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:
“It’s fairly obvious that American education is a cultural flop. Americans are not a well-educated people culturally, and their vocational education often has to be learned all over again after they leave school and college. On the other hand, they have open quick minds and if their education has little sharp positive value, it has not the stultifying effects of a more rigid training.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)