Blimps and Dirigibles
Blimps and Dirigiblesdiffer in their size and construction. The blimp consists of a gas‐filled inflatable bag, pressurized to retain its aerodynamic shape, and attached to a rigid keel that supports a crew compartment and engines. The dirigible, roughly three times larger but otherwise similar in appearance, has vanished from the skies. It had a rigid aluminum frame that embraced several gas cells, maintained the ship's shape, and anchored the control cabin and engine pods, suspended outside a fabric‐covered hull.
In 1908, the U.S. Army purchased its first steerable, gasoline‐powered airship; with a heavy keel attached to the cigar‐shaped gas bag, it foreshadowed the blimp. The program lapsed in 1912, and during World War I the service employed only tethered observation balloons. The postwar army's Italian‐built blimp Roma, inflated with inflammable hydrogen, exploded in 1922. The use of helium, a noninflammable lifting gas, prevented...
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