Airship An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or lighter - than - air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms . Unlike aircraft that use aerodynamics , such as fixed - wing aircraft and helicopter s that produce lift by moving an airfoil through the air , aerostatic aircraft stay aloft by having a large " envelope " filled with a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air . In early dirigibles , the lifting gas used was hydrogen , despite widespread concern due to its flammability . The alternative , helium , is nonflammable , but rare in most parts of the world . Large amounts of it were discovered in the United States . Thus , for a while , helium was rarely used for airships outside the United States . All modern airships , made since the 1960s , have used helium . The main types of airship are nonrigid blimps , semirigid airship , and rigid airship . Blimps are pressure airships where internal pressure , maintained by forcing air into an internal ballonet , is used to maintain both the shape of the airship and its structural integrity . Semirigid airships maintain the envelope shape by internal pressure , but have some form of internal support such as a fixed keel to which control and engine gondolas , stabilizers , and steering surfaces are mounted . Rigid airships have a structural framework which maintains the shape and carries all loads such as gondolas and engines . The framework contains numerous balloons , known as " gas cells " or " gasbags " which supply static lift without having to bear any structural loading . Rigid airships are often called zeppelins , as the type was invented by Count Zeppelin and the vast majority of rigid airships built were manufactured by the firm he founded . Airships were the first aircraft to enable controlled , powered flight , and were widely used before the 1940s , but their use decreased over time as their capabilities were surpassed by those of aeroplanes . Their decline continued with a series of high - profile accidents , including the 1937 burning of the hydrogen - filled " Hindenburg " , and the destruction of the . In the 21st century airships have been used in advertising , tourism , camera platforms for sporting events , geological surveys , and aerial observation - applications where the ability to hover in one place for an extended period outweighs the need for speed and maneuverability . Terminology . Aerostat . There is some confusion around the term " aerostat " with regard to airships . This confusion arises because " aerostat " has two different meanings . One meaning of " aerostat " refers to all craft that remain aloft using buoyancy ( static not dynamic lift ) : in this sense airships are a type of " aerostat " . The narrower and more technical meaning of " aerostat " refers only to tethered or moored balloon s : in this sense airships are not " aerostats " . Dirigible . In some countries , airships are also known as " dirigibles " from the French ( to direct plus " - ible " ) , meaning " directable " or steerable . The first airships were called " dirigible balloons . " Over time , the word " balloon " was dropped from the phrase . In modern usage , balloon refers to any buoyant aircraft that generally relies on wind currents for horizontal movement , and usually has a mechanism to control vertical movement . Santos - Dumont designed , built , and flew the first practical dirigible , demonstrating that routine , controlled flight was possible . This " conquest of the air " , in particular his winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower , [ 2 ] made him one of the most famous people in the world during the early 20th century . ( Hamre , Bonnie . " Alberto Santos Dumont . " About . com . Retrieved : 20 August 2012 ) . Gondola . The term " gondola " is used to describe a crew car of an airship , slung beneath the centre of the envelope . These may be short , for cockpit and landing gear alone , or longer to provide passenger space . Early gondolas were open structures slung beneath the envelope , later ones were enclosed and hung directly from the internal framing . A nonrigid blimp carries all of its passengers within a gondola . Rigid airships may have further passenger or cargo space internal to the envelope . The large airship the " Graf Zeppelin " was noted for its distinctively short passenger gondola , mounted far forward so as to improve ground clearance . The majority of crew accommodation and cargo holds were placed inside the envelope . Small airships and blimps carry their engine ( s ) in their gondola . Where there were multiple engines on larger airships , these were placed in separate gondolas , termed " power cars " or " engine cars " . To allow asymmetric thrust to be applied for maneuvering , these power cars were mounted towards the sides of the envelope , away from the centre line gondola . This also raised them above the ground , reducing the risk of a propeller strike when landing . Widely spaced power cars were also termed " wing cars " , from the use of " wing " to mean being on the side of something , as in a theater , rather than the aerodynamic device . These engine cars carried a crew during flight who maintained the engines as needed , but who also worked the engine controls , throttle etc . , mounted directly on the engine . Instructions were relayed to them from the pilot ' s station by a telegraph system , as on a ship . Envelope . In a nonrigid airship the envelope is the outer surface of the aircraft , containing the ballonets within it . In a rigid airship it is the outer fabric covering , stretched over the structural framework . Zeppelin . The term zeppelin is a genericized trademark that originally referred to airships manufactured by the German Zeppelin Company , which pioneered dirigible design in the early years of the twentieth century . The word , German for " airship " , usually prefixed their crafts ' names . In modern common usage , the terms " zeppelin " , " dirigible " and " airship " are used interchangeably for any type of rigid airship , with the term " blimp " alone used to describe nonrigid airships . Although the blimp also qualifies as a " dirigible " , the term is seldom used with blimps . In modern technical usage , " airship " is the term used for all aircraft of this type , with " zeppelin " referring only to aircraft of that manufacture , and " blimp " referring only to nonrigid airships . History . Early pioneers . In 1670 the Jesuit Father Francesco Lana de Terzi , sometimes referred to as the " Father of Aeronautics . " published a description of an " Aerial Ship " supported by four copper spheres from which the air was evacuated . Although unrealisable since external air pressure would cause the spheres to collapse unless their thickness was such as to make them too heavy to be buoyant , the basic principle was sound . A more practical dirigible airship was described by Lieutenant Jean Baptiste Marie Meusnier in a paper entitled " " Mémoire sur l ’ équilibre des machines aérostatiques " " ( Memorandum on the equilibrium of aerostatic machines ) presented to the French Academy on 3 December 1783 . The 16 water - color drawings published the following year depict a streamlined envelope with internal ballonnets that could be used for regulating lift : this was attached to a long carriage that could be used as a boat if the vehicle was forced to land in water . The airship was designed to be driven by three propellers and steered with a sail - like aft rudder . In 1784 , Jean - Pierre Blanchard fitted a hand - powered propeller to a balloon , the first recorded means of propulsion carried aloft . In 1785 he crossed the English Channel in a balloon equipped with flapping wings for propulsion and a birdlike tail for steering . The 19th century saw continued attempts to add methods of propulsion to balloons . The Australian Dr William Bland , Bland sent designs for his " Atmotic Airship " to the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851 , where a model was displayed . This was an elongated balloon with a steam engine driving twin propellers suspended underneath . The lift of the balloon was estimated at 5 tons and the car with the fuel to weigh 3 . 