Airship in which the envelope is supported by a framework
For broader coverage of this topic, see Airship.
Construction of USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), 1923, showing the framework of a rigid airship
A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pressure airships) and semi-rigid airships.[1][2] Rigid airships are often commonly called Zeppelins, though this technically refers only to airships built by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company.
In 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin successfully performed the maiden flight of his first airship; further models quickly followed. Prior to the First World War, Germany was a world leader in the field, largely attributable to the work of von Zeppelin and his Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company. During the conflict, rigid airships were tasked with various military duties, which included their participation in Germany's strategic bombing campaign. Numerous rigid airships were produced and employed with relative commercial success between the 1900s and the late 1930s. The heyday of the rigid airship was abruptly ended by the destruction of the Hindenburg by fire on 6 May 1937. The disaster not only destroyed the biggest zeppelin in the world, but the film caused considerable reputation damage to rigid airships in general. Several nations had ended military rigid airship programs after serious accidents earlier in the decade, but widespread public safety concerns in the wake of the Hindenburg disaster led several nations to permanently ground their existing rigid airships and scrap them in subsequent years.
^Mueller, Joseph B.; Michael A. Paluszek; Yiyuan Zhao (2004). Development of an aerodynamic model and control law design for a high altitude airship (PDF) (Report). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 11, 2011.
^Konstantinov, Lev (2003). "The Basics of Gas and Heat Airship Theory". Montgolfier. 1. Kyiv, Ukraine: AEROPLAST Inc: 4–6, 8.
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(/blɪmp/), or non-rigidairship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigidairships (e.g. Zeppelins)...
type of rigidairship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin (German pronunciation: [ˈt͡sɛpəliːn] ) who pioneered rigidairship development...
blimp itself is defined as a non-rigidairship—without any internal structure, the pressure of lifting gas within the airship envelope maintains the vessel's...
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passenger-carrying rigidairship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume...
of airships of the United States Navy identifies the airships of the United States Navy by type, identification, and class. The fabric-clad rigid airships...
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of British rigidairships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of...
passenger-carrying rigidairship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume...
of airship accidents. It includes both rigidairships and blimps, which operated differently from one another. Not included on this list are airships shot...
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Luftschiff Zeppelin 127) was a German passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigidairship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic...
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between the Zeppelin NT and usual non-rigidairships known as blimps. The Zeppelin NT is classified as a semi-rigidairship. There are various roles for the...
Majesty's Airship R100 was a privately designed and built British rigidairship made as part of a two-ship competition to develop a commercial airship service...
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