What Happened to Airships? // An Essay

For my final year of English, I gave a speech about the decline of airships. During the same time I researched and wrote this speech, I was in the preliminary stages of writing my fantasy novella Before the Fire Burns. So while an academic essay may be rather outside the typical range of posts around here, I have an excuse—this information laid the foundation for the airships seen in that book.

If you’d like to know a little more about the science and engineering behind the HMS Embark or are simply interested in airships in general, read on. I link further reading with most of the information if you care to go deeper.

Once, airships ruled the sky. Around the dawn of the 20th century, these massive, cylindrical balloons were a harbinger of a better future. They captured the public’s imagination and continue to attract fans today. The first airlines and trans-Atlantic flights were not accomplished in planes, but in airships. If these behemoths of the sky were so popular, why aren’t they still around today? Why did the airship go extinct?

But before I answer why, I should first answer what. What is an airship? And what about all these other words—dirigibles, blimps, and zeppelins?

According to Dictionary.com, an airship is “a self-propelled, lighter-than-air craft with means of controlling the direction of flight.” This control of direction distinguishes the airship, separating it from its technological ancestor, the hot air balloon. The term “dirigible” is synonymous with airship, simply referring to a general type of vehicle.

There are three basic types of airships. Nonrigid, semirigid, and rigid. These terms are fairly self-explanatory.

Nonrigid airships are nothing but a car, called a gondola, attached to a balloon filled with buoyant gas. If the gas is removed, the bag collapses. These are more commonly known as blimps.

Rigid airships, also called zeppelins, have a skeletal structure that holds the exterior material in a cylindrical shape. Instead of the gas floating free around the bag, it is split among several smaller bags that are within the structure. They provide an extra layer of protection, keeping the ship afloat even if the exterior is damaged.

Semirigid airships are, as the name implies, a hybrid of these two. While they depend on the gas inside to hold the bag’s shape, they also have a sort of spine along the base of the balloon that supports the gondola.

The first successful airship took flight in the year 1852, with French engineer Henri Giffard at the helm. Its 144-foot-long bag was filled with hydrogen, and a steam engine powered a large propeller, allowing it to travel at a whopping six miles per hour. It was obvious the technology had a long way to go.

Many inventors tried their hand at improving the design. In 1872, an internal-combustion engine was first used to power an airship, and in 1883, one was powered by an electric motor. The next big advance came in 1897 when one inventor in Germany created the first rigid airship. Instead of a fragile gas bag, this zeppelin was covered in aluminum.

But at the turn of the century, one man revolutionized the entire industry. Count Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Graf von Zeppelin, while visiting the United States, observed hot air balloons for the first time in his life. The leisurely, graceful balloons captured his imagination, and he returned to Germany with a new obsession. He founded an airship company named after himself and built his first airship around the year 1900.

As the years accumulated, so did the list of achievements. In 1929, one of Zeppelin’s creations, the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, circumnavigated the world in 21 days, flew a scientific mission over the North Pole, and carried over 34,000 passengers during its nine-year career. Count Zeppelin also created the world’s first passenger airline, which ran from 1909 to 1935. The U.S. Navy built two airships that carried airplanes.

Airships remained the preferred method of long-distance transportation, despite rising competition from planes. Passenger zeppelins were smooth and quiet—a floating cruise ship—compared to a cramped, deafening, bumpy plane cabin.[ https://youtu.be/3flx3G2a-eI]

This all brings us back to the original question. Where did airships go? The public stood in awe of these majestic titans, and visions of the future predicted even more advancements in the technology. What went wrong?

Well, to put it briefly, a lot went wrong.

One obvious answer is the myriad of disasters that brought them plunging to the ground, wreathed in flames. Between 1908 and 1937, fire destroyed over twenty-seven hydrogen-filled airships.

The USS Akron was a US Navy airship designed to carry planes. During a failed landing, it sent two crew members plummeting to their deaths, and in 1933 it was lost at sea, killing 73 of the 76 passengers. Later, two more people were killed while searching for the zeppelin.

