Airship Books Airship Technology Available from Amazon, price £106.28 Read More N4 Down Available from amazon, price £11.17 Read More When Giants Ruled the Sky Available from amazon, price £20.61 Read More Helium Available from Amazon, price £19.90 Read More Hindenburg Available from amazon, price £46.95 Read More Principles of Aerostatics Available from Amazon, price £21.50 Read More Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Available on amazon, price £44.68 Read More Airships - Designed for Greatness Currently out of print Read More Here is a selection of some of the best airship-related books we have reviewed in the pages of the AIRSHIP Journal, together with a copy of our review.

< Back Available from Amazon, price £106.28 Airship Technology Airship Technology is one of the definitive text books about airships, and this second edition includes a lot of new material. I have a copy of the original 1999 edition and it breaks down into into 18 chapters (each written by a subject matter expert) covering every topic from Basic Principles and Aerodynamics through to Piloting, Performance and Roles and Economic Considerations. It’s not a book you read from cover to cover (unless you’re really keen) but it is a valuable reference book that will become ‘well thumbed’ from taking it down to look something up. This new edition (2012) keeps almost all of the original 18 chapters and then adds several new ones covering topics like the Zeppelin NT, Heavy Lift Airships and Disaster & Humanitarian Relief. It is, without doubt, a comprehensive guide to modern airship design and operation. It’s not cheap but with Christmas coming up it may be the perfect time to add a copy to your bookshelf.

< Back Available on amazon, price £44.68 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company This beautifully curated, 260 page photo history covers the broad sweep of Goodyear’s history from it’s founding in 1898 through to 1951, but while there is much that is of only passing interest to the airship enthusiast, two chapters, and one in particular, stand out. Chapter 4 ( Up, Up and Away , 46 pages) covers Goodyear’s balloons from their early barrage and observation balloons to their specialist stratosphere balloons, and includes 37 b&w photos. Chapter 3 ( Gentle Giants , 39 pages) is probably of more interest to the airship aficionado though. Starting with the original Akron (1912) there are some 30 b&w pictures covering every major class of blimp, patrol craft and rigid airship that Goodyear put its name to, including the Shenandoah and the Los Angeles. It is not a cheap book, and the ePub and ePDF versions offer no savings over the cover price which is a shame, but it is undoubtedly a book of great historical interest.

< Back Available from amazon, price £46.95 Hindenburg There have been many books published about the Hindenburg (this one was published in 1994) but, for me, this large format illustrated book is one of the best because it isn’t just about the Hindenburg. In a series of chapters, all beautifully illustrated with photographs, maps and diagrams, the book traces the development of airships from Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s first balloon ride in 1863, through WWI and on to the big American airships, the British experience with the R100 and R101, and a chapter on the ‘globetrotting’ Graf Zeppelin. But from page 141 onwards the book is all about the Hindenburg. Starting with its development, and including some beautiful cut-away drawings and photographs, the book tells the story of the ‘ Ship of Dreams ’ and is full of fascinating detail, including diary entries and excerpts from reports and documents of the time. The book then comes to its tragic finale with the details of the final flight, the crash and the aftermath. There is a good discussion of the possible causes of the crash but, wisely, the author avoids drawing any firm conclusions. This probably isn’t the definitive history of the Hindenburg but it is, in my opinion, the most beautifully illustrated one.