5 tons , giving a payload of 1 . 5 tons . Bland believed that the machine could be driven at and could fly from Sydney to London in less than a week . in 1852The first person to make an engine - powered flight was Henri Giffard who , flew in a steam - powered airship . Airships would develop considerably over the next two decades . In 1872 , the French naval architect Dupuy de Lome launched a large limited navigable balloon , which was driven by a large propeller and the power of eight people . It was developed during the Franco - Prussian war , as an improvement to the balloons used for communications between Paris and the countryside during the siege of Paris , but was completed only after the end of the war . Paul Haenlein flew an airship with an internal combustion engine running on the coal gas used to inflate the envelope over Vienna , the first use of such an engine to power an aircraft in 1872 . Charles F . Ritchel made a public demonstration flight in 1878 of his hand - powered one - man rigid airship , and went on to build and sell five of his aircraft . In 1883 , the first electric - powered flight was made by Gaston Tissandier , who fitted a Siemens electric motor to an airship . The first fully controllable free - flight was made in a French Army airship , " La France " , by Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs in 1884 . The long , airship covered in 23 minutes with the aid of an electric motor , and a battery . In 1884 and 1885 , it made seven flights . In 1888 , the Campbell Air Ship , designed by Professor Peter C . Campbell , was made by the Novelty Air Ship Company . This was lost at sea in 1889 while being flown by Professor Hogan during an exhibition flight . In 1888 – 97 , Dr . Frederich Wölfert built three airships powered by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft - built petrol engines , the last of which caught fire in flight and killed both occupants in 1897 . The 1888 version used a 2 hp one cylinder Daimler engine and flew from Canstatt to Kornwestheim . In 1897 , an airship with an aluminium envelops was built created by the Hungarian engineer David Schwarz . It made its first flight at Tempelhof field in Berlin after Schwarz ' s had died . His widow , Melanie Schwarz , was paid 15 , 000 marks by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin for information about the airship . Alberto Santos - Dumont was a wealthy Brazilian who lived in France and had a passion for flying . He designed 18 balloons and dirigibles before turning his attention to fixed - winged aircraft . In 1901 , in his airship " Number 6 " , a small blimp , he won the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize of 100 , 000 franc s for flying from the Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in under thirty minutes . Many inventors were inspired by Santos - Dumont ' s small airships and a veritable airship craze began worldwide . Many airship pioneers , such as the American Thomas Scott Baldwin , financed their activities through passenger flights and public demonstration flights . Stanley Spencer built the first British airship with funds from advertising baby food on the sides of the envelope . Others , such as Walter Wellman and Melvin Vaniman , set their sights on loftier goals , attempting two polar flights in 1907 and 1909 , and two trans - Atlantic flights in 1910 and 1912 . In 1902 , the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo published his innovative airship design in Spain and France . With a semirigid body , it overcame the flaws of these type of aircraft both on rigid structure ( zeppelin type ) and flexible , providing the airships with more stability during flight , the capability of using heavier engines and a greater passenger load . In 1905 , helped by Captain A . Kindelán , he built the airship " España " at the Guadalajara military base . Next year he patented his design without attracting official interest . In 1909 he patented an improved design which he offered to the French company Astra , who started mass - producing it in 1911 . The design was widely used during the Great War by the Entente powers . " The Golden Age " . The " Golden Age of Airships " began in July 1900 with the launch of the Luftschiff Zeppelin LZ1 . This led to the most successful airships of all time : the zeppelins . These were named after Count von Zeppelin who began working on rigid airship designs in the 1890s , leading to the badly flawed LZ1 in 1900 and the more successful LZ2 in 1906 . At the beginning of World War I the zeppelin airships had a framework composed of triangular lattice girders , covered with fabric and containing separate gas cells . Multiplane , later cruciform , tail surfaces were used for control and stability , and two engine / crew cars hung beneath the hull driving propellers attached to the sides of the frame by means of long drive shafts . Additionally , there was a passenger compartment ( later a bomb bay ) located halfway between the two cars . Other airship builders were also active before the war : the French company Lebaudy Frères specialized in semirigid airships from 1902 ( e . g . the " Patrie " and the " République " ) , designed by their engineer Henri Julliot , who later worked for the American company Goodrich ; the German firm Schütte - Lanz built the SL series from 1911 ; another German firm Luft - Fahrzeug - Gesellschaft built the " Parseval - Luftschiff " ( PL ) series from 1909 , and Italian Enrico Forlanini ' s firm had built and flown the first two Forlanini airships . In 1910 Walter Wellman unsuccessfully attempted the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the airship " America " . World War I . The prospect of airships as bombers had been recognized in Europe well before the airships were up to the task . H . G . Wells ' " The War in the Air " ( 1908 ) described the obliteration of entire fleets and cities by airship attack . The Italians forces became the first to use dirigibles for a military purpose during the Italo – Turkish War , the first bombing mission being flown on 10 March 1912 . It was World War I , however , that marked the airship ' s real debut as a weapon . The Germans , French and Italians all used airships for scouting and tactical bombing roles early in the war , and all learned that the airship was too vulnerable for operations over the front . The decision to end operations in direct support of armies was made by all in 1917 . Count Zeppelin and others in the German military believed they had found the ideal weapon with which to counteract British naval superiority and strike at Britain itself . More realistic airship advocates believed the zeppelin was a valuable long range scout / attack craft for naval operations . Raids on England began in January 1915 , reached a first peak in 1915 , and then were discontinued in August 1918 . Zeppelins proved to be terrifying but inaccurate weapons . Navigation , target selection and bomb - aiming proved to be difficult under the best of conditions . The darkness , high altitudes and clouds that were frequently encountered by zeppelin missions reduced accuracy even further . The physical damage done by the zeppelins over the course of the war was trivial , and the deaths that they caused ( though visible ) amounted to a few hundred at most . The zeppelins were initially immune to attack by aircraft and antiaircraft guns : as the pressure in their envelopes was only just higher than ambient air , holes had little effect . But once incendiary bullets were developed and used against them , their flammable hydrogen lifting gas made them vulnerable at lower altitudes . Several were shot down in flames by British defenders , and others crashed " en route " . They then started flying higher and higher above the range of other aircraft , but this made their bombing accuracy even worse and success harder to achieve . Advocates of the naval scouting role of the airship proved to be correct , and the land bombing campaign proved to be disastrous in terms of morale , men and material . Many pioneers of the German airship service died in what was the first strategic bombing campaign in history . Countermeasures by the British included sound detection equipment , searchlights and anti - aircraft artillery , followed by night fighters in 1915 . One method used early in the war when short range meant the airships had to fly from forward bases , and when the only zeppelin production facilities were in Friedrichshafen , was bombing of airship sheds by the British Royal Naval Air Service . Late in the war , the development of the aircraft carrier led to the first successful carrier - based air strike in history . The morning of 19 July 1918 , seven Sopwith 2F . 