3w ago

TIL all blimps are dirigibles, but not all dirigibles are blimps

www.airships.net Airships, Dirigibles, Zeppelins, & Blimps:What's the Difference? | Airships.net

What is an Airship? An airship is any powered, steerable aircraft that it is inflated with a gas that is lighter than air. What is a Dirigible? “Airship” and...

Dirigibles or airships are powered, steerable aircraft using lighter-than-air gas to get their lift. Rigid (or semi-rigid) airships have some kind of internal structure to make their shape. Blimps don't.

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If you looked at the article, you'll probably enjoy this book.
The only fantasy element in the story is that people with a Napoleonic level of technology have access to unlimited supplies of helium.
You can tell that the author had a great time figuring out the specifics of the craft.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-guns-above-robyn-bennis/90734a18a40dfd82?ean=9780765388773&next=t

And if you cross a gerbil with a dirigible, you get a dirigiberbil

I don't know if this is true but i once read that when classifying lighter-than-air ships they broke them down into two categories. A rigid and B limp and that's where the name blimp comes from.
- Not sure if joke or real, but it’s my head-canon now

Midnight, catching up on dirigible gossip in the fediverse comments

Bring back zeppelins
- Zeppelins are a brand name. They are rigid air ships built by the Zeppelin company.
  
  Not really, it's become generic a long time ago, like bandaid.

12 comments