MetaFilter posts tagged with dirigible

Fly My Pretty!

RokkitNite — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:48:55 -0800

On this day in 1852, Jules Henri Giffard made the first powered and controlled flight in a steam powered airship. His 27km journey from Paris to Trappes predated the Wright Brothers' 12-second flight by over 50 years. Although their low speed and a few high profile catastrophes severely diminished the popularity of dirigibles, they remain, for many, an emblem of scientific endeavour at its romantic, adventurous best. Giffard himself began to go blind in his fifties, and committed suicide in 1882.

Oh the huge manatee

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:03:40 -0800

The Goodyear Blimp: Building, filling, painting, testing. Structure. People. Signage. Flying.

It's not a balloon, it's an airship!

plinth — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 17:00:31 -0800

You can keep your Skycar , your jet pack, your helium guzzler. Give me a Personal Blimp, floating on hot air and pushed by electricity.

Dynafilter!

mwhybark — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 08:42:26 -0800

Dynalifter! In a cornfield in Ohio, a pair of IT men live the dream as their 150-foot prototype dirigible (which combines airfoil lifting surfaces with a lighter-than-air central hull) readied for a test flight to come this spring.

Dellschau + Sonora Aero Club Mysteries

peacay — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 02:16:23 -0800

Legend has it that Charles Dellschau (1830-1923) was the draftsman for the secret Sonora Aero Club, a collective of 60 or so mostly German immigrants who reportedly constructed dirigible like aircraft in California in the 1850's. One club member was said to have discovered suppe -- the magic antigravity fuel alleged to have lifted the craft. There were sightings of these 'airships', tenuously linked back to the club, up to the end of the 20th century.
Dellschau, described variously as butcher, inventor, civil war spy, scientist and America's first visionary artist, retired at age 70 in Texas and spent the last 2 decades of his life as a recluse, producing mixed media art works that record the craft and workings of the fabled Sonora Aero Club. They are accompanied by cryptic symbols, newsprint about aircraft and detailed notebooks and were salvaged from the garbage in 1967. His artworks were selling for $15,000 each 5 years ago. A would-be author and long-time sleuth believes he has unlocked the mysteries of Dellschau's cryptic accoutrements and may be publishing a book on the legends this year. via

...we could handle a shark easily...

mwhybark — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 20:59:35 -0800

Larry's U.S. Navy Airship Picture Book. No longer available in paper, but still with us in bits. Lawrence F. Rodrigues served in the Navy, in Airship Squadron 3, out of Lakehurst NAS, beginning in 1953. This website presents photos and memories of his service days. It's fascinating.

As a bonus, you may wish to read up on the Details of Modern Airship Construction, ca. 1927, or to return to Dannysoar's site to observe the plans for a twelve-foot model helium-lofted rubber-band powered flying stick-and-tissue dirigible (scroll down a bit).

Up Ship!

didn't someone end a post with those words this year? Google didn't raise hide nor hair of it for me...

The church that it's okay to blow up.

onlyconnect — Fri, 02 May 2003 11:52:50 -0800

The inflatable church. When getting to the church on time is just too much trouble, now the church can come to you, complete with wood floors and plastic "stained glass." (Other inflatable website strangeness includes an inflatable performance artist, inflatable beer can computer speakers, 300 ft inflatable buildings, and the inevitable inflatable sheep.) And a nod to past posts on inflatable love dolls that look like Gary Sinese, missing inflatable tanks, lovely balloon hats, and the bizarrely intricate lego cat church.

GriffX — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 09:06:11 -0800

The Death of a Dirigible - "The airship Shenandoah, nose to her high mooring mast, was floating gracefully with the variable breezes. Her twenty gas bags were about 91% full; her tanks loaded with 9,075 pounds of water and 16, 620 pounds of gasoline..." I was fascinated by this account of the disaster that befell the Navy airship 'Shenandoah', marking the beginning of the end of the era of rigid bodied airships. [ Via a comment on /. ]