BSA Sloper

[panhead_jim]

Ran across some cool pics of a BSA parked in a field with a blimp in the background. I believe it to be a Sloper model. Can anyone confirm this guess?

A Blimp and a BSA

[bobbyt]

It appears to be a rigid air ship, rather than a blimp.

Bob Turek
#769

[panhead_jim]

It appears to be a rigid air ship, rather than a blimp.

Bob Turek
#769

That may be the case, I didn't research the airship...

[AFJ]

Ran across some cool pics of a BSA parked in a field with a blimp in the background. I believe it to be a Sloper model. Can anyone confirm this guess?

A Blimp and a BSA

The motorcycle is a 1930 BSA model S30-13 493cc "Sloper". The picture was taken in the period from August 1 to August 12, 1930. The location is the airport at St. Hubert, near Montreal), Quebec, Canada. (The BSA has a Quebec license plate.)

The airship is the British Vickers-built R100 designed by Barnes Wallis (later famous for the "Dam Buster" skip bomb in WWII). The R100 airship made a crossing of the Atlantic from England to Canada in late July, 1930, arriving on August 1 at St. Hubert where a mooring mast had been prepared. While stationed at St. Hubert it made demonstration flights over Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Niagara Falls, returning to St. Hubert after each flight. On Aug. 13, 1930 it began the return flight to England, returning to its home base at Cardington, Northampton in about 58 hours. Due to the fatal crash of the British Airship R101 - a quite different design - in October, 1930 in France while on its maiden voyage to Egypt and India - Britain abandoned airship development and the successful R100 never flew again.

Al Johnson