1 Camels were launched from and struck the airship base at Tondern , destroying the zeppelins " L 54 " and " L 60 " . Before the World War , the British Army was interested in blimps for scouting purposes . The Royal Navy , recognizing the potential threat that scouting zeppelins might pose , decided in 1908 to produce an example of rigid airship so that the threat might be evaluated in practice instead of theory . The Royal Navy was to continue development of rigid airships until the end of the war . The British Army abandoned airship development in favour of aeroplanes by the start of the war , but the Royal Navy had recognized the need for small airships to counteract the submarine and mine threat in coastal waters . Beginning in February 1915 , they began to deploy the SS ( Sea Scout ) class of blimp . These had a small envelope of 1 , 699 - 1 , 982 m³ ( 60 – 70 , 000 ft³ ) and at first used single engined planes ( BE2c , Maurice Farman , Armstrong FK ) without wing and tail surfaces as control cars . Eventually more advanced blimps with purpose built cars , such as the C ( Coastal ) , C * ( Coastal Star ) , NS ( North Sea ) , SSP ( Sea Scout Pusher ) , SSZ ( Sea Scout Zero ) , SSE ( Sea Scout Experimental ) and SST ( Sea Scout Twin ) classes were developed . The NS class , after initial teething problems , proved to be the largest and finest nonrigid airships in British service . They had a gas capacity of , a crew of 10 and an endurance of 24 hours . Six bombs were carried , as well as three to five machine guns . British blimps were used for scouting , mine clearance , and submarine attack duties . During the war , the British operated 226 airships , mostly nonrigid , most of which were of indigenous construction , though some nonrigid airships were purchased from France and even Germany ( before the war ) . Of that number several were sold to Russia , France , the United States , and Italy . Britain , in turn , purchased one M - type semirigid airship from Italy whose delivery was delayed until 1918 . Eight large rigid airships had been completed by the armistice , ( No . 9r , four 23 Class , two R23X Class and one R31 Class ) , although several more were in an advanced state of completion by the war ' s end . The large number of trained crews , low attrition rate and constant experimentation in handling techniques meant that at the war ' s end Britain was the world leader in nonrigid airship technology . Both France and Italy continued to use airships throughout the war . France preferred the nonrigid type , whereas Italy flew 49 semirigid airships in both the scouting and bombing roles . Aeroplanes had essentially replaced airships as bombers by the end of the war , and Germany ' s remaining zeppelins were destroyed by their crews , scrapped or handed over to the Allied powers as spoils of war . The British rigid airship program , which had mainly been a reaction to the potential threat of the German airhips , was wound down . The interwar period . A number of nations operated airships between the two world wars . Many operated blimps . Britain , the United States and Germany were the main operators of rigid airships with Italy and France using them to a lesser extent . Italy , the Soviet Union , the United States , and Japan mainly concentrated on semirigid airships . On May 12 , 1926 , The Italian dirigible , " Norge " , a semirigid airship , was the first aircraft confirmed to fly over the North Pole . The British " R33 " and " R34 " were near - identical copies of the German " L 33 " , which crashed virtually intact in Yorkshire on 24 September 1916 . Despite being almost three years out of date by the time they were launched in 1919 , they were two of the most successful in British service . The creation of the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) in early 1918 created a hybrid British airship program . The RAF was not interested in airships and the Admiralty was , so a deal was made where the Admiralty would design any future military airships while the RAF would handle manpower , facilities and operations . After the armistice , the airship program was rapidly wound down , and rigid airship operations were curtailed . On 2 July 1919 , " R34 " began the first double crossing of the Atlantic by an aircraft . It landed at Mineola , Long Island on 6 July after 108 hours in the air . The return crossing began on 8 July because of concerns about mooring the ship in the open , and took 75 hours . Impressed , British leaders began to contemplate a fleet of airships to link Britain to its far - flung colonies , although post - war economic conditions led to the scrapping of most airships and dispersion of trained personnel . British airship development resumed with the Imperial Airship Scheme of 1924 , which produced the " R - 100 " and " R - 101 " , both flown in 1929 . The major consequence of Britain ' s interest in establishing airship service to the empire was the effort to use the Allies ' seizure of German airships and airship sheds to avoid competition from Germany . The US Navy contracted to buy the British built R - 38 , but before that airship was turned over to the US , it was lost to structural failure due to both inadequate structural design and operation . The first American - built rigid airship was , built and christened on 20 August in Hangar No . 1 at Lakehurst , New Jersey . It flew in 1923 , while the " Los Angeles " was under construction . It was the first ship to be inflated with the noble gas helium , which was still so rare that the " Shenandoah " contained most of the world ' s reserves . When the " Los Angeles " was delivered , the two airships had to share the limited supply of Helium , and thus alternated operating and overhauls . The United States Navy purchased what became the and paid with " war reparations " money , owed according to the Versailles Treaty , thus saving The Zeppelin works . The success of the " Los Angeles " encouraged the US Navy to invest in its own , larger airships . The " Los Angeles " flew successfully for 8 years . Meanwhile Germany was building the " Graf Zeppelin " ( LZ 127 ) , the largest airship that could be built in the company ' s existing shed , and intended to stimulate interest in passenger airships . The " Graf Zeppelin " burned " blau gas " , similar to propane , stored in large gas bags below the hydrogen cells , as fuel . Since its density was similar to that of air , it avoided the weight change when fuel was used , and thus the need to valve hydrogen . The " Graf " was a great success and compiled an impressive safety record , flying over ( including the first circumnavigation of the globe by air ) without a single passenger injury . The US Navy developed the idea of using airships as airborne