Mr Ron Cooper, a member of the Aviation Historical Society, gives a wide-ranging overview of airships, Zeppelins, blimps, their design and construction, and the confusions surrounding these iconic aircraft. An airship is any powered, steerable aircraft that it is inflated with a gas that is lighter than air. Dirigibles include rigid airships like the Hindenburg, semi-rigid airships like the Zeppelins, and blimps like Goodyear’s advertising blimp. The term ‘zeppelin’ is often associated with the German airships that conducted bombing raids during World War I, but while most of these ships were built by the Zeppelin Company, not all German WWI airships were zeppelins.
What were they like aboard? One of history’s most famous zeppelins was designed for passengers, the LZ-129 Hindenburg. “LZ” stands for “Luftschiff Zeppelin” and “129” indicates that Hindenburg was the 129th airship designed by the Zeppelin Company. Famous semi-rigid airships including Norge of polar explorer Roald Amundsen and Italia of Umberto Nobile are discussed.
Recorded 7th May 1976
Duration is l hour and 15 minutes.
Note that photos and diagrams referred to in this address are not included in this audio-only podcast.
