As political tensions escalated across Europe in the years leading up to the First World War, the major powers engaged in an aerial arms race to develop their airships into war-winning weapons.
Britain, Italy, France and Germany watched each other's progress with fear and alarm. Britain struggled to keep up with its continental rivals. Italy was the only country to deploy airships in combat pre-WW1. France built a large fleet but didn't know what to do with it. Germany, of course, dominated the skies but experienced several devastating crashes that claimed the lives of many of their valuable experienced airshipmen.
By the time war erupted in the summer of 1914, airshipmen around the world faced an uncertain future. What role would these lighter-than-air giants play in the conflicts to come?
Join us as we explore the story of how airships prepared for war - an era marked by ambition, innovation and no small measure of calamity.
Sources
The Zeppelin in Combat by Douglas Robinson
Military, Naval and Civil Airships Since 1783 by Daniel George Ridley-Kitts MBE
The Achievement of the Airship by Guy Hartcup
The British Rigid Airship 1908 – 1931 by Robin Higham
Jane’s Pocket Book of Airship Development by Lord Ventry and Eugene M. Kolesnik
The Parseval Airships by Alastair Reid
12,000 Kilometres in Parseval Airships by August Stelling, translated by Alastair Reid
Airshipmen, Businessmen and Politics by Henry Cord Meyer
Dance of the Furies by Michael Neiberg
Web site of the Airship Heritage Trust
Web site of the Royal Air Force Museum