< Back Currently out of print Airships - Designed for Greatness Every so often a new book comes along that, by virtue of the quality of the writing, depth of research or detail of its illustrations, sets the new ‘gold standard’ for that field. So it is with AIRSHIPS: Designed for Greatness - The Illustrated History by Max Pinucci and a team of international experts. If you already have a copy then you will know what I mean, but if you don’t, and if you are at all interested in the history and development of airships, then this is a book that you will want to own. Printed hard covers, and 114 beautifully illustrated pages on ‘art quality’ paper give the book a pleasing weight of over 2kg, but the layout of those pages is what sets the book apart. Each individual page is 45 x 28cm but when you open the book you will find that they been combined into the most amazing double page spreads which, at almost 1 metre wide, lend themselves perfectly to their subject material. And these ‘infographic plates’, as Prof. Pinucci calls them, are the heart of this book because they tell the story of airships from 1900 - 2010 through meticulously illustrated timelines, range charts, size comparisons, routes and, at the core of the book, a series of elegant double page spreads describing 25 of the most famous airships. Each of these 25 airships, from the French ‘Lebaudy Le Jaune’ of 1902 to the German Zeppelin NT of 2003, is illustrated with a finely detailed pen and ink drawing on one page and a brief history and specification panel on the facing page. Along the way, there are cutaway diagrams, close-up illustrations of particular points of interest, and maps to help tell the story. And the list of airships given this treatment is a roll-call through history including the R33, the Norge, the Shenandoah, The Graf Zeppelin, the R100 and R101, the Akron and Macon and the Hindenburg. Ask yourself if your airship bookshelf needs a copy of this book. I think you’ll find it does, especially as Max has just announced a revised version which includes 16 new pages on the history of the polar flights.

< Back Available from Amazon, price £21.50 Principles of Aerostatics Principles of Aerostatics presents the complete theory of static lift for airships, aerostats and balloons. Concepts are laid out, and building on the derivation of temperature, pressure, density and humidity in the atmosphere and the gas laws, formulas for static lift are derived. The variation of lift with atmospheric and airship parameters, climb and descent, and flight above pressure height are then explored. Both SI and United States Customary Units are employed throughout, and worked examples and calculator programs are provided. The mathematical processes can followed by a reader with an understanding of high school algebra. "This is an excellent and unique work bringing the strands of basic theory together and rendering them into a workable series of mathematical expressions which can be used by any individual with a hand held scientific calculator. It is a most significant contribution to the LTA industry."

< Back Available from amazon, price £11.17 N4 Down Triumphantly returning from the North Pole on May 24, 1928, the world-famous exploring airship Italia—code-named N-4—was struck by a terrible storm and crashed somewhere over the Arctic ice, triggering the largest polar rescue mission in history. Helping lead the search was Roald Amundsen, the poles’ greatest explorer, who himself soon went missing in the frozen wastes. Amundsen’s body has never been found, the last victim of one of the Arctic’s most enduring mysteries. Braiding together the gripping accounts of the survivors and their heroic rescuers, N-4 Down tells the unforgettable true story of what happened when the glamour and restless daring of the zeppelin age collided with the harsh reality of earth’s extremes.

< Back Available from Amazon, price £19.90 Helium This is an exceedingly comprehensive study of the element Helium and a true work of scholarship. John Taylor traces the beginnings of his fascination with Helium to his association with airships and use of the element as a safe lifting gas. Over a period of some six years the author absorbed a very considerable knowledge of all aspects of the element Helium and has rationalised that into an extraordinary detailed six part book. Where visual aids are applied, they are invariably of a high quality as are illustrations depicting various reactions in diagrammatic form. The book is highly educational and it is no exaggeration in describing it as the definitive work on the Helium element.

