The Millionth Chance: The Story of the R. 101

The Times

'Mr Leasor's account of a tragedy that ought not to have happened, is full and moving.'



The R101 airship was thought to be the model for the future, an amazing design that was ‘as safe as houses. . .except for the millionth chance’. On the night of 4 October 1930 that chance in a million came up however.

James Leasor brilliantly reconstructs the conception and crash of this huge ship of the air with compassion for the forty-seven dead, including a cabinet minister – and only six survivors. One of the biggest disasters of British aviation history, which marked the end of commercial airships as a serious form of transport, this book also reads as a textbook of how state attempts to manage commercial ventures so often end in a disaster of one kind or another.