aircraft carrier s , although the British had experimented with a plane trapeze on their " R33 " many years before . The USS Los Angeles was used to experiment with the project , followed by two other airships , the world ' s largest at the time , to test the principle — the and . Each carried four F9C Sparrowhawk fighters in its hangar , and could carry a fifth on the trapeze . The idea had mixed results . By the time the Navy started to develop a sound doctrine for using the ZRS - type airships , the last of the two built , USS " Macon " , was lost . The seaplane had become more mature , and was considered a better investment . Eventually the US Navy lost all three American - built rigid airships to accidents . USS " Shenandoah " on a poorly planned publicity flight flew into a severe thunderstorm over Noble County , Ohio on 3 September 1925 . It broke into pieces , killing 14 of its crew . USS " Akron " was caught in a severe storm and flown into the surface of the sea off the shore of New Jersey on 3 April 1933 . It carried no life boats and few life vests , so 73 of its crew of 76 died from drowning or hypothermia . USS " Macon " was lost after suffering a structural failure offshore near Point Sur Lighthouse on 12 February 1935 . The failure caused a loss of gas , which was made much worse when the aircraft was driven over pressure height causing it to lose too much helium to maintain flight . Only 2 of its crew of 83 died in the crash thanks to the inclusion of life jackets and inflatable rafts after the " Akron " disaster . Britain ' s Burney Scheme and decline in airships . During the 1920s , Sir Dennistoun Burney suggested a plan for an air service throughout the British Empire using airships ( the Burney Scheme ) . Following the election of Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 , the Burney scheme was transformed into a government - controlled program , the Imperial Airship Scheme , which contracted for two airships , one to be developed by the a private company , the Airship Guarantee Company , and the other under Air Ministry control by the Royal Airship Works . The two designs were radically different . The " capitalist " ship , the " R100 " , was more conventional , while the " socialist " ship , the " R101 " , had many innovative design features . Construction of both took longer than expected , and the airships did not fly until 1929 . Neither airship was capable of the service intended , though the " R100 " did complete a proving flight to Canada and back in 1930 . However , on 5 October 1930 the R101 , which had not been thoroughly tested after major modifications , crashed on its maiden voyage of life at Beauvais in France killing 48 of the 54 people aboard . Among the dead were the craft ' s chief designer and the Secretary of State for Air . Because of the bad publicity surrounding the crash , the Air Ministry grounded the competing " R100 " in 1930 and sold it for scrap in 1931 , ending the era of British rigid airships . The Empire State Building was completed in 1931 with a dirigible mast , in anticipation of passenger airship service . Various entrepreneurs experimented with commuting and shipping freight via airship . By the mid - 1930s only Germany still pursued airship development . The Zeppelin company continued to operate the " Graf Zeppelin " on passenger service between Frankfurt and Recife in Brazil , taking 68 hours . Even with the small " Graf Zeppelin " , the operation was almost profitable . In the mid - 1930s work started to build an airship designed specifically to operate a passenger service across the Atlantic . The " Hindenburg " ( LZ 129 ) completed a very successful 1936 season carrying passengers between Lakehurst , New Jersey and Germany . 1937 started with the most spectacular and widely remembered airship accident . Approaching the mooring mast minutes before landing on 6 May 1937 , the " Hindenburg " burst into flames and crashed . Of the 97 people aboard , 36 died : 13 passengers , 22 aircrew , and one American ground - crewman . The disaster happened before a large crowd , was filmed and a radio news reporter was recording the arrival . This was a disaster which theater goers could see and hear the next day . The " Hindenburg " disaster shattered public confidence in airships , and brought a definitive end to the " golden age " . The day after " Hindenburg " crashed , the " Graf Zeppelin " landed at the end of its flight from Brazil , ending intercontinental passenger airship travel . " Hindenburg " s sister ship , the " Graf Zeppelin II " ( LZ 130 ) , could not perform commercial passenger flights without helium , which the United States refused to sell . The " Graf Zeppelin " flew some test flights and conducted electronic espionage until 1939 when it was grounded due to the start of the war . The last two Zeppelins were scrapped in 1940 . Development of airships continued only in the United States , and to a smaller extent , the Soviet Union . The Soviet Union had several semirigid and nonrigid airships . The semirigid dirigible SSSR - V6 OSOAVIAKhIM was among the largest of these craft , and it set the longest endurance flight at the time of over 130 hours . However , it crashed into a mountain in 1938 , killing 13 of the 19 people on board . While this was a severe blow towards the Soviet airship program , they continued to operate nonrigid airships until 1950 . World War II . While Germany determined that airships were obsolete for military purposes in the coming war and concentrated on the development of aeroplanes , the United States pursued a program of military airship construction even though it had not developed a clear military doctrine for airship use . At the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 , 1941 , that brought the United States into World War II , it had 10 nonrigid airships : Only " K " - and " TC " - class airships were suitable for combat and they were quickly pressed into service against Japanese and German submarine s which were then sinking American shipping within visual range of the American coast . U . S . Navy command , remembering the airship anti - submarine success from World War I , immediately requested new modern antisubmarine airships and on 2 January 1942 formed the ZP - 12 patrol unit based in Lakehurst from the four " K " airships . The ZP - 32 patrol unit was formed from two " TC " and two " L " airships a month later , based at NAS Moffett Field in Sunnyvale , California . An airship training base was created there as well . The status of submarine - hunting Goodyear airships in the early days of World War II has created significant confusion . Although various accounts refer to airships " Resolute " and " Volunteer " as operating as " privateers " under a Letter of Marque , Congress never authorized a commission , nor did the President sign one . In the years 1942 – 44 , approximately 1 , 400 airship pilots and 3 , 000 support crew members were trained in the military airship crew training program and the airship military personnel grew from 430 to 12 , 400 . The U . S . airships were produced by the Goodyear factory in Akron , Ohio . From 1942 till 1945 , 154 airships were built for the U . S . Navy ( 133 " K " - class , 10 " L " - class , seven " G " - class , four " M " - class ) and five " L " - class for civilian customers ( serial numbers " L - 4 " to " L - 8 " ) . The primary airship tasks were patrol and convoy escort near the American coastline . They also served as an organization centre for the convoys to direct ship movements , and were used in naval search and rescue operations . Rarer duties of the airships included aerophoto reconnaissance , naval mine - laying and mine - sweeping , parachute unit transport and deployment , cargo and personnel transportation . They were deemed quite successful in their duties with the highest combat readiness factor in the entire US air force ( 87 % ) . In 1944 - 45 , the U . S . Navy moved an entire squadron of eight Goodyear K class blimp s ( K - 123 , K - 130 , K - 109 , K - 134 , K - 101 , K - 112 , K - 89 , & K - 114 ) with flight and maintenance crews from Weeksville Naval Air Station in North Carolina to Naval Air Station Port Lyautey , French Morocco . Their mission was to locate and destroy German U - boats in the relatively shallow waters around the Strait of Gibraltar where magnetic anomaly detection ( MAD ) was viable . PBY aircraft had been searching these waters but MAD required low altitude flying that was dangerous at night for these aircraft . The blimps were considered a perfect solution to establish a 24 / 7 MAD barrier ( fence ) at the Straits of Gibraltar with the PBYs flying the day shift and the blimps flying the night shift . The first two blimps ( K - 123 & K - 130 ) left South Weymouth NAS on 28 May 1944 and flew to Argentia , Newfoundland , the Azores , and finally to Port Lyautey where they completed the first transatlantic crossing by nonrigid airships on 1 June 1944 . The blimps of USN Blimp Squadron ZP - 14 ( Blimpron 14 , aka " The Africa Squadron " ) also conducted mine - spotting and mine - sweeping operations in key Mediterranean ports and various escorts including the convoy carrying United States President Franklin D . Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Yalta Conference in 1945 . During the war some 532 ships without airship escort were sunk near the US coast by enemy submarines . Only one ship , the tanker " Persephone " , of the 89 , 000 or so in convoys escorted by blimps was sunk by the enemy . Airships engaged submarines with depth charge s and , less frequently , with other on - board weapons . They were excellent at driving submarines down , where their limited speed and range prevented them from attacking convoys . The weapons available to airships were so limited that until the advent of the homing torpedo they had little chance of sinking a submarine . Only one airship was ever destroyed by U - boat : on the night of 18 / 19 July 1943 , a " K " - class airship ( " K - 74 " ) from ZP - 21 division was patrolling the coastline near Florida . Using radar , the airship located a surfaced German submarine . The K - 74 made her attack run but the U - boat opened fire first . " K - 74 " s depth charge s did not release as she crossed the U - boat and the " K - 74 " received serious damage , losing gas pressure and an engine but landing in the water without loss of life . The crew was rescued by patrol boats in the morning , but one crewman , Aviation Machinist ' s Mate Second Class Isadore Stessel , died from a shark attack . The U - Boat , , was slightly damaged and the next day or so was attacked by aircraft , sustaining damage that forced it to return to base . It was finally sunk on 24 August 1943 by a British Vickers Wellington near Vigo , Spain Fleet Airship Wing One operated from Lakehurst , NJ , Glynco , GA , Weeksville , NC , South Weymouth NAS Massachusetts , Brunswick NAS and Bar Harbor ME , Yarmouth , Nova Scotia , and Argentia , Newfoundland . Some US airships saw action in the European war theater . The ZP - 14 unit operating in the Mediterranean area from June 1944 completely denied the use of the Gibraltar Straits to Axis submarines . Airships from the ZP - 12 unit took part in the sinking of the last U - Boat before German capitulation , sinking " U - 881 " on 6 May 1945 together with destroyers Atherton and Mobery . Other airships patrolled the Caribbean , Fleet Airship Wing Two , Headquartered at NAS Richmond , Florida , covered the Gulf of Mexico from Richmond and Key West , FL , Houma , Louisiana , as well as Hitchcock and Brownsville , Texas . FAW 2 also patrolled the northern Caribbean from San Julian , the Isle of Pines ( now called Isla de la Juventud ) and Guantanamo Bay , Cuba as well as Vernam Field , Jamaica . Navy blimps of Fleet Airship Wing Five , ( ZP - 51 ) operated from bases in Trinidad , British Guiana and Paramaribo , Suriname . Fleet Airship Wing Four operated along the coast of Brazil . Two squadrons , VP - 41 and VP - 42 flew from bases at Amapá , Igarape Assu , Sao Luiz , Fortaleza , Fernando de Noronha , Recife , Maceió , Ipitanga ( near Salvador , Bahia ) , Caravellas , Vitoria and the hangar built for the " Graf Zeppelin " at Santa Cruz , Rio de Janeiro . Fleet Airship Wing Three operated squadrons , ZP - 32 from Moffett Field , ZP - 31 at NAS Santa Ana , and ZP - 33 at NAS Tillamook , Oregon . Auxiliary fields were at Del Mar , Lompoc , Watsonville and Eureka , CA , North Bend and Astoria , Oregon , as well as Shelton and Quillayute in Washington . From 2 January 1942 till the end of war airship operations in the Atlantic , the airships of the Atlantic fleet made 37 , 554 flights and flew 378 , 237 hours . Of the over 70 , 000 ships in convoys protected by blimps , only one was sunk by a submarine while under blimp escort . The Soviet Union used a single airship during the war . The " W - 12 " , built in 1939 , entered service in 1942 for paratrooper training and equipment transport . It made 1432 runs with 300 metric tons of cargo until 1945 . On 1 February 1945 , the Soviets constructed a second airship , a " Pobeda " - class ( " Victory " - class ) unit ( used for mine - sweeping and wreckage clearing in the Black Sea ) which crashed on 21 January 1947 . Another " W " - class - W - 12bis " Patriot " - was commissioned in 1947 and was mostly used for crew training , parades and propaganda . Modern use . Although airships are no longer used for passenger transport , they are still used for other purposes such as advertising , sightseeing , surveillance and research . In the 1980s , Per Lindstrand and his team introduced the " GA - 42 " airship , the first airship to use fly - by - wire flight control which considerably reduced the pilot ' s workload . The world ' s largest thermal airship ( 300 , 000 cubic feet / 8 , 495 m³ ) was constructed by the Per Lindstrand company for French botanists in 1993 . The " AS - 300 " carried an under - slung raft , which was positioned by the airship on top of tree canopies in the rain forest , allowing the botanists to carry out their treetop research without significant damage to the rainforest . When research was finished at a given location , the airship returned to pick up and relocate the raft . In the spring of 2004 , Lindstrand Technologies supplied the world ' s first fully functional unmanned airship to the Ministry of Defense in Spain . This airship carried a classified payload and its surveillance mission was also classified . Four years later , this airship , which is designated " GA - 22 " , still flies on an almost daily basis . In June 1987 , the US Navy awarded a US $ 168 . 9 million contract to Westinghouse Electric and Airship Industries of the UK to demonstrate whether a blimp could be used as an airborne platform to detect the threat of sea - skimming missiles , such as the Exocet . At 2 . 