An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air

aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own
power. Aerostats gain their lift from large gas bags filled with
a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
Dirigible airships compared with related aerostats, from a turn-ofthe-20th-century encyclopedia
In early dirigibles, the lifting gas used was hydrogen, due to its
high lifting capacity and ready availability. Helium gas has almost
the same lifting capacity and is not flammable, unlike hydrogen,
but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first
discovered in the United States and for a while helium was only
used for airships by the United States. Most airships built since
the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air.
The envelope of an airship may form a single gas bag, or may
contain a number of internal gas-filled cells. An airship also has
engines, crew, and optionally also payload accommodation,
typically housed in one or more "gondolas" suspended below the
envelope.
The main types of airship are non-rigid, semi-rigid, and rigid. Nonrigid airships, often called "blimps", rely on internal pressure to
maintain the shape of the airship. Semi-rigid airships maintain the
envelope shape by internal pressure, but have some form of
supporting structure, such as a fixed keel, attached to it. Rigid
airships have an outer structural framework which maintains the
shape and carries all structural loads, while the lifting gas is
contained in one or more internal gas bags or cells. Rigid airships
were first flown by Count Zeppelin and the vast majority of rigid
airships built were manufactured by the firm he founded. As a
result, rigid airships are called zeppelins.
Airships were the first aircraft capable of controlled powered
flight, and were most commonly used before the 1940s, but their

use decreased over time as their capabilities were surpassed by

those of aeroplanes. Their decline was accelerated by a series of
high-profile accidents, including the 1930 crash and burning of
British R101 in France, the 1933 and 1935 storm-related crashes
of the twin airborne aircraft carrier U.S. Navy helium-filled rigids,
the USS Akron and USS Macon respectively, and the 1937 burning
of the hydrogen-filledHindenburg. From the 1960s, helium airships
have been used in applications where the ability to hover in one
place for an extended period outweighs the need for speed and
manoeuvrability such as advertising, tourism, camera platforms,
geological surveys, and aerial observation.