Of course, the infamous Hindenburg disaster cannot be left off this list. In 1937, it burst into flames while landing, killing 35 people. This was on the low end of casualty counts for airship disasters, but one key aspect made a vast difference.

As airship historian Dan Grossman writes, “The public seemed remarkably forgiving of the accident-prone zeppelin prior to the Hindenburg disaster, and the glamorous and speedy Hindenburg was greeted with public enthusiasm despite a long list of previous airship accidents.

“While airships like USS Akron (on which 73 died) crashed at sea, and the British R-101 (on which 48 were killed) crashed in the darkness of night — both far from witnesses or cameras — the crash of the Hindenburg was captured on film. Millions of people around the world saw the dramatic inferno which consumed the ship and its passengers.”

Many say that when the Hindenburg fell, it brought the airship industry with it. It is certainly true that public opinion toward airships soured after the carnage was caught on camera, but the Hindenburg is not the only culprit of our current airship extinction. After all, ocean liners, cars, and planes have killed just as many, if not more, people. Grossman continues: “Between the cost of its infrastructure and crew, inherent safety issues, and the development of better technology, the rigid passenger airship was doomed long before Hindenburg landed at Lakehurst that fateful day in May.”

First of all, a practical lifting gas is hard to find. Hydrogen is the lightest element, making it the best option for a lighter-than-air vehicle. However, it’s also highly flammable, as shown by disasters like the Hindenburg. Helium is the next best choice, being the second lightest element and non-flammable. But it’s twice as heavy as hydrogen, reducing the carrying capacity of airships. Additionally, helium is very rare and, thus, expensive.

And even when hydrogen is used, accommodations must be stripped down to the bare minimum. The Hindenburg’s passenger cabins—already cramped—had walls made of foam covered in fabric. Only four bathrooms were on board for all 70 passengers. Sinks were made of white plastic. While some might have tolerated these as a necessary compromise for air travel, they were still a far cry from the luxury of cruise ships.

Airships cost a fortune to build, not even counting the helium. As author Alexander Rose said, “You could build 500 or 1,000 airplanes for the price of one giant zeppelin.”

This contributed to another nail in the airship’s coffin. Airplanes could experiment and innovate much faster than airships, because of their smaller size and cheaper construction. For travel across the ocean, planes were just more practical. Especially when one-way tickets from Germany to the US could cost over $8,000 in today’s money. Three months prior to the Hindenburg’s first flight, the M-130 China Clipper opened the door to cross-continental commercial airplane flight. After that happened, it was only a matter of time before the world abandoned the airship.

Despite all this, recent years have seen an airship renaissance of sorts. One company in Germany offers sightseeing flights on zeppelins. Many other companies in the US and abroad are developing airships. Might we, once again, have skies dominated by these massive balloons?

To be realistic, probably not. A tourist airship planned to fly in 2024 or 2025 has ticket prices of over $200,000 for a two-person cabin. And, presently, only one of these proposed airships has actually lifted off the ground. The rest continue to sit in their hangers, awaiting investors.

There are some viable economic niches for these vehicles. They use much less fuel than planes, and some companies propose using the jet stream—an air current that circles the globe—to speed up airships and transport large cargo. Amazon has speculated about producing a drone-carrying blimp. Other uses include humanitarian relief to remote areas, direct transportation of goods between the manufacturer and receiver, surveillance platforms, and more.

Will we see airships return in the next few years? Only time will tell. But whether or not they become a part of life again, we will forever look at them with awe. As Lawrence Fisher writes, “Maybe that’s the secret to airships’ enduring allure. There may be no compelling business case, but the world would be a little poorer without them.”

If you’d like to read the story that grew from this, check out Before the Fire Burns here. And if you’re interested in aviation history, you might enjoy my review of To Conquer the Air by James Tobin.

Thanks for reading!