R34 made her first flight on 14 March 1919.
In July 1919, one month after Alcock and Brown landed in Derrygimlagh, the British Airship R34 made a double Atlantic Crossing. On its return journey to Europe it made landfall at Cleggan, Connemara.
R34 had never been intended as a passenger carrier and extra accommodation was arranged by slinging hammocks in the keel walkway. Hot food was prepared using a plate welded to an engine exhaust pipe. The crew included Brigadier-General Edward Maitland and Zachary Lansdowne as the representative of the US Navy. William Ballantyne, one of the crew members scheduled to stay behind to save weight, stowed away with the crew's mascot, a small tabby kitten called "Whoopsie.
R34 left Britain on 2 July 1919 and arrived at Mineola, Long Island, United States on 6 July after a flight of 108 hours with virtually no fuel left. As the landing party had no experience of handling large rigid airships, Major E. M. Pritchard jumped by parachute and so became the first person to reach American soil by air from Europe. This was the first East-West crossing of the Atlantic and was achieved weeks after the first transatlantic aeroplane flight.
The return journey to RNAS Pulham took place from 10 to 13 July and took 75 hours.
Returned to East Fortune for a refit, the R34 then flew to Howden, East Yorkshire, for crew training.
On 27 January 1921 R34 set off on what should have been a routine exercise.
Over the North Sea the weather worsened and a recall signal sent by radio was not received. Following a navigational error the craft flew into a hillside on the North Yorkshire Moors during the night, and lost two propellers.
She went back out to sea using the two remaining engines and in daylight followed the Humber estuary back to Howden. Strong winds made it impossible to get her back into the shed and she was tied down outside for the night. By the morning further damage had occurred and R34 was written off and scrapped.
