On this day in 1930, a British dirigible crashes in Beauvais,
France, killing 49 people. The blimp, which was Great Britain's
biggest, had first been launched about a year earlier. In the
1920s, the major European nations competed with each other to
build larger and larger blimps in order to gain control over the
fledgling air-travel industry. As the decade came to an end, the
R-101 was Great Britain's latest model. It was 777 feet long,
weighed 150 tons and could carry 100 passengers. It was powered
by six Rolls-Royce engines. On its maiden voyage on October 14,
1929, engine troubles arose immediately, causing the blimp to be
grounded for almost a year. Finally, it was brought back into
service the following October with assistance from Lord Thomson,
a member of Parliament who championed the endeavor. Thomson was
one of four passengers, along with a 52-member crew, on board
the blimp as it took off on the evening of October 5 for a trip
to the Far East. The trip was problematic from the start. First,
the cre