5 million cubic feet , the Westinghouse / Airship Industries Sentinel 5000 ( Redesignated YEZ - 2A by the U . S . Navy ) prototype design was to have been the largest blimp ever constructed . However , additional funding for the Naval Airship Program was killed in 1995 and development was discontinued . The " CA - 80 " airship , which was launched in 2000 by Shanghai Vantage Airship Manufacture Co . , Ltd . , had a successful trial flight in September 2001 . This model of airship was designed for the purpose of advertisement and propagation , air - photo , scientific test , tour and surveillance duties . It was certified as a grade - A Hi - Tech introduction program ( № 20000186 ) in Shanghai , China . The CAAC authority granted a type design approval and certificate of airworthiness for the model CA - 80 airship , which has been published in the Jane ' s All the World ' s Aircraft for five times ( 2003 – 08 ) . In the 1990s , the Zeppelin company reentered the airship business . Their new model , designated the Zeppelin NT , made its maiden flight on 18 September 1997 . As of 2009 , there were four NT aircraft flying , a fifth completed in March 2009 and an expanded NT - 14 ( 14 , 000 cubic meters of helium , capable of carrying 19 passengers ) under construction . One was sold to a Japanese company , and was planned to be flown to Japan in the summer of 2004 . Due to delays getting permission from the Russian government , the company decided to transport the airship to Japan by ship . One of the four NT craft is in South Africa carrying diamond detection equipment from De Beers , an application at which the very stable low vibration NT platform excels . The project included design adaptations for high heat operation and desert climate , as well as a separate mooring mast and a very heavy mooring truck . NT - 4 belongs to Airship Ventures of Moffett Field , Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area , and provides sight - seeing tours Blimps are used for advertising and as TV camera platforms at major sporting events . The most iconic of these are the Goodyear Blimps . Goodyear operates three blimps in the United States , and The Lightship Group operates up to 19 advertising blimps around the world . Airship Management Services owns and operates three Skyship 600 blimps . Two operate as advertising and security ships in North America and the Caribbean . Airship Ventures operates a Zeppelin NT for advertising , passenger service and special mission projects . They are the only airship operator in the U . S . authorized to fly commercial passengers . Skycruise Switzerland AG owns and operates two Skyship 600 blimps . One operates regularly over Switzerland used on sightseeing tours . The Switzerland - based Skyship 600 has also played other roles over the years . For example , it was flown over Athens during the 2004 Summer Olympics as a security measure . In November 2006 , it carried advertising calling it " The Spirit of Dubai " as it began a publicity tour from London to Dubai , UAE on behalf of The Palm Islands , the world ' s largest man - made islands created as a residential complex . Los Angeles - based Worldwide Aeros Corp . produces FAA Type Certified Aeros 40D Sky Dragon airships . In May 2006 , the US Navy began to fly airships again after a hiatus of nearly 44 years . The program uses a single American Blimp Company A - 170 nonrigid airship , with designation MZ - 3A . Operations focus on crew training and research , and the platform integrator is Northrop Grumman . The program is directed by the Naval Air Systems Command and is being carried out at NAES Lakehurst , the original centre of U . S . Navy lighter - than - air operations in previous decades . In November 2006 , the U . S . Army bought an A380 + airship from American Blimp Corporation through a Systems level contract with Northrop Grumman and Booz Allen Hamilton . The airship started flight tests in late 2007 , with a primary goal of carrying of payload to an altitude of under remote control and autonomous waypoint navigation . The program will also demonstrate carrying of payload to The platform could be used for Multi - Intelligence collections . In 2008 , the " CA - 150 " airship was launched by Vantage Airship . This is an improved modification of model " CA - 120 " and completed manufacturing in 2008 . With larger volume and increased passenger capacity , it is the largest manned nonrigid airship in China at present . In 2010 , the US Army awarded a $ 517 million ( £350 . 6 million ) contract to Northrop Grumman and partner Hybrid Air Vehicles , to develop a Long Endurance Multi - Intelligence Vehicle ( LEMV ) system , in the form of three HAV 304 ' s . The project was cancelled in February 2012 , due to it being behind schedule and over budget ; also the forthcoming US withdrawal from Afghanistan where it was intended to be deployed . An airship was prominently featured in the James Bond film " A View to a Kill " , released in 1985 . The Skyship 500 had the livery of Zorin Industries . A - NSE , a French company , manufactures and operates airships and aerostats . For 2 years , A - NSE has been testing its airships for the French Army . Airships and aerostats are operated to provide intelligence , surveillance , and reconnaissance ( ISR ) support . Many innovations are developed by A - NSE : water ballast take - off and landing system , variable geometry envelope , thrust – vectoring system etc . … Recent developments . In the 1930s , Zeppelins successfully competed with other means of transport . They could carry significantly more passengers than other contemporary aircraft while providing amenities similar to those on ocean liners , such as private cabins , observation decks , and dining rooms . Less importantly , the technology was potentially more energy - efficient than heavier - than - air designs . Zeppelins were also faster than ocean liners . On the other hand , operating airships was quite involved . Often the crew would outnumber passengers , and on the ground large teams were necessary to assist mooring and very large hangars were required at airports . Today , with large , fast , and more cost - efficient fixed - wing aircraft , it is unknown whether huge airships can operate profitably in regular passenger transport though , as energy costs rise , attention is once again returning to these lighter than air vessels as a possible alternative . At the very least , the idea of comparatively slow , " majestic " cruising at relatively low altitudes and in comfortable atmosphere certainly has retained some appeal . There have been some niches for airships in and after World War II , such as long - duration observations , antisubmarine patrol , platforms for TV camera crews , and advertising ; these , however , generally require only small and flexible craft , and have thus generally been better fitted for cheaper blimps . Heavy lifting . It has periodically been suggested that airships could be employed for cargo transport , especially delivering extremely heavy loads to areas with poor infrastructure over great distances . This has also been called roadless trucking . Also , airships could be used for heavy lifting over short distances ( e . g . on construction sites ) ; this is described as heavy - lift , short - haul . In both cases , the airships are heavy hauler s . One recent enterprise of this sort was the " Cargolifter " project , in which a hybrid ( thus not entirely Zeppelin - type ) airship even larger than " Hindenburg " was projected . Around 2000 , CargoLifter AG built the world ' s largest cantilever shop hall measuring long , wide and high about south of Berlin . In May 2002 , the project was stopped for financial reasons ; the company had to file bankruptcy . The enormous CargoLifter hangar was later converted to house the Tropical Islands Resort . Although no rigid airships are currently used for heavy lifting , hybrid airship s are being developed for such purposes . John McPhee ' s " The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed " is the story of one company attempting this . Passenger transport . In the 1990s , the successor of the original Zeppelin company in Friedrichshafen , the " Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH " , reengaged in airship construction . The first experimental craft ( later christened " Friedrichshafen " ) of the type ″ Zeppelin NT ″ flew in September 1997 . Though larger than common blimps , the " Neue Technologie " ( New Technology ) zeppelins are much smaller than their giant ancestors and not actually Zeppelin - types in the classical sense . They are sophisticated semirigids . Apart from the greater payload , their main advantages compared to blimps are higher speed and excellent maneuverability . Meanwhile , several " Zeppelin NT " have been produced and