Page 54 - All About History - Issue 38-16

The weird

world of

airships

Written by Peter Wolfgang Price

Pioneering aircraft that captured the

imagination of a generation, airships

have a brief but action-packed history

he accepted future of air travel today is
firmly in the hands of planes, but at the
T end of the 19th century, it was airships
that held the keys to the sky. Floating leisurely
above the clouds, the story of these craft has often
been forgotten and sidelined in favour of fixed-
wing aviation achievements, but remain a key part
of humanity’s history of flight.

1784

Balloonmania strikes Europe

Jean Pierre Blanchard was a Frenchman who leisurely two-and-a-half hours and was a world first.
dreamed of flight. Owner of an inquisitive mind, Blanchard’s flights triggered ‘balloonmania’ among
he unsuccessfully attempted to develop manual- the public with all manner of balloon memorabilia
powered aeroplanes and helicopters before finding being produced. However, Blanchard would suffer
fame with another aviation idea: hot air balloons. an unfortunate end when he had a heart attack
In March 1784, Blanchard first took to the skies in a mid-air in 1808. Plummeting 15 metres to the
home-made balloon, a year after the first successful ground caused massive injury that he would never
balloon flight by the Montgolfier Brothers. In 1785, recover from, and he died the next year.
Blanchard’s successful he teamed up with an American physician, Dr John
crossing of the Channel Jeffries, and lifting off from Dover Castle, flew over
made him a celebrity
the English Channel to France. The journey took a

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