Airships, and travelled from Norfolk to Bedford for this rare event. I was overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the space, a space that, in Curly's day, was almost entirely filled (to within six feet at either end) by the airship it sheltered. My photo shows a couple of substantial 1920s fire engines dwarfed like toys at one end of the shed. Nothing today gives a better idea of what the giant airships must have been like than a visit to the Cardington sheds.