operated profitably in joyrides , research flights and similar applications . In June 2004 , a Zeppelin NT was sold for the first time to a Japanese company , Nippon Airship Corporation , for tourism and advertising mainly around Tokyo . It was also given a role at the 2005 Expo in Aichi . The aircraft began a flight from Friedrichshafen to Japan , stopping at Geneva , Paris , Rotterdam , Munich , Berlin , Stockholm and other European cities to carry passengers on short legs of the flight . However , Russian authorities denied overflight permission so the airship had to be dismantled and shipped to Japan rather than following the historic " Graf Zeppelin " flight from Germany to Japan . In 2008 , Airship Ventures Inc . began operations from Moffett Federal Airfield near Mountain View , California and until November 2012 offered tours of the San Francisco Bay Area for up to 12 passengers . Use in exploration . In November 2005 , De Beers , the diamond mining company , launched an airship exploration program over the remote Kalahari desert . A Zeppelin , loaded with high - tech equipment , is used to find potential diamond mines by scanning the local geography for low - density rock formations - so - called kimberlite pipes . On 21 September 2007 , the airship was severely damaged by a whirlwind while in Botswana . One crew member , who was on watch aboard the moored craft , was slightly injured but released after overnight observation in hospital . Thermal airships and remotes . Several companies , such as Cameron Balloons in Bristol , United Kingdom , build hot - air airships . These combine the structures of both hot - air balloons and small airships . The envelope is the normal cigar shape , complete with tail fins , but is inflated with hot air instead of helium to provide the lifting force . A small gondola , carrying the pilot and passengers , a small engine , and the burners to provide the hot air are suspended below the envelope , beneath an opening through which the burners protrude . Hot - air airships typically cost less to buy and maintain than modern helium - based blimps , and can be quickly deflated after flights . This makes them easy to carry in trailers or trucks and inexpensive to store . They are usually very slow moving , with a typical top speed of 25 – 30 km / h ( 15 – 20 mph , 6 . 7 – 8 . 9 m / s ) . They are mainly used for advertising , but at least one has been used in rainforests for wildlife observation , as they can be easily transported to remote areas . Remote - controlled ( RC ) airships , a type of unmanned aerial system ( UAS ) , are sometimes used for commercial purposes such as advertising and aerial video and photography as well as recreational purposes . They are particularly common as an advertising mechanism at indoor stadiums . While RC airships are sometimes flown outdoors , doing so for commercial purposes is illegal in the US . In particular , Docket FAA - 2006 - 25714 states that : " The FAA recognizes that people and companies other than modelers might be flying UAS with the mistaken understanding that they are legally operating under the authority of AC 91 - 57 . AC 91 - 57 only applies to modelers , and thus specifically excludes its use by persons or companies for business purposes . " The same docket item identifies 14CFR121 as the appropriate certification basis for experimental unmanned aircraft , which would included unmanned airships operating for commercial purposes , so commercial use of an unmanned airship is not prohibited - instead it must be certified under part 121 not 91 . A total of 4 , 700 airships and blimps exist across the world . Present - day research . Prototypes and experimental models . Hybrid designs such as the Heli - Stat airship / helicopter , the Aereon aerostatic / aerodynamic craft , and the CycloCrane ( a hybrid aerostatic / rotorcraft ) , have struggled to take flight . The Cyclocrane was also interesting in that the airship ' s envelope rotated along its longitudinal axis . In 2005 , a short - lived project of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) was WALRUS HULA which explored the potential for using airships as long - distance , heavy lift craft . The primary goal of the research program was to determine the feasibility of building an airship capable of carrying of payload a distance of and land on an unimproved location without the use of external ballast or ground equipment ( such as masts ) . In 2005 , two contractors , Lockheed Martin and US Aeros Airships were each awarded approximately $ 3 million to do feasibility studies of designs for WALRUS . In late March 2006 , DARPA announced the termination of work on WALRUS after completion of the current Phase I contracts . The US government is funding two major projects in the high altitude arena . The Composite Hull High Altitude Powered Platform ( CHHAPP ) is sponsored by US Army Space and Missile Defense Command . This aircraft is also sometimes called " HiSentinel High - Altitude Airship " . This prototype ship made a five - hour test flight in September 2005 . The second project , the high - altitude airship ( HAA ) , is sponsored by DARPA . In 2005 , DARPA awarded a contract for nearly $ 150 million to Lockheed Martin for prototype development . First flight of the HAA was planned for 2008 but suffered programmatic and funding delays . The HAA project evolved into the High Altitude Long Endurance - Demonstrator ( HALE - D ) . The U . S . Army and Lockheed Martin launched the first - of - its kind HALE - D on July 27 , 2011 . After a short flight , the experimental craft was brought down , intentionally or accidentally , in rural Pennsylvania . On 31 January 2006 Lockheed Martin made the first flight of their secretly built hybrid airship designated the P - 791 . The design is very similar to the SkyCat , unsuccessfully promoted for many years by the now financially troubled British company Advanced Technologies Group ( ATG ) . Although Lockheed Martin is developing a design for the DARPA WALRUS HULA project , it claimed that the P - 791 is unrelated to WALRUS . Nonetheless , the design represents an approach that may well be applicable to WALRUS . Some believe that Lockheed Martin had used the secret P - 791 program as a way to get a head start on the other WALRUS competitor , US Aeros Airships . An aerostatic design from the company Varialift Airships PLC in the UK has designed an aluminium monocoque outer structure and internal skeleton , together with a patented buoyancy mechanism that it claims can allow it to operate at high altitudes and therefore fly faster than current designs , at lower fuel consumption levels than hybrids since no energy is needed to generate lift , only to power the craft forward . Hybrid airship . A hybrid airship is a general term for an aircraft that combines characteristics of heavier - than - air ( aeroplane or helicopter ) and lighter - than - air technology . Examples include helicopter / airship hybrids intended for heavy lift applications and dynamic lift airships intended for long - range cruising . It should be noted that most airships , when fully loaded with cargo and fuel , are usually ballasted to be heavier than air , and thus must use their propulsion system and shape to create aerodynamic lift , necessary to stay aloft . All airships can be operated to be slightly heavier than air at periods during flight ( descent ) . However , the term " hybrid airship " refers to craft that obtain a significant portion of their lift from aerodynamic lift or other kinetic means . For example , the Aeroscraft is a buoyancy assisted air vehicle that generates lift through a combination of aerodynamics , thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy generation and management , and for much of the time will fly heavier than air . Aeroscraft is Worldwide Aeros Corporation ' s continuation of DARPA ' s now cancelled Walrus HULA ( Hybrid