This robust and enduring airship was built by Armstrong Whitworth and was completed after the end of WW1. Her first flight was in early 1919. She was sent to Pulham airship station where she clocked up over 300 flying hours in tests and the training of crews. In 1921 she was used by the London Metropolitan Police for traffic control. Following the R38 crash later that same year this much loved ship was grounded at Cardington for the next four years.

With the resurrection of airship construction in 1925 the reconditioned R33 was brought out and sent back to Pulham for further tests and again used for training. On April 16 1925 she famously broke free from her moorings at Pulham carrying a skeleton crew across the North Sea. This adventure made national headlines at the time and the crew were hailed as heroes when the damaged ship was successfully steered back home.

In the following years the ship was used for testing and trials and as a training ship. Almost all of the rigid crew who we are familiar with had been on this ship at some point and I am sure many were sad to learn of her demise when she was finally scrapped in 1928.