Airships roaring overhead

11:15am Monday 13th August 2001

Back in 1934 Elstree villagers were stunned to see a magnificent airship flying overhead.

The HMA R101 was built in 1929, and at the time was the largest man made object ever to fly.

It was designed to accommodate up to 200 troops, or to carry up to five fighter aircraft. It was kept in the sky with 5.5million cubic feet of gas, and could reach speeds of between 60 and 70 mph.

The photograph has been loaned to the Borehamwood & Elstree Community History Project by Jack William Innes Cowling, from Borehamwood's Thornbury Gardens. It was taken by his late wife Hazel, who lived at a farm in Elstree Hill South.

During the First World War a German Zeppelin airship, on a mission to bomb London, was shot down over the village of Cuffley, near Barnet. Royal Flying Corps officer William Leefe destroyed the airship in September 1916 with the machine gun on his fighter aeroplane. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for the attack.