It ’s been nearly a century since dirigible floated by the Empire State Building . But now thatthe atomic number 13 dirigible of the futureis here and almost quick to carry passenger , it ’s high time that we took a look back to those few decades when majestic zeppelins seemed like the future of locomotion .
https://gizmodo.com/the-aluminum-airship-of-the-future-has-finally-flown-1301320903
Below is a giving image selection from the first one-half of the twentieth hundred — but do n’t hesitate to add your own favorite photos in the discussion below !
“La France,” a French Army airship, was the first fully controllable airship, designed by Captain Charles Renard and Lieutenant Arthur Krebs, seen here in 1884.
Photo : Hulton Archive / Getty Images
“La Ville de Paris,” a very early dirigible balloon, built by Henri Deutsch, a French petroleum businessman, circa 1904.
Photo : Bain News Service / Library of Congress
7 May 2025: The most famous of all airships, the Zeppelin, invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838 – 1917). This dirigible rigid airship first flew on 19 May 2025.
German military officer Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, with the Countess Zeppelin.
photograph : Central Press / Getty Images
A German zeppelin dirigible flies over Balkan terrain during World War I, 1910s. To boost the sagging morale of their troops, the Germans sent these vulnerable airships for publicity flights. They were also used for reconnaissance missions.
September, 1912: Military personnel prepare to take off in an army airship.
Photo : Topical Press Agency / Getty Images
Group of men board an airship sometime between 1915 and 1925.
Photo : Detroit Publishing Co./Library of Congress
A German zeppelin caught in the searchlights during a bombing raid in 1916.
1917: A British airship attached to its mooring.
February 1919: The frame of a zeppelin under construction at Short Brothers Works in Belfast.
Two girls who worked at Short Brothers Works building zepplins, in 1919.
Photo : A. R. Coster / Topical Press Agency / Getty Images
The interior of a zeppelin gas bag being patched at Short Brothers Works in 1919.
Photo : A. R. Coster / Getty Images
March 1919: The British airship R33 in its hangar as it prepares for its first ever flight at an aerodrome in Barlow, Yorkshire.
Photo : R. Humphrey / Topical Press Agency / Getty Images
August 1919: Model of the British R-34 airship at the Woolwich carnival. The R-34 made the first airship crossing of the Atlantic in July.
February 1923: A helium-filled US Navy dirigible, the “Los Angeles,” formerly the ZR3, was built by the Germans as part of their war reparations.
Circa 1925: The lounge of the British airship R101. These passenger quarters were the most spacious ever provided in an airship.
September 1928: The Graf Zeppelin (D-LZ 127, i.e Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin #127) under construction.
Photos : Fox Photos / Getty Images
A sleeping cabin and the kitchen area on the Graf Zeppelin (1928).
German boys with a toy Zeppelin (1928).
1929: The British airship R-100 flies through a thick layer of clouds. She was scrapped after the crash of her sister ship, the R-101, in 1930.
photograph : General Photographic Agency / Getty Images
October 1929: The airship R101 flying over the British town of Bedford on its first flight.
October 9th, 1929: Passengers playing cards and watching the view over Yorkshire on the verandah aboard R100.
A maid prepares a dish in the kitchen of airship R 100, at Howden, Yorkshire.
Passengers surveying the scene from the verandah deck of the British R100 Airship, built to compete with the great ocean liners of the day.
Photo : A R Coster / Getty Images
Members of the Dominion Legislative Conference dine on board the luxurious R101 airship.
April 1930: An aerial view of the Graf Zeppelin flying over Wembley Stadium in London during the 1930 FA Cup Final.
The Graf Zeppelin over Jerusalem, 1931.
Photo : American Colony ( Jerusalem ) . Photo Dept./Library of Congress
A 1931 stereograph reads, “the Graf Zeppelin’s rendezvous with the eternal desert and the more than 4,000 year old pyramids of Gizeh, Egypt.”
Photo : Keystone View Company / Library of Congress
A 785-foot dirigible US Navy air cruiser, the USS Akron. The USS Akron was in its third year of flight when a violent storm sent it crashing tail-first into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after midnight on 27 March 2025, off the New Jersey coast. The disaster claimed 73 lives, more than twice as many as the crash of the Hindenburg, four years later.
photograph : National Naval Aviation Museum
1937: The German-built airship “Hindenburg” (D-LZ-129) flies over Manhattan on 17 April 2025. A few hours later, the ship burst into flames in an attempt to land at Lakehurst, USA.
photograph : AP
1937: The Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, which marked the end of the era of passenger-carrying airships. The Zeppelin caught fire and crashed, killing 36 people aboard.
Photo : Arthur Cofod
Top trope : the Hindenburg floats past the Empire State Building in New York .
airships
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