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Catalogue description Admiralty and Air Ministry: Naval Aircraft Works, Later Royal Airship Works, Cardington: Correspondence and Papers
| Reference: | AIR 11 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Admiralty and Air Ministry: Naval Aircraft Works, Later Royal Airship Works, Cardington: Correspondence and Papers |
| Description: |
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. |
| Date: | 1911-1939 |
| Related material: |
Records of the Royal Airship Works are in: Division within AVIA Logbooks for airships are in AIR 3 For drawings of the airships and engines, see AIR 12 The papers of Balloon Command which was responsible for the deployment of balloons during the Second World War are in AIR 13 Other related material can be found in AIR 38 |
| Held by: | The National Archives, Kew |
| Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
| Language: | English |
| Creator: |
Admiralty, Naval Aircraft Works, 1917-1919 Air Ministry, Naval Aircraft Works, 1919-1921 Air Ministry, Royal Airship Works, 1921-1936 |
| Physical description: | 255 files and volumes |
| Administrative / biographical background: |
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. |
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