Blimp Gallery

Completed R100

HM Airship R100 nears completion at the Royal Naval Air Service Air Station near Howden in Yorkshire, November 1929. An extendable fire ladder is used to put the finishing touches to the linen fabric of the giant craft, covering it with a layer of aluminium aircraft dope. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

© 2009 Getty Images

The British Army Airship Beta and Hangar

The British Army Airship "Beta" and hangar. Served in northern France during the First World War. She had a 45-50 Clerget engine, a speed of 35 mph and a crew of three, and could reach an altitude of 4000 feet. The ship took part in air reconnaissance over enemy lines, and in escorting ships across the Channel. She then returned to the UK for training and all early airship pilots, both naval and military, did their preliminary training in her. Date: circa 1910

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Monck Masons Airship

The Victoria, an early airship built by English aviator Thomas Monck Mason, 1843. American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) used Monck Mason and his airship as the basis for his famous Balloon Hoax in which he wrote an article in the New York Sun , 13th April 1844, claiming Monck Mason had crossed the Atlantic in the Victoria in three days. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

© 2007 Getty Images