Airships | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Airships

Shortly after the first balloon flights in the late 1700s, people began working on ways to steer the new invention. Some suggested sails, others advocated flappers, while still others wanted to try hand-cranked propellers. None proved practical because they could not generate sufficient power.

In 1852, however, the Frenchman Henri Giffard built and flew the first powered aircraft. He hung a three-horsepower steam engine with a propeller below the balloon, which he shaped like a cigar to move more easily through the air. His control, however, was very poor, and he could only go aloft on the most windless days.

Despite the experimentation of Giffard and others, steerable balloons did not become truly successful until the arrival of compact internal combustion engines in the late 1800s. German engineer Paul Haenlein was the first to fly an airship powered by such an engine, and in 1883 Albert and Gaston Tissandier were the first to fly an aircraft with an electrical engine.

In addition, the introduction of aluminum made rigid frames a possibility. In 1897, the Austrian David Schwarz designed an airship with aluminum, and although it crashed on its maiden flight, he had proved the usefulness of the new metal. Alberto Santos-Dumont, an Argentinean living in France, built several successful airships between 1897 and 1904 and won a prize for circumnavigating the Eiffel Tower.

The man who truly popularized airships, however, was Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a retired German army officer. Obtaining the patent rights from the widow of David Schwarz, he built a series of rigid airships in hope of interesting the German government in the military potential of the craft. After several mishaps, the government abandoned the project, but public donations financed the building of other Zeppelins, which eventually succeeded in meeting the government's requirement that the airship remain aloft for twenty-four hours. Zeppelins were eventually used in bombing raids against the British during World War I. Although the actual damages were slight, the massive airships were an effective tool of intimidation.

After the war, airships became a popular mode of transportation. While the British and the Germans both worked on better designs, the Germans retained the lead in airship technology, due largely to the fact that they had been restricted in their manufacture of airplanes by the Treaty of Versailles. The British, however, were the first to cross the Atlantic in an airship, taking 108 hours in 1918. In 1928, the Germans constructed the most luxurious airship, the Graf Zeppelin, and its size was spectacular: 775 feet (236 m) long and 100 feet (30.5 m) wide. It pampered its twenty passengers, who paid between $1,000-3,000 for the transatlantic round trip. It eventually became the first aircraft to fly over 1,000,000 miles (1,609,000 km), it made 144 crossings of the Atlantic, and it carried more than 13,000 passengers.

In 1923, the United States launched the Shenandoah, which was filled with helium rather than hydrogen, which was extremely dangerous due to its flammability. Helium was rare, more difficult to produce, and therefore more expensive. The United States also refused to export helium to Germany following the rise of Nazism.

However, this did not keep the Germans from completing the Hindenburg in 1936. This airship was even bigger and better than the Graf Zeppelin, holding fifty passengers. Its only drawback was its use of hydrogen gas, and this proved fatal: on May 6, 1937, it burst into flames over Lakehurst, New Jersey, a disaster that killed thirty-six people. No one is sure to this day what happened. Some believe there was sabotage, but most think it was a natural electrical spark setting off hydrogen gas flowing from a leak. This disaster, which followed the crashes of numerous other airships (including the Shenandoah in a thunderstorm), and the advances of airplane technology effectively ended the use of airships for regular passenger service.

For a long time, airships seemed to be relics of the past, but in recent years there has been a revival of interest. The Goodyear Tire Company has flown airships over major sporting events and gained widespread fame. They are also used for continuous reconnaissance and patrol.