London, July 14 (IANS) A village in the UK with a population of less than 1,000 was marking on Saturday the centenary of its part in aviation history.
Pulham in Norfolk became the return point in the first ever return flight across the Atlantic Ocean by an airship, the Xinhua news agency reported.
On its outward journey in 1919, the 193-meter-long R34 airship flew from Scotland to New York, but on the return leg it unexpectedly redirected to Pulham where its arrival was greeted by thousands of people. It became the first airship that made the East-West crossing of the Atlantic by air.
Sheila Moss King, who has organised the centenary event, said the arrival of the airship on July 13, 1919 had earned Pulham its place in aviation history.
The crew's 75-hour return flight to Britain was a little less eventful than the 108-hour outbound journey from East Lothian in Scotland to Long Island, she said.
"They weren't sure if they were on the right course and they flew through the most terrible storms with the airship tipping up and down," Moss King noted.
A band struck up the song "See the Conquering Hero Comes" as the crowd gave the crew a heroes welcome in Norfolk and got an absolute drenching when the water used as ballast was released.
"It was in the news, it was on the radio - people all around the world would have heard of Pulham," she said, adding it took 500 people to land the airship.
Records show that in New York the crew was showered with gifts and were greeted by US President Woodrow Wilson.
There was even an offer of $1,000 for the airship's cat, named Wopsie, but it was turned down, and the cat returned to England.
Descendants of the airship crew and airfield workers gathered in the village on Saturday at the start of a two-day centenary celebration. In the nearby town of Diss, an R34 memorabilia exhibition has opened.
The outline of the airship has also been marked close to where it landed a century ago.
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