The hallmark of steampunk, if not toppers and goggles, is the airship. Such a romantic piece of history with so many fantastic dreams attached. What I would like to talk about is the history, a bit of science and engineering, and the different types. Commonly called a dirigible, or luftschiff in the German, it goes back to the 1600s when the first hot air balloons arose. As engineering produced different designs, and the search for powered flight continued, the aerostatic design gave way to the elongated envelopes, tail fins, and directly attached gondolas. The tethered balloons would be relegated to recreation, where the new style was the future. There were three major types that developed: Non-rigid, or blimp, semi-rigid, and rigid (later to become generically known by the German trademark Zeppelin).
You're probably asking for some timelines at this point. At the end of the 1700s the elongated balloon, still tethered to a lower seating platform, saw some hand powered flights via propellers or wings, but it wasn't until 1851 that designs for true powered flight made an appearance at the Great Exhibition, and in 1852 Henri Giffard made the first steam powered flight, for 27 km. In 1872 the first coal-gas powered combustion engine flew in Vienna by Paul Haenlein. It wouldn't be until 1883, more than a decade later, that an electric powered flight would be made, by Gaston Tissandier. A year later, the first fully powered and controllable flight was made by the French Military, piloted by Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs. The end of the 1800s saw more developments in electric and combustion engine powered airships, but 1900 and the next 4 decades saw the greatest refinement, and, ultimately, the demise of the great sky platform.
It was July of 1900 that saw the launch of the first Zeppelin. Count von Zeppelin began research and experimentation with rigid airships in the 1890s, and his designs became so successful and popular that has name and trademark bacame synonymous with the rigid airship. At the same time, the French were perfecting the semi-rigid designs, headed by Henri Julliot. Many other engineers made contributions in the first decade of the twentieth century, leading up to the first (unsuccessful) attempt at a transatlantic crossing in 1910. It was not long before military applications became apparent.
The Italians first used the dirigible for reconnaissance in 1912, but The Great War saw the first full scale use as scouts and bombers. However, by 1915 their use was in decline as accuracy became an apparent issue. Though they were beyond standard ballistic range, and their design made anti-aircraft damage trivial (holes had little effect on the operation of the craft, including buoyancy) the weather and height proved difficult conditions for success. Then came the invention of incendiary bullets, which proved deadly to the hydrogen filled ships. Their remaining limited use against submarines, and on small, short range missions eventually led them to being replaced entirely by airplanes which proved much more valuable to military purpose.
From the end of the war, and into the 1940s the airships saw great popularity in civilian use, including, finally, transatlantic transport (with the first double transatlantic flight being made in 1919, and 1926 saw the first airship over the north pole.) Military operations, post war, were still searching for a proper use, and saw the construction of several more ships, but they were eventually phased out, except by the Americans in WWII who found one last use for them against submarines. Unfortunately, the 1930s saw several high profile accidents (including the famous Hindenburg explosion of 1937) and by 1947 the general use of the dirigible became obsolete, with niche use continuing into the present for publicity and transport mostly. A few notable moments include the first global circumnavigation by the German Graf Zeppelin (the largest Zeppelin to possibly be built in their facilities, and it also had an enormous safety/success record of 1.6million km without passenger injury) and the 1923 USS Shenandoah, the first dirigible to use helium (still a precious rare gas at the time) instead of hydrogen. The advent of helium would prove insufficient to bring back the popularity of the flying balloons, and before the half century could hit it was a bygone convention.
A couple of notes on the three major types of airship before we close. The older of the three, the non-rigid, is commonly called a blimp (a word of uncertain origin) and has no supporting structure for the gas envelope. There is the semi-rigid ship which typically sports a fixed keel, allowing for larger gas envelopes, and heavier payloads. Finally is the rigid airship, commonly known as the Zeppelin, introduced by Count von Zeppelin 1900, which had a fully ribbed frame, allowing for the largest, and most complex of gas envelope systems, able to carry more sophisticated engines, and much larger payloads. The size and simplicity of blimps allow for cheap production and have found continued small use throughout, but in the 1900s America and Germany pursued the rigid ship, while many countries (including France and Italy) focused on the semi-rigid variety. Eventually, Zeppelins took precedence, and the semi-rigid phased out. One thing they all have in common is a fixed gondola, aft fins, and internal gas envelopes. Of course, they all vary in degrees of complexity based on the refinement of the model, but as a general rule, the more rigid, and larger the dirigible, the more complex its design.
Well, my dear friends, this brings us to a close. The magnificent airship of steampunk legend is an appropriate fixture, if not a little ahead of its time. It boasts all the majesty one could wish for, and with a little imagination, it is capable of so much more. Until next time, good journey!