< Back Available from amazon, price £20.61 When Giants Ruled the Sky Exclusive excerpt for AIRSHIP from, When Giants Ruled the Sky: The Brief Reign and Tragic Demise of the American Rigid Airship by John J. Geoghegan. Copyright John J. Geoghegan Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics, departed Washington, D.C. accompanied by his naval aide early Monday afternoon, April 3rd, 1933. Normally, Moffett preferred flying to Lakehurst, New Jersey where his newest rigid airship, the USS Akron (ZRS-4) was based. After all, he was head of naval aviation. But the weather was sketchy, so he made the long drive in his staff car instead not wanting to risk being grounded. When the Admiral arrived at Lakehurst Naval Air Station nearly six hours later the huge slab-like doors of Hangar No. 1 were already open. Inside, the Akron , her airframe poking through her canvas-covered hull like the ribs of a steer, hovered off the concrete floor. That something larger than a battleship could float in the air seemed counterintuitive--as if the airship were thumbing her nose at gravity. And yet there she was illuminated by overhead lights with a shadow beneath her proving it was no magic trick. Moffett’s car pulled into the Akron’s hangar followed by a shrill whistle alerting the crew to fall in place. While the men came to attention, their breath visible in the chilly night air, the Akron’s captain, Commander Frank C. McCord, greeted Moffett with a smart salute. NAS-Lakehurst was the heart of Moffett’s rigid airship program. Still, Moffett wasn’t satisfied with having a dirigible base on the east coast of the United States. He was building a second one in California as well. In the meantime, the culmination of everything America knew about big rigids operated just a few miles south of New York City. There was nothing small about Moffett’s rigid airship program. From the size of its budget to the thousands of miles the Akron could fly without having to land, no string of superlatives quite did it justice. There’s no denying the Akron was a window into the future. A miracle of modern engineering, she was state-of-the-art for the U.S. Navy when commissioned in 1931. Seven hundred and eighty-five feet long and 140 feet tall, she dwarfed everything around her including her crew which looked Lilliputian by comparison. Even King Kong, the giant ape in a new movie released the previous month was a chimp by comparison. Size didn’t mean she was slow, however. The Akron was the fastest dirigible the Navy had ever flown. Her eight Maybach engines generated a top speed of more than 80 miles per hour. That wasn’t as fast as airplanes of the day, but the Akron didn’t need to be. Her job wasn’t to get some place in a hurry, but to scout thousands of square miles for days at 1 a time. This required range not speed. Able to travel more than 10,000 miles without refueling, the Akron was a marathoner not a sprinter. Incredibly, she was also a self-contained city in the sky with everything she needed to keep her 80 man crew aloft for days on end. This included three separate mess halls plus a galley; three separate sleeping quarters for her officers, Chief Petty Officers, and enlisted men; “heads” with toilets and sinks (if not showers); navigation and radio rooms; a weather center; sick bay, smoking room, and captain’s cabin all residing inside her enormous hull connected by a labyrinth of catwalks, stairs and ladders. Additionally, the Akron not only had running water, but her own power plant to generate electricity. Eighteen telephones spread throughout the ship assisted communication while eight machine gun emplacements helped repel attack. There was even a sub cloud observation car that could be lowered on a cable to spy on the enemy below. If that wasn’t impressive, the Akron was also a flying aircraft carrier. She not only carried two airplanes inside her belly, which could be deployed and retrieved in mid-flight, but a third which hung from a trapeze outside the airship. The world had seen nothing like it. Unfortunately, the Akron also suffered from the same high hopes so many first born are saddled with. Although she’d only been flying 18 months, there was the feeling she wasn’t living up to expectations. Having experienced a series of mishaps as well as judged vulnerable to being shot down, the Akron had a long ways to go before proving herself an effective ocean-going scout. One flight wasn’t going to change that, but Rear Admiral Moffett wanted to be on board that night if for no other reason than to demonstrate she could fly even in inclement weather. As if being a wunderkind weren’t enough, the future of America’s airship industry depended on how the Akron performed. If she did well then the financial community would feel comfortable investing in passenger-carrying airships, but if the Akron failed to live up to expectations then the financial markets would steer clear of what they deemed a risky investment. In other words, Moffett to show the Akron could fly in poor weather if he wanted the financial community to invest in America’s nascent airship manufacturing industry. That’s why he didn’t want a fewstorm clouds preventing the Akron from taking off that night. Unfortunately, that decision would cost Moffett his life.

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Welcome The Airship Association believes that Lighter Than Air Vehicles (LTAVs) have the potential to provide viable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions for many roles currently undertaken by more conventional forms of aviation, and their unique capabilities make them particularly suited to specific roles like persistent surveillance, eco-tourism and point to point cargo delivery. ​ The Airship Association aims to promote the science, practice and consideration of all matters relating to airships and to disseminate information about airships through its magazine, web-site, seminars and conference programme. ​ We invite you to explore the information, resources and links on our web-site to learn more about these extraordinary vehicles and, if you would like to be kept up to date with all the latest developments, to consider joining the Association. Just hit the Join Now button. Join Now "We need to transform aviation and we're going to do so through Airships" Carl-Oscar Lawaczek CEO Ocean Sky Cruises “We fully embrace The Airship Association’s new focus on the future of lighter than air as Airlander's story is about pioneering the future of flight. While we honour the valuable lessons of the past, our vision is to create a sustainable mode of travel that is versatile, efficient, and environmentally friendly, by building upon the principles of buoyant lift allied to aerodynamic lift and vectored thrust." Mike Durham CTO Hybrid Air Vehicles

