the generic term for any dirigible or powered lighter-than-air vehicle, including blimps and zeppelins. Until the 1930s, the word “airship” was used to refer to both lighter-than-air and heavier-than- [..]

a weight carried aboard a lighter-than-air vehicle to offset the buoyancy of its lifting gas. Gas balloons commonly use sand, while blimps often carry metal shot in small canvas bags. Water has been t [..]

an un-powered lighter-than-air vehicle. Balloons can derive their buoyancy from the confinement of hot air, hydrogen, helium, ammonia or other gas. Balloons can be free (un-tethered and free to drift [..]

an air-filled bladder inside the envelope of a pressure airship used to regulate the gas pressure and maintain the envelope shape.

a term coined in 1915 as a friendly synonym for a pressure airship. The word is said to have mimicked the sound made when a man snapped his thumb on the airship’s gas-filled envelope. It is not derive [..]

the ability to float due to an object displacing a fluid medium greater than its own weight. Buoyancy can be controlled by the use of ballast. catenary curtain: a fabric curtain and metal cable struct [..]

a word that describes any steerable or directable airship, including blimps (pressure airships), semi-rigid airships and zeppelins (rigid airships). The term often is used to describe only rigid airsh [..]

the gas bag of a pressure or semi-rigid airship. Unlike a rigid airship gas cell, an envelope forms an external barrier to the elements, and when pressurized, serves an integral role in maintaining th [..]

a condition of relative balance in which the forces of lift and gravity are equal.

the ratio of an airship’s length to its diameter; the higher the number, the longer and more slender the airship.