Editing R38-class airship (section)

{{short description|British rigid airship class destroyed in 1921}}
{{redirect|R38}}
{{redirect|ZR-2|the GM S-Series ZR2|RPO ZR2}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
<!-- This article is a part of [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft]]. Please see [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/page content]] for recommended layout. -->
{{Infobox aircraft
 |name=''R38'' class (''A'' class) airship
 |image=Zr2aloft.jpg
 |caption=The R.38/ZR-2 making its first flight trial on 23 June 1921
 |type=Patrol airship
 |national_origin=United Kingdom
 |manufacturer=[[Short Brothers]]
 |designer=
 |first_flight=23 June 1921
 |introduction=
 |retired=
 |status= Destroyed 24 August 1921
 |primary_user=[[United States Navy]]
 |more_users=
 |produced= 1
 |number_built=1 (orders for 3 others cancelled)
 |variants=
}}

The '''''R.38'' class''' (also known as the '''''A'' class''') of [[rigid airship]]s was designed for Britain's [[Royal Navy]] during the final months of the [[First World War]], intended for long-range patrol duties over the [[North Sea]]. Four similar [[airship]]s were originally ordered by the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]], but orders for three of these (''R.39'', ''R.40'' and ''R.41'') were cancelled after the [[armistice with Germany]] and ''R.38'', the [[lead ship]] of the class, was sold to the [[United States Navy]] in October 1919 before completion.

On 24 August 1921, ''R.38'' (designated '''ZR-2''' by the USN) was destroyed by a structural failure while in flight over the city of [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]]. It crashed into the [[Humber|Humber Estuary]], killing 44 out of the 49 crew aboard and one black cat named Snowball.<ref>"Snowball". Cats in the Navy, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2022, p.152.</ref><ref>{{PastScape|mnumber=1512866|mname= Airship Monument in Hull|access-date=12 January 2013}} "Entry includes considerable details about the ship, flight, and crash."</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Driggs |first=Laurence La Tourette |date=7 September 1921 |title=The Fall of the Airship |magazine=[[The Outlook (New York)|The Outlook]] |location=New York|volume=129 |pages=14–15  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVroBrOJL64C&pg=PA14 |access-date=30 July 2009 }}</ref> At the time of its first flight it was the world's largest airship.<ref name=aht>{{cite web|url=http://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/r38/index.html|title=R38/ZR2|publisher=The Airship Heritage Trust|access-date= 14 December 2012}}</ref> Its destruction was the first of the great airship disasters, followed by the Italian-built US semi-rigid airship ''[[Roma (airship)|Roma]]'' in 1922 (34 dead), the French ''[[Dixmude (airship)|Dixmude]]'' in 1923 (52 dead), the [[USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)|USS ''Shenandoah'']] in 1925 (14 dead), the British [[R101]] in 1930 (48 dead), the {{USS|Akron}} in 1933 (73 dead), the [[USS Macon (ZRS-5)|USS ''Macon'']] in 1935 (2 dead), and the German ''[[Hindenburg disaster|Hindenburg]]'' in 1937 (36 dead).