Dirigible Airships

What is a Dirigible?

A dirigible is a lighter-than-air (“LTA”) craft which can be steered.

Although the term “dirigible” is often used in connection with large rigid airships such as the Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin, the word comes from the French verb “diriger” (“to steer”), and a refers is any LTA aircraft which is steerable (or “dirigeable,” in French), as opposed to free floating like a balloon.  Non-rigid blimps are dirigibles, as are semi-rigid airships like the Italia, Norge, and the modern Zeppelin NT.

For a discussion of the various types of dirigible airships, visit Dirigibles, Zeppelins, and Blimps.

The “Age of the Dirigible”

While blimps and semi-rigid airships are also dirigibles, the “Age of the Dirigible” refers to the the Machine Age/Art Deco era of the 1920′s and 1930′s, when giant passenger airships like the Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin carried travelers around the globe, and the rigid airships of the United States Navy patrolled the skies.

Dirigible, the Movie

The 1931 Frank Capra film “Dirigible” tells the dramatic story of a fictional Antarctic rescue performed by the USS Los Angeles, and depicts the crash of a fictional Navy airship called USS Pensacola, based on the loss of the USS Shenandoah.

Dirigibles, Steampunk, and Dieselpunk

Dirigible airships play a large role in the aesthetic of the Steampunk movement. Of course, during the Victorian era which is celebrated by Steampunk, airships were largely just the fanciful creation of Jules Verne and other writers (and dirigibles have long been associated with futurism).  The zeppelin airship itself was a creation of the 20th Century, and the first zeppelin took to the skies in 1900, just six months before the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.  The giant dirigibles of the 1930′s are reflected by the Dieselpunk aesthetic of Indiana Jones, and conjure up a vivid image of life during the Machine Age.