An airship is a self-propelled, lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered. Also known as dirigibles, airships have four main parts: a balloon filled with lighter-than-air gas, a gondola for crew and passengers, engines that drive propellers, and rudders for steering. There are three main types: * Nonrigid (blimps) These are balloons with cars attached by cables. * Semirigid These depend on internal gas to maintain shape but have a metal keel for support. * Rigid These have a light framework covered with fabric, containing gas-filled balloons. Hydrogen and helium are the usual lifting gases. Hydrogen is more buoyant but flammable, while helium is safer.

How does an airship stay in the air?

An airship stays in the air based on Archimedes’ principle , which says that an object immersed in fluid experiences a buoyant force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. Airships are lighter-than-air aircraft designed to float by containing a volume of gas, such as hydrogen or helium , that is lighter than the surrounding air. To control altitude, airships use ballast , heavy material to stabilize the airship or control its height. Airships can ascend or descend by releasing ballast or venting lifting gas, respectively.

What are the main parts of an airship?

An airship, or dirigible, has four main parts: * A cigar-shaped bag (balloon) filled with a lighter-than-air gas. * A car or gondola slung beneath the balloon to hold the crew and passengers. * Engines that drive propellers. * Horizontal and vertical rudders that steer the craft. Airships can be nonrigid (blimps), semirigid, or rigid. Nonrigid airships are balloons with cars attached by cables. Semirigid airships have a metal keel that supports the car, while rigid airships have a light framework of aluminum-alloy girders covered with fabric.

How does an airship move and steer?

An airship moves and steers using a combination of engines, propellers, and rudders. The engines drive the propellers, which generate thrust to propel the airship forward. Rudders, both horizontal and vertical, are used to steer the craft. The horizontal rudders control the pitch (up and down movement), while the vertical rudders control the yaw (left and right movement).

What are some uses of airships in history?

Historically, airships served various functions, both military and commercial. During World War I, Germany deployed Zeppelins for bombing raids over London and Paris, causing fear despite limited destruction. Airships were also used for antisubmarine patrol , convoy escort, and coastal reconnaissance. In the 1920s and 1930s, airships like the British R-34 achieved transatlantic crossings , and the Graf Zeppelin offered passenger service between Germany and South America. The Hindenburg also provided transatlantic service in 1936, until its tragic destruction in 1937.

How are airships different from airplanes and helicopters?

Airships, airplanes, and helicopters are all aircraft, but they operate using different principles. Airships are lighter-than-air craft, relying on a gas like helium for buoyancy, while airplanes and helicopters are heavier-than-air craft. Airships have a cigar-shaped balloon, a gondola for crew and passengers, engines, and rudders. Airplanes use fixed wings and engines to generate lift and forward motion. Helicopters, on the other hand, use rotating blades (rotors) to create lift and can take off and land vertically. Unlike airplanes, helicopters can hover and move in any direction. While airships were once used for military and passenger transport, airplanes and helicopters are now more common due to their speed and safety.

airship

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

The Graf Zeppelin airship in flight, viewed from the side, showing its elongated body, tail fins, and gondola beneath.

A colorful Ameriquest Soaring Dream airship with bold geometric patterns flies above Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, with the baseball field and stands visible below.

Illustrated postcard showing Alberto Santos-Dumont's airship flying around the Eiffel Tower above Paris, with text reading The Santos Dumont Air-Ship rounding the Eiffel Tower, on October 19th 1901.

The Zeppelin airship Schwaben hovers low above an open field near a crowd of people preparing for its landing at Potsdam.

Tragic disaster of the Hindenburg airship

Experience the effort to rediscover the zeppelin

At a Glance

airship summary

Quick Facts

Also called:: dirigible or dirigible balloon

Key People:: Alberto Santos-Dumont; Jerome C. Hunsaker; Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin; Umberto Nobile; Charles Renard

Related Topics:: What Is the Difference Between Blimps and Zeppelins?; zeppelin; captive balloon; rigid airship; semirigid airship

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airship

aircraft

Also known as: dirigible, dirigible balloon

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 1, 2026 •History

Top Questions

What is an airship?
An airship is a self-propelled, lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered. Also known as dirigibles, airships have four main parts: a balloon filled with lighter-than-air gas, a gondola for crew and passengers, engines that drive propellers, and rudders for steering.

There are three main types:
* Nonrigid (blimps) These are balloons with cars attached by cables.
* Semirigid These depend on internal gas to maintain shape but have a metal keel for support.
* Rigid These have a light framework covered with fabric, containing gas-filled balloons.

Hydrogen and helium are the usual lifting gases. Hydrogen is more buoyant but flammable, while helium is safer.
2 Britannica Sources
1. airship
2. aerospace industry: Airships
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How does an airship stay in the air?
An airship stays in the air based on Archimedes’ principle, which says that an object immersed in fluid experiences a buoyant force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. Airships are lighter-than-air aircraft designed to float by containing a volume of gas, such as hydrogen or helium, that is lighter than the surrounding air.

To control altitude, airships use ballast, heavy material to stabilize the airship or control its height. Airships can ascend or descend by releasing ballast or venting lifting gas, respectively.
5 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are the main parts of an airship?
An airship, or dirigible, has four main parts:
* A cigar-shaped bag (balloon) filled with a lighter-than-air gas.
* A car or gondola slung beneath the balloon to hold the crew and passengers.
* Engines that drive propellers.
* Horizontal and vertical rudders that steer the craft.

