A rigid airship is a type of airship in which the envelope retained its shape by the use of an internal structural framework rather than by being forced into shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope as used in blimps (also termed pressurized airships) and semi-rigid airships. Rigid airships are often casually referred to by several other names such as dirigibles, zeppelins, or the big rigids.
Rigid airships were produced and relatively successfully employed from the beginning of the 1900s to the end of the 1930s; their heyday ended when the Hindenburg caught fire on May 6, 1937.
Read more about Rigid Airship: Early Days, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, United States, Production, Demise, Famous Rigid Airships, Modern Rigids, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word rigid:
“Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)