Collection
Société historique et culturelle du
Marigot, 2006
Only
a few events in the history of the Province of Quebec
have produced such a reverberating echo as the coming,
in 1930, of the R-100 airship. Not only was the
media coverage exceptional, as popular singer Mary
Travers (La Bolduc) put it, in one of her songs:
«Tout l'monde parle du R-100» or «Everyone's
talking about the R-100». From regional perspective,
the flight of the R-100 was the biggest tourist
event in the communities of the Montreal South Shore.
From the provincial perspective, it was no less
important than Expo 67. In terms of technological
challenge, however, the interest was worldwide.
The
catastrophe of the R-101 crash in France had as
huge a media fallout in this country as in England.
Although relatively short, the life spans of the
R-100 and R-101 reflected an entire decade of innovation
in the history of aviation.
As
a majestic spectacle, a technological breakthrough
and a media event, the history of the R-100, that
beautiful silver aerial hsip, the Titanic of the
sky, is all of that and much more.. This book relates
the success of the first and the failure of the
second.