Posted on Sunday 19 March 2006

Can any better sport or amusement be imagined that could be obtained with an airship of the Zodiac type, endowed with a speed of 40 miles an hour for four hours, or 20 miles an hour for eight times this period, and so on in cubic proportion?

Always able to reach a desired goal, but with the ever changing wind to add an element of interest to the journey; free from dust and the dangers of the road; always able to stop and enjoy the still air. An airship of this type would combine the delights of a motor car, a balloon, a sailing yacht, an aeroplane, with the dangers of none …

It is perhaps worth while contrasting such a vessel with an aeroplane designed for the same purpose: condemned to be rushing through the air every moment of its time; never slowing, never pausing while its occupants look down on the mountain tops, or eat a quiet meal; unable to come down except where the ground has been specially prepared.

It would seem that it is to the dirigible that the ordinary family man must look for his aerial source of health and daily pleasure, and he will not be disappointed …

Then in a few short years we shall be able to alter the question and ask ''Won't you come for a cruise over beautiful country in a staunch ship, with powerful pumps, with two reliable engines, at a speed as great as you could wish, and provided with a faithful anchor by means of which you can at all times pass a night in peace, or ride the fiercest storms?'' And the whole world will answer ''Yes.''

— 'Ripping Panel', ''The future of dirigibles''. In Fred T. Jane, ed., All the World's Air-ships (Flying Annual) (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1909), 325. Image source: ibid, 171.

Found at Air Minded via here as part of the very useful History Carnival.

For more zeppelin dreaming you might like to check out my friend David Cox's 1990 short film Puppenhead which is now available for public download at the Internet Archive.

Premise: It is Berlin, 1934. The puppet maker Goethe, prepares for a performance of his clockwork knife throwing act. He is watched by a Nazi spy who waits for an opportunity to exchange the head of a puppet with a menacing replacement. At a performance in New York a battle erupts on stage between the Nazi's creation and Goethe's puppet - an ingenious contraption which has more blades than a Swiss Army knife.

It weighs in at around 57MB. Here are some stills from the movie.

(Note to Dave: have you ever considered making this film streamable via services like Google Video or YouTube?)