Flight Deck Podcast

Airships are lighter than air craft whose history goes back to mid-nineteenth century France and comes to a screeching halt after World War Two. Learn more about what makes air ships such a unique part of aviation history in our latest Flight Deck Podcast episode! Joshua Carver, a student in our Museum Apprentice Program who’s about to begin his freshman year at Embry-Riddle University, created a fascinating presentation about airships as part of his apprenticeship at the Museum. During this time, he learned all about dirigibles, explosions, and how an aircraft carrier could fly back in 1931. Joshua traces airship history back to France in the mid-nineteenth century: “Balloons really were the posterchildren of France . . . they were the first country use balloons in combat.” Soon enough, balloons appeared on Civil War battlefields in the United States and were reborn in Germany as Zeppelins, created by none other than Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. By the time World War One erupted, the Germans developed thei