This picture prompted a question - ”Why would someone paint this particular airship?”
And as a result I’ve discovered that R34wasfamousin1919 as the second aircraft in history to make a nonstop transatlantic flight as well as being the first to do it East-to-West against the prevailing winds.
(Charles Lindbergh wasn’t the first person by a long chalk; he was 67th, or indeed 97th if counting R34′s crew on each leg of their out-and-back round trip. His fame came from doing it solo.)
R34′s complement included two stowaways, Aircraftman William Ballantyne and ship’s cat & mascot “Whoopsie”.
Never one to miss a PR opportunity, the Edison Company presented R34′s crew with a gramophone and some records. From the look of things, Whoopsie is already considering the most effective way to leap onto its moving parts…
The airship was 643 ft / 196 m long.
So of course the crew nicknamed her “Tiny”.
Specifically, her historic transatlantic flight went from East Fortune near Edinburgh (now the site of the National Museum of Flight; they have a little exhibit about the ship) to Mineola in Long Island. For anyone interested in further reading, Flight of the Titan by George Rosie is a very detailed account of the voyage. It was, apparently, very much not smooth sailing; they hit some pretty awful weather on the way and the engines kept breaking down.
