Dirigible (Noun)
Meaning
A steerable self-propelled aircraft.
Classification
Nouns denoting man-made objects.
Examples
- The French engineer Henri Giffard successfully flew the first powered dirigible in 1852.
- A century ago, the Zeppelin was a well-known type of rigid dirigible used for luxury air travel.
- The U.S. Navy used blimps, a type of non-rigid dirigible, for naval surveillance during World War II.
- Despite being used for military and scientific research, the dirigible eventually gave way to airplanes as the popular mode of flight.
- The largest lighter-than-air dirigible ever built was the Hindenburg, a German passenger airship that caught fire and crashed in 1937.