Ultra Large Aircraft ) project . Practical comparison with heavier - than - air aircraft . The advantage of airships over aeroplanes is that static lift sufficient for flight is generated by the lifting gas and requires no engine power . This was an immense advantage before the middle of World War I and remained an advantage for long distance , or long duration operations until World War II . Modern concepts for high altitude airships include photovoltaic cells to reduce the need to land to refuel , thus they can remain in the air until consumables expire . The disadvantages are that an airship has a very large reference area and comparatively large drag coefficient , thus a larger drag force compared to that of aeroplanes and even helicopters . Given the large frontal area and wetted surface of an airship , a practical limit is reached around . Thus airships are used where speed is not critical . The gross lift capability of an airship is equal to the buoyant force minus the weight of the airship . This assumes standard air temperature and pressure conditions . Corrections are usually made for water vapor and impurity of lifting gas , as well as percentage of inflation of the gas cells at liftoff . Based on specific lift ( pounds of lift per thousand cubic feet of lifting gas ) , the greatest static lift is provided by hydrogen ( 71 lbs . lift / 1000 cubic feet of gas ) with helium ( 66 lbs . lift / 1000 cubic feet of gas ) a close second . At 39 lbs . / 1000 cubic feet , steam is a distant third . Other gases , such as methane , carbon monoxide , ammonia and natural gas have even less lifting capacity and are flammable , toxic , corrosive , or all three . Operational considerations such as whether the lift gas can be economically vented and produced in flight for control of buoyancy ( as with hydrogen ) or even produced as a byproduct of propulsion ( as with steam ) affect the practical choice of lift gas in airship designs . Considering the " Hindenburg " disaster , one may question why such a flammable gas as hydrogen was used in the first place , when it is only marginally better than helium as a lifting gas . The answer is that hydrogen can be produced easily and economically through the electrolysis of water or by chemical reactions , whereas helium is scarce and expensive , occurring only in trace amounts in a few natural gas deposits . In addition to static lift , an airship can obtain a certain amount of dynamic lift from its engines . Dynamic lift in past airships has been about 10 % of the static lift . Dynamic lift allows an airship to " take off heavy " from a runway similar to fixed - wing and rotary - wing aircraft . However , this requires additional weight in engines , fuel and landing gear , negating some of the static lift capacity . The altitude at which an airship can fly largely depends on how much lifting gas it can lose due to expansion before stasis is reached . The ultimate altitude record for a rigid airship was set in 1917 by the L - 55 under the command of Hans - Kurt Flemming when he forced the airship to attempting to cross France after the " Silent Raid " on London . The L - 55 lost lift as the descent to lower altitudes over Germany compressed the gas left in the cells , and thus the weight of air displaced . L - 55 crashed due to loss of lift . While such waste of gas was necessary for the survival of airships in the later years of WW I , it was impractical for commercial operations , or operations of helium - filled military airships . The highest flight made by a hydrogen filled passenger airship was on the " Graf Zeppelin ' s " around the world flight . The practical limit for rigid airships was about , and for pressure airships around . Modern airships use dynamic helium volume . At sea level altitude , helium only takes up a small part of the hull , while the rest is filled with air . As the airship ascends , the helium inflates with reduced outer pressure , and air is pushed out and released from the downward valve . This allows an airship to reach any altitude with balanced inner and outer pressure if the buoyancy is enough . Some civil aerostats could reach without explosion due to overloaded inner pressure . The greatest disadvantage of the airship is size , which is essential to increasing performance . As size increases , the problems of ground handling increase geometrically . As the German Navy transitioned from the " p " class Zeppelins of 1915 with a volume of over to the larger " q " class of 1916 , the " r " class of 1917 , and finally the " w " class of 1918 , at almost ground handling problems reduced the number of days the Zeppelins were able to make patrol flights . This availability declined from 34 % in 1915 , to 24 . 3 % in 1916 and finally 17 . 5 % in 1918 . So long as the power - to - weight ratios of aircraft engines remained low and specific fuel consumption high , the airship had an edge for long range or duration operations . As those figures changed , the balance shifted rapidly in the aeroplane ' s favour . By mid - 1917 , the airship could no longer survive in a combat situation where the threat was aeroplanes . By the late 1930s , the airship barely had an advantage over the aeroplane on intercontinental over - water flights , and that advantage had vanished by the end of WW II . This is in face - to - face tactical situations . Currently , a High Altitude Airship project is planned to survey hundreds of kilometres as their operation radius , often much farther than the normal engagement range of a military aeroplane . This provides better early warning , even farther than the Aegis system . The current Aegis system is often based on a sea vessel like Ticonderoga Class and Burke Class , which have restricted radio horizon and line of sight . For example , a radar mounted on a vessel platform high has radio horizon at range , while a radar at altitude has radio horizon at range . This is significantly important for detecting low - flying cruise missiles or fighter - bombers . Today , airships are used primarily for command , control and as a communication platform ; to establish and maintain reliable and secure connectivity among all forces , provide transparent data across the echelons ; precisely locate friendly and enemy forces ; detect targets on an extended battlefield at a minimal exposure to enemy forces ; real time targeting ; navigation assistance ; battle management ; monitor radio conversations , etc . Safety . The most commonly used lift gas , helium , is inert so acts as a fire extinguisher . Modern airships have a natural buoyancy and special design that offers a virtually zero catastrophic failure mode . While on long - haul flights weather patterns would be flown to avoid bad weather , the hull ' s mass largely damps the effect of turbulence , just as a large tanker rides through rough seas . An airship is usually a poor lightning target , as it is constructed mainly from composite materials . If it is struck , built - in protection devices minimize the risk to the vehicle and its cargo . A series of structural vulnerability tests were done by the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency DERA on a Skyship 600 , an earlier airship built by the Munk team to a similar pressure - stabilized design . Several hundred high - velocity bullets were fired through the hull , and even two hours later the vehicle would have been able to return to base . The airship is virtually impervious to automatic rifle and mortar fire : ordnance passes through the envelope without causing critical helium loss . In all instances of light armament fire evaluated under both test and live conditions , the vehicle was able to complete its mission and return to base . The internal hull pressure is maintained at only 1 – 2 % above surrounding air pressure , the vehicle is highly tolerant to physical damage or to attack by small - arms fire or missiles .