Privacy Policy About this Policy This policy explains when and why the Airship Association collects personal information about our members and how we use it, keep it secure and club member’s rights in relation to it. The Association will collect, use and store personal data, as described in this Privacy Policy when people engage in activities within the Association. Normally this will be through some level of membership. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice. You are advised to check the Association’s web-site (www.airship-association.org) and/or e-mail news service for any amendments. We will only share your personal data with any third parties as outlined below. We will always comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when dealing with your personal data. Further details on the GDPR can be found at the website for the Information Commissioner (www.ico.gov.uk ). Responsible person For the purposes of the GDPR, the Membership Secretary will be the “controller” of all personal data we hold about club members and others. The Membership Secretary is responsible for making sure the club complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies from 25 May 2018. The Association will review its compliance with GDPR on a regular basis. Member’s rights You have rights under the GDPR: • To access your personal data • To be provided with information about how your personal data is processed • To have your personal data corrected • To have your personal data erased in certain circumstances • To object to or restrict how your personal data is processed in certain circumstances For more details, please address any questions, comments and requests regarding our data processing practices to the Membership secretary (membership@airship-association.org ). The Lawful reasons for processing your data. We have two lawful reasons for processing your data, which is: (a) processing of your data is necessary for the administration of your membership contract (b) processing of your data is necessary to manage the delivery of the printed AIRSHIP Journal and electronic LTA News service. The table below gives further explanation of which lawful reason applies to which data, why we collect it and who we may be required to share it with. The Association will make every effort to ensure data is only shared with organisations that are GDPR compliant. What Information we collect, why we collect it, and who we share it with In addition to the reasons stated below, the Association may have to disclose your data where we have an inescapable legal obligation, and the Association will also capture, and temporarily keep, minimal personal data about non-members who are attending conferences, webinars and other events. ​ ​ Enquiries and other communications with the Association When enquiring about the Association we may hold your details for a period of time to deal with the enquiry. Any e-mails and other communications with the Association will only be retained for a period of time appropriate to the content or request. Association e-mails will be purged on a regular basis. How we protect your personal data The Data Controller will process membership information electronically and hold all information on a database using the Membermojo system. An electronic backup of this information will be managed by Membermojo as part of their service delivery to the Association. A Mailing List will be generated from the database for each edition of AIRSHIP and provided electronically to the Association’s appointed Distributor. An e-mail List will be generated from the database for each LTA News mail-shot and provided to the Association’s Editor. Paper copes of data will be not be held anywhere. If it is necessary to transport data it will be via secured storage media. Any on-line payments we take from members will use a recognised online secure payment system (STRIPE). In the unlikely event of a breach of the security of data we will notify members promptly and we will never sell or pass on your personal data. Request to see your personal information If you wish to know what personal data the Association holds please login to the Membermojo system and view your personal record, or email the Membership Secretary (membership@airshipassociation.org ) and he/she will respond within 14 days of the request. Accuracy and retention of data Individual members are responsible for informing the Association of any changes to their personal data (e.g. address or telephone number changes) and can do this by logging on to the Membermojo system and making the changes to their membership record directly. If you do not wish to do this, it is possible to e-mail any changes to the Membership Secretary (membership@airship-association.org ) and the Secretary will make the change for you. Members will be asked to check and confirm their personal data at each renewal date. All data is kept electronically in the Association’s membership database managed by Membermojo. Your personal data will be kept for the duration of your membership of the Association, and for a period of 3 years after your membership lapses, or is terminated by you, in case you should wish to re-join at a later date. You may, of course, request this data to be deleted sooner. Some data may be unavoidably kept for longer periods in backup copies of the database. In some circumstances, data may be kept for a longer period for reasons of legal and civil action, or other ongoing case management. ​ Policy Review This Privacy Policy was last reviewed in July 2023.