Lighter Than Air History: The History of Airships, Blimps & Zeppelins

The history of the rigid airship is a fascinating chapter in the saga of man's never-ending quest to defy gravity. More commonly known as blimps or zeppelins, Lighter-Than-Air History: Rigid Airships tells the story of these noble craft beginning with their invention in 1897. Relive their use by the British and German armies in World War I, and the world's first transatlantic zeppelin crossing in 1919. And then comes the most tragic catastrophe of all: the Hindenburg disaster, when a German-made airship caught fire and crashed over Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937. The film concludes with a look at how the airships of the future will be used for commercial travel, "and will contain helium, so a disaster such as the Hindenburg will never happen again." Lighter-Than-Air History was produced by U.S. Navy personnel in hopes of continuing the airship program after World War II. Despite the compelling case the filmmakers presented, the "Development and Operation of Rigid Airships" was removed from the official Doctrine of Naval Aviation later that year in 1947, having been replaced by heavier-than-air craft.

BONUS: THE HISTORY OF FLIGHT: EARLY BALLOONS (1972): An informative lecture on the history of ballooning, from the first manned balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, to the invention of the rigid airship in 1897. Presented by Paul E. Garber, the first head of the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.

• documentary