London to Sydney by airship in 1926

Okay need some technical jigger-pokery advice. As part of my developing Imperial Federation timeline I'm introducing a London to Sydney airship route in the mid to late 20s. The route is London-Cairo-Bombay-Singapore-Darwin-Sydney. Each leg is (I think) 4,000km or less and I'm working on a flight time of 15 days. Is this even remotely feasible?
 
Maybe stage the R100/R101 airship competition several years earlier.
Stick with Airships after Hindenberg disaster (after switching over to Helium).
 
Okay need some technical jigger-pokery advice. As part of my developing Imperial Federation timeline I'm introducing a London to Sydney airship route in the mid to late 20s. The route is London-Cairo-Bombay-Singapore-Darwin-Sydney. Each leg is (I think) 4,000km or less and I'm working on a flight time of 15 days. Is this even remotely feasible?

You can use several on line tools such as 'distance by air between x and Y' and then work out the speed of a given airship - Rule of thumb - RH100 and Graf Zep could both do about 80 MPH and a range of 4000 Miles

Graf Zeppelin used to run between Germany and Brazil in the early 30s and of course the 'Capitalist built' RH100 made a very successful flight to Canada - minced about wowing the locals and then returned 'in triumph' - and then was scrapped because its competitor the 'socialist built' RH101 crashed......hmmmmm
 
You can use several on line tools such as 'distance by air between x and Y' and then work out the speed of a given airship - Rule of thumb - RH100 and Graf Zep could both do about 80 MPH and a range of 4000 Miles

Graf Zeppelin used to run between Germany and Brazil in the early 30s and of course the 'Capitalist built' RH100 made a very successful flight to Canada - minced about wowing the locals and then returned 'in triumph' - and then was scrapped because its competitor the 'socialist built' RH101 crashed......hmmmmm

I'm working on a 4,000km (2,500ml, 2,200nm) range at 120kph (75mph, 65kt) cruise in 1926. It gives 33-34 (rounded to 36) hours flight time for each leg, plus a 36 hour stop over on each leg.

It means each of the three airships can make a round trip every month
 
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It's doable,also look into the materials available at the time some things that are obvious to us didn't occur to the designers of the time.
 
In 1926 there are really only 2 places you can get an airship to fulfill the role you intend. Vickers or Zeppelin. Even the US Navy airships in 1926 come from one of these two companies. Blimps are a different class of aircraft to what's needed so Goodyear don't make the list.
 
and then was scrapped because its competitor the 'socialist built' RH101 crashed......hmmmmm
Aside from the issue of airshipman being a very specialised profession and a good many of the R100s Canada trip crew having died with the R101, the complete outer covering of the R100 needed replacing. Plus a general refit with an unknown amount of repairs was needed & various upgrades would have been necessary to address eventual findings of the R101 enquiry and related research.

All in 1931, when the government was in fiscal hysterics. Not a great time to seek funding for cutting-edge aeronautical experiments in luxuriously moving parcels of 100 people long distances at incredible cost. Without the depression or the R101 crash things might have kept going, but both together flushed the project.
 
You can use several on line tools such as 'distance by air between x and Y' and then work out the speed of a given airship - Rule of thumb - RH100 and Graf Zep could both do about 80 MPH and a range of 4000 Miles

Graf Zeppelin used to run between Germany and Brazil in the early 30s and of course the 'Capitalist built' RH100 made a very successful flight to Canada - minced about wowing the locals and then returned 'in triumph' - and then was scrapped because its competitor the 'socialist built' RH101 crashed......hmmmmm
From my notes on the subject:
The airship Graf Zeppelin operated from Germany to Brazil from 1932 to 37, carrying mail, high value freight and passengers. It also overflew the Amazon and filmed the river from the air.
The trip cost 1,500RM (~US$490), one way, in 1934. Departs every other Saturday, summer only. The trip takes a little over three days and there’s almost always a reporter on board, in case the PCs get up to mischief.
 
Have you sorted out a passenger/freight weight limit at this point?

No I've not worked out the freight etc. I've assumed the first class of airships won't be economically viable and will require a government subsidy. But it's a prestige project to foster Imperial unity and communication, so acceptable to the government of the day.

The initial two airships would be followed up by a larger class that would be self funding.
 
In 1926 I imagine that any British built airship would be a development of the R80 of 1920.

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How about a Vickers-Zeppelin Collaboration in the 20s?

With a POD with no WW1 for example or a more limited less destructive one - one where 'bombers' are not developed and the Zeps don't bomb London and this could have a situation where both companies collaborate on an 'Imperial' Airship design to provide an air service to their respective Empires.
 
From my notes on the subject:
The airship Graf Zeppelin operated from Germany to Brazil from 1932 to 37, carrying mail, high value freight and passengers. It also overflew the Amazon and filmed the river from the air.
The trip cost 1,500RM (~US$490), one way, in 1934. Departs every other Saturday, summer only. The trip takes a little over three days and there’s almost always a reporter on board, in case the PCs get up to mischief.

That Rm 1,500 is around $7,000us today :)
 
What about supplies? Will the ship have to fully resupply on every stop, thus slowing the stopover, or will it carry as much as possible, thus cuting down on the stopover time but making the ship heavier?
 
You're going to need to build up a pretty large support infrasture in every stop: repair equipment, parts, maybe even spare engines, lots of fuel and oil, trained staff...

I'm not too familiar with the period. How easy/hard would it be to do this, specially the trained personel?
 
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