The Airship and Futurism: Utopian Visions of the Airship
Airships have often served as a visual symbol of a brighter tomorrow.
Modern Mechanix magazine. October, 1934.
Even before the first zeppelin was invented, airships captured the imagination of futurists and featured prominently in utopian visions of the future. This 1898 poster advertised a musical comedy on the New York stage:
Musical theater poster. 1898.
And this 1910 postcard from France illustrated “Life in the Year 2000″:
French postcard. 1910.
Mixing the Airship and the Airplane: The View from the 1930’s
Futurists of the early 20th Century often combined lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air technology, as in this urban skyscraper airport and solar-powered aerial landing field:
Popular Science magazine. November, 1939
Modern Mechanix magazine. October, 1934.
Goodyear and the Future of Zeppelin Travel
Sometimes futurist airship visions were promoted by companies which were actually involved in the lighter-than-air business.
For example, the Goodyear-Zeppelin company, which built the American airships Akron and Macon, and which had a financial interest in the promotion of the passenger dirigible, frequently offered alluring illustrations of future airship travel.
Goodyear president Paul Litchfield and publicist Hugh Allen included the following pictures in their 1945 book, WHY? Why has America no Rigid Airships?:
Dining Salon (click all photos to enlarge)
Lounge
Passenger Cabin
Proposed Luxury Airship (click to enlarge)
Proposed Economy Class Airship (click to enlarge)
Goodyear publicist Hugh Allen’s 1931 book, The Story of the Airship, included drawings of zeppelin interiors which even included a fireplace:
Proposed Airship Lounge. (click all photos to enlarge)
Proposed Airship Dining Room and Promenade
The Airship and the Soviet Future
Under the illusion that communism was the way of the future, Soviet propagandists loved images of modernity and enlisted the airship in their cause.
Soviet poster, 1931. ("We Are Building a Fleet of Airships in the Name of Lenin." Azeri text)
Unflyable Airship Fantasies
Sometimes illustrators got so carried away depicting lavish interiors that they neglected to leave room for much lifting gas, as in this illustration from The American Magazine.
The article described future airships to be built by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Company, which would be “fitted up as sumptuously as a Palm Beach winter hotel”:
The American Magazine. May, 1930.
This illustration of an atomic dirigible from a Soviet magazine in the 1960’s left no room for lifting gas at all:
Soviet Atomic Dirigible
The Iron Airship
Modern Mechanics. July, 1931.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I love your airship article. It takes me back to the 40’s (yes, I am that old) when those magazines talked about things like these air ships and other aircraft which captured your imagination.
Those airships would have been safer to navigate then, because there was less air traffic. A big fear is being run into by another aircraft, despite all of the moderrn navigation wonders available today (witness the air collision over the weekend in Colorado in clear skies.)
But, the artcles on these aurchips are wonderful. I get a kick out of all of the little bi-plane commuter planes that are incorporated into these drawings. Great stuff.
Jim
[Reply]
Dan, your site is fantastic!
Have you considered doing something on the above mentioned scenario: That rigid airships, or hybrids like “Buoyancy Assisted Lift Air Vehicle (BAAV)”, might hit the skies again, as a competetive means of transportation? I really miss an investigative apporach (like yours) to this, as the only information I can find on the web are either promotions of yet-to-be constructions (though presented as an existing reality with animated videos), or journalistic renderings of the same material.
The projects that seem fairly serious are Aeroscraft, SkyCat and SkyFreighter, as summed up in this link: http://ecogeek.org/automobiles/1215
In addition to these, there’s also the SkyHook, (presumably) being developed for heavy lifts. And the existing Zeppelin NT should have some potential beyond sightseeing.
However, when you look beyond the fancy artist animations, what you detect is models made out of plastic bags swiveling through a hangar (apart from the Zeppelin NT, which is actually there).
So – is this just another futrurism, or is it real this time? I really would love to see them come true, as this seems to be the most eco-friendly way of travelling or transportation. I’m dubious, though, as to whether these models really fly well.
I would love to see you add an investigation of the future of airships to your site!
Best,
Tormod
[Reply]
Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:08 am
Thank you for your comment and suggestion. I only wish I had the time to do more on my site, including analysis of various airship plans, from the realistically possible to the overly ambitious to the apparently fraudulent (e.g. the attempt to sell e-books by “Turtle Airships”).
[Reply]
Tormod A Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Thank you anyway for your good work!
And also for saving me from investing in turtles.
Cheers,
Tormod
[Reply]
Hey so just got that book in, lol. Can’t wait to read it.
[Reply]
Hey so that book from Goodyear perked my interest, and so I decided to check through my university library, and low and behold, I can get the book through inter-library loan from another library in my state. Should come in within a few days. Lol.
[Reply]
Of course, lol.
I myself have been fascinated for years by rigid airships. I’m a history education student working on my bachelors, and currently writing a research paper over the 1938 decision by the US gov’t not to sell helium to Germany for use in the LZ-130, so I’ve got airships on the brain at the moment. I’m really enjoying your site. Very well done.
[Reply]
Great stuff! Really liked the stuff from Goodyear-Zeppelin. Do you have more images from that book?
[Reply]
Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
September 15th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Thanks for taking the time to post your comment!
Obviously, I have the whole book… but if I posted everything in my collection, the website would be way bigger than most people want to read.
Thanks for saying hello!
[Reply]
America, in the post-Greater Depression Era, will be looking for the cheapest air-freight methods possible, and these devices just might fill the bill in a few specific instances! Also: can we put them up at a fixed altitude, moored there by cable, and expliot wind and solar advantages found at altitude? We are only touching the edges of our technical abilities, and we have slumped into a “Cheap Oil Era” rut of corporatism and “American Dream” status Quo in the late 20th century. This will change as will our very existences, and Science and learning will march on, if not in America, certainly in Asia, and the dirigible will be back with a vengeance!
[Reply]
I don’t know which is more prominent, airships in the real world, or airships that never will be. These pictures are amazing and it’s nice to delve into some of the fictional parts of airships.
[Reply]