Airships can be nonrigid (blimps), semirigid, or rigid. Nonrigid airships are balloons with cars attached by cables. Semirigid airships have a metal keel that supports the car, while rigid airships have a light framework of aluminum-alloy girders covered with fabric.
2 Britannica Sources
1. Definition of mooring mast
2. airship
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How does an airship move and steer?
An airship moves and steers using a combination of engines, propellers, and rudders. The engines drive the propellers, which generate thrust to propel the airship forward. Rudders, both horizontal and vertical, are used to steer the craft. The horizontal rudders control the pitch (up and down movement), while the vertical rudders control the yaw (left and right movement).
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are some uses of airships in history?
Historically, airships served various functions, both military and commercial.

During World War I, Germany deployed Zeppelins for bombing raids over London and Paris, causing fear despite limited destruction. Airships were also used for antisubmarine patrol, convoy escort, and coastal reconnaissance.

In the 1920s and 1930s, airships like the British R-34 achieved transatlantic crossings, and the Graf Zeppelin offered passenger service between Germany and South America. The Hindenburg also provided transatlantic service in 1936, until its tragic destruction in 1937.
5 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How are airships different from airplanes and helicopters?
Airships, airplanes, and helicopters are all aircraft, but they operate using different principles. Airships are lighter-than-air craft, relying on a gas like helium for buoyancy, while airplanes and helicopters are heavier-than-air craft. Airships have a cigar-shaped balloon, a gondola for crew and passengers, engines, and rudders.

Airplanes use fixed wings and engines to generate lift and forward motion. Helicopters, on the other hand, use rotating blades (rotors) to create lift and can take off and land vertically. Unlike airplanes, helicopters can hover and move in any direction. While airships were once used for military and passenger transport, airplanes and helicopters are now more common due to their speed and safety.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

airship, a self-propelled lighter-than-air craft. Three main types of airships, or dirigibles (from French diriger, “to steer”), have been built: nonrigids (blimps), semirigids, and rigids. All three types have four principal parts: a cigar-shaped bag, or balloon, that is filled with a lighter-than-air gas; a car or gondola that is slung beneath the balloon and holds the crew and passengers; engines that drive propellers; and horizontal and vertical rudders to steer the craft. Nonrigids are simply balloons with cars attached by cables; if the gas escapes, the balloon collapses. Semirigids likewise depend on the internal gas to maintain the balloon’s shape, but they also have a structural metal keel that extends longitudinally along the balloon’s base and supports the car. Rigids consist of a light framework of aluminum-alloy girders that is covered with fabric but is not airtight. Inside this framework are a number of gas-filled balloons, each of which can be filled or emptied separately; rigids keep their shape whether they are filled with gas or not.

The usual gases used for lifting airships are hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen is the lightest known gas and thus has great lifting capacity, but it is also highly flammable and has caused many fatal airship disasters. Helium is not as buoyant but is far safer than hydrogen because it does not burn. The gas-containing envelopes of early airships used cotton fabric impregnated with rubber, a combination that was eventually superseded by synthetic fabrics such as neoprene and Dacron.

The first successful airship was constructed by Henri Giffard of France in 1852. Giffard built a 160-kilogram (350-pound) steam engine capable of developing 3 horsepower, sufficient to turn a large propeller at 110 revolutions per minute. To carry the engine weight, he filled a bag 44 metres (144 feet) long with hydrogen and, ascending from the Paris Hippodrome, flew at a speed of 10 km (6 miles) per hour to cover a distance of about 30 km (20 miles).

NASA's Reduced Gravity Program provides the unique weightless or zero-G environment of space flight for testing and training of human and hardware reactions. NASA used the turbojet KC-135A to run these parabolic flights from 1963 to 2004.

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Man-Made Birds in the Sky

In 1872 a German engineer, Paul Haenlein, first used an internal-combustion engine for flight in an airship that used lifting gas from the bag as fuel. In 1883 Albert and Gaston Tissandier of France became the first to successfully power an airship using an electric motor. The first rigid airship, with a hull of aluminum sheeting, was built in Germany in 1897. Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian living in Paris, set a number of records in a series of 14 nonrigid gasoline-powered airships that he built from 1898 to 1905.

The most-successful operator of rigid airships was Ferdinand, count von Zeppelin, of Germany, who completed his first airship, the LZ-1, in 1900. This technically sophisticated craft, 128 metres (420 feet) long and 11.6 metres (38 feet) in diameter, had an aluminum frame of 24 longitudinal girders set within 16 transverse rings and was powered by two 16-horsepower engines; it attained speeds approaching 32 km (20 miles) per hour. Zeppelin continued improving his designs through World War I, when many of his airships (called zeppelins) were used to bomb Paris and London. Airships were also used by the Allies during the war, chiefly for antisubmarine patrol.

ZMC-2The ZMC-2, a U.S. Navy airship with a rigid metal skin strengthened by internal pressure, seen leaving a hangar at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, c. 1923–39.

In the 1920s and ’30s, airship construction continued in Europe and the United States. A British dirigible, the R-34, made a round-trip transatlantic crossing in July 1919. In 1926 an Italian semirigid airship was successfully used by Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, and General Umberto Nobile to explore the North Pole. In 1928 the Graf Zeppelin was completed by Zeppelin’s successor, Hugo Eckener, in Germany. Before it was decommissioned nine years later, it made 590 flights, including 144 ocean crossings. In 1936 Germany inaugurated a regular transatlantic passenger service with the dirigible Hindenburg.

Despite these achievements, airships were virtually abandoned in the late 1930s because of their cost, their slow speed, and their intrinsic vulnerability to stormy weather. In addition, a succession of disasters—the best known probably being the explosion of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg in 1937—coupled with advances in heavier-than-air craft in the 1930s and ’40s made dirigibles commercially obsolete for most applications.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.

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