Admiralty and Air Ministry: Naval Aircraft Works, Later Royal Airship Works, Cardington:...

AIR 11

1911-1939

The series contains the papers, etc, of this establishment and includes plans, memoranda and data referring to, and photographs of, various balloons, rigid and non-rigid airships, both British and foreign, and files on airship flights and tours.

Records of the Royal Airship Works are in:

Other related material can be found in AIR 38

The papers of Balloon Command which was responsible for the deployment of balloons during the Second World War are in AIR 13

Logbooks for airships are in AIR 3

For drawings of the airships and engines, see AIR 12

Public Record(s)

English

• Admiralty, Naval Aircraft Works, 1917-1919
• Air Ministry, Naval Aircraft Works, 1919-1921
• Air Ministry, Royal Airship Works, 1921-1936

255 files and volumes

A Naval Aircraft Works, run by Short Brothers, was established at Cardington in 1917 under the control of the Admiralty. The Air Ministry took responsibility in 1919. In 1921 the works was renamed the Royal Airship Works. The Works was active in building airships for both military and civil customers during the 1920s, and this activity is reflected in the records in this series. After the R101 disaster in 1930 the Works rapidly wound down, most staff being reappointed to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough. The Royal Aircraft Works was finally disbanded in 1936 and simply became known as RAF Station Cardington. With the approach of the Second World War the Balloon Development Establishment was set up in 1938. The Balloon Development Establishment was in turn absorbed into the Ministry of Supply as the Research and Development Establishment, Cardington in 1945.