Montreal Airship Mast

Montreal Airship Mast.

The mast is in two parts to allow for simpler painting and is available in 1:600 and 1:700 scales to match my R100 kit.

The docking cup at the top of the mast matches the cone on the nose pin of my R100 Airship model.

The high visibility markings at the top of the mast were chrome red diamond shapes (traced out on the model) on a black background. The top stage of the four stages of steel work were chrome red, the next stage black followed by chrome red again and finally black.The base building was sandstone coloured with I believe, grey zinc sheet roofing.

Historical notes:

In 1924 the UK government in Westminster, London launched it’s Imperial Airship Scheme with plans to link the then enormous British Empire with an intercontinental air service using a fleet of purpose built giant rigid airships. By 1930 the first phase of the scheme was well advanced with the R100 and the R101 completed and infrastructure in place for two main routes: One westward from the central hub at Cardington in Bedfordshire, England across the Atlantic to Montreal in eastern Canada; and the second southeast from England via Ismailia in Egypt and onto Karachi, which is now in Pakistan but which was then northwestern India. Mooring masts had been constructed at Cardington, Ismailia, Karachi and as depicted in this model, at Saint Hubert Airfield, Montreal.

Just as dawn was breaking on 1st August 1930, R100 came down to the mast at Montreal to be greeted by thousands of Canadians who despite the earliness of the hour, had flocked to see the flying goliathan. She had left Cardington on the 29th July and was then based at St Hubert for 12 days during which time millions more people had the chance to see her both at the airfield and when she made a 24hr flight taking in Ottawa, Toronto and Niagara Falls. She was let go of the mast for the last time on 13th August and made the homeward leg across the Atlantic in a record breaking flight of 57 hours 56 minutes.

The Montreal Mast was the epicentre of the media frenzy surrounding R100's achievement. From it, a press gallery of 200 representing 40 different organisations telegraphed reports and pictures across the world. The mast was a massive 210 ft (64 mtrs) tall, was equipped with central elevators and had full gassing and fueling equipment for airships plus service facilities for passengers, all built into the elegantly designed base structure.