Name me a large airship that has not suffered some catastrophic disaster?
Since Scuffers asked, how about
:
Graf Zeppelin - over a million miles flown in 590 flights, 34,000 passengers carried and a round the world flight which clearly didn't have a suitable shed at each stop.
USS Los Angeles - 4181 hours, 331 flights
R100 - Transatlantic Atlantic out and return crossing
All were built before 1930, and only the USS Los Angeles used helium, so not bad for technology 86 years ago.
Its worth noting the link between the R100 and the Airlander:
One of HAV’s major shareholders is aviation enthusiast and entrepreneur Bruce Dickinson, also well known in non-aerospace circles as the lead singer of rock band Iron Maiden, who outlined the new technology used in Airlander: “Barnes Wallis’ R100 airship of the 1920s was a great design but was limited by the technologies of the day,” he explained. “The construction materials were inadequate, the engines were heavy and inefficient, flight controls were cumbersome, radar didn’t exist and navigation and weather forecasting were still at an early stage of development. In later life, Barnes Wallis wrote a note for Roger Munk, saying: ‘Solve these problems and the airship will become an efficient and viable mode of transport.’ The issues to be tackled were stability and flight control, structures, increased payload, more powerful engines, improved capabilities in poor weather and forecasting and easier ground-handling. Now we have the technology to revisit this fundamentally sound design to make it efficient and make it work.”
Its sad that Roger Munk did not live to see his dream take to Cardington skies, however I'm sure both he and Barnes Wallis would be overjoyed that the result of that conversation is now casting its shadow on those iconic sheds.