A giant airship crossed the Atlantic there and back before anyone else managed it once.

A Historic Landing

On the morning of 13 July 1919, many people stood in the Norfolk countryside and looked at the clouds. A large silver object soon became visible which measured 643 feet in length and used five engines for power. When the British rigid airship R34 landed at Pulham, the event became a permanent part of the historical record. It had finished the first flight across the Atlantic plus back to the starting point.

The flight started eleven days earlier on 2 July when the ship rose from East Fortune in Scotland. On the ship were 30 crew members, one mascot for the officers, a kitten and a person who hid himself. William Ballantyne is the crewman who stayed on the ship secretly with the cat named Wopsie after he was removed from the list to make the ship lighter.

Into the Storm

As the R34 moved over the Atlantic, the conditions for the flight were dangerous. Strong winds hit the large vessel and caused it to move very slowly. By the time the ship was near the coast of North America, the situation was serious. Fuel levels were low, almost empty. To help the ship arrive safely, Major Pritchard jumped with a parachute from the airship to the ground. He did this so he could give instructions to the workers who were not experienced with landings. He was the first person who arrived in the United States by air on this trip.

The Faster Trip Home

On 6 July 1919, the R34 arrived in Mineola, Long Island and 140 gallons of fuel remained in the tanks. With this amount of fuel, the airship was able to fly for two hours if the engines operated at a low level of power. After the crew stayed in New York for a short period, they began the flight back to Europe on 10 July. Because the winds blew in a helpful direction, the trip home was faster and lasted for 75 hours and 3 minutes. On 13 July, the R34 reached Pulham.

For a short time this flight caused people to perceive the distance between locations as shorter than before. In newspapers and later historical records, writers described the trip as evidence that people would be able to fly across the Atlantic Ocean on a schedule in the future - but the period when individuals used passenger airships was not long. By a later date the R34 was damaged and officials took it out of service. And when the Hindenburg burned in 1937, people stopped trusting that large rigid airships were safe. Although airplanes are now more common, the first flight of the R34 is still an example of how early pilots acted with bravery.