View source for Blimp

{{Short description|Non-rigid airship}}
{{hatnote group|
{{Other uses|Airship}}{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Balloon (aeronautics)}}
}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2025}}
{{use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
[[File:The Goodyear Blimp (2722137105).jpg|thumb|right|300px|''[[Goodyear GZ-20|The Spirit of Goodyear]]'', one of the iconic [[Goodyear Blimp]]s]]
A '''blimp''', ([[Help:IPA/English|/blɪmp/]]) less commonly called a '''non-rigid airship''', is an [[airship]] (dirigible)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/blimp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729094532/adsahttps://www.lexico.com/definition/blimp |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 July 2020 |title=blimp |work=[[Lexico]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2020-11-24}}</ref> without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike [[semi-rigid airship|semi-rigid]] and [[rigid airship]]s (e.g. [[Zeppelin]]s), blimps rely on the pressure of their [[lifting gas]] (usually [[helium]], rather than flammable [[hydrogen]]) and the strength of the [[Airship#Envelope|envelope]] to maintain their shape. Blimps are known for their use in advertising, surveillance, and observation due to their maneuverability, slow speeds and steady flight capabilities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Jessica |date=2024-01-09 |title=Difference Between Blimp Or Zeppelin? |url=https://textribe.co.uk/blimp-or-zeppelin/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Principle==

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2025}}

[[File:GR SK Propeller.jpg|thumb|left|Steerable ducted fans on a [[Airship Industries Skyship 600|Skyship 600]] provide thrust, limited direction control, and also serve to inflate the ballonets to maintain the necessary overpressure.]]

Since blimps keep their shape with internal overpressure, typically the only solid parts are the passenger car (gondola) and the [[empennage|tail fins]]. A non-rigid airship that uses heated air instead of a light gas (such as helium) as a lifting medium is called a [[thermal airship|hot-air airship]] (sometimes there are [[batten]]s near the bow, which assist with higher forces there from a mooring attachment or from the greater aerodynamic pressures there).

Volume changes of the lifting gas due to temperature changes or to changes of altitude are compensated for by pumping air into internal [[ballonet]]s (air bags) to maintain the overpressure. Without sufficient overpressure, the blimp loses its ability to be steered and is slowed due to increased drag and distortion. The propeller [[air stream]] can be used to inflate the ballonets and so the hull. In some models, such as the [[Skyship 600]], differential ballonet inflation can provide a measure of [[Flight dynamics|pitch trim]] control.

The engines driving the propellers are usually directly attached to the gondola, and in some models are partly steerable.

Blimps are the most commonly built airships because they are relatively easy to build and easy to transport once deflated. However, because of their unstable hull, their size is limited. A blimp with too long a hull [[Hogging and sagging|may kink in the middle]] when the overpressure is insufficient or when maneuvered too fast (this has also happened with semi-rigid airships with weak keels). This led to the development of [[semi-rigid airship|semi-rigid]]s and [[rigid airship]]s.

Modern blimps are launched somewhat heavier than air (overweight), in contrast to historic blimps. The missing lift is provided by lifting the nose and using engine power, or by angling the engine thrust. Some types also use steerable propellers or [[ducted fan]]s. Operating in a state heavier than air avoids the need to dump [[buoyancy compensator (aviation)|ballast]] at lift-off and also avoids the need to lose costly helium lifting gas on landing (most of the [[Zeppelin]]s achieved lift with very inexpensive hydrogen, which could be vented without concern to decrease altitude).
<!-- maybe hot-air and remote-controlled unmanned Blimps could be expanded here? -->

==Etymology==
{{Wiktionary}}
[[File:Blank ship in Flight.JPG|thumb|right|upright|A modern blimp from [[Airship Management Services]] showing a strengthened nose, ducted fans attached to the gondola under the hull, and cable-braced fins at the tail]]

The origin of the word "blimp" has been the subject of some confusion. Lennart Ege notes two possible derivations:<ref name="ege">{{cite book |last=Ege |first=Lennart |translator-last=Munson |translator-first=Kenneth |title=Balloons and Airships, and Dirigibles 1783–1973 |publisher=Blandford |location=London |date=1973 |isbn=978-0-7137-0568-3}}</ref>
{{blockquote|
Colloquially, non-rigid airships always were referred to as "blimps". Over the years, several explanations have been advanced about the origin of this word. The most common is that in the military vernacular, the Type{{nbs}}B was referred to as "limp bag", which was simply abbreviated to "blimp".<ref name="Meager, Captain George A.F.C. 1970, p. 32">{{cite book |last=Meager |first=George |title=My Airship Flights 1915–1930 |location=London |publisher=William Kimber and Co. |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-7183-0331-0 |page=32}}</ref> An alternative explanation is that on 5{{nbs}}December 1915, Commander A.{{nbs}}D. Cunningham, [[Royal Navy|R.N.]], of the [[RNAS Capel|Capel-Le-Ferne Air Ship Station]], flicked the envelope of the airship SS.12 with his fingers during an inspection, which produced a sound that he mimicked and pronounced as "blimp", and that the word then caught on as the nickname for all small non-rigid airships.<ref name="Meager, Captain George A.F.C. 1970, p. 32">{{cite book |last=Meager |first=George |title=My Airship Flights 1915–1930 |location=London |publisher=William Kimber and Co. |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-7183-0331-0 |page=32}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Goddard |first=Victor | title=Per Ardua—Peradventure: A Contemporary Review of Innovations during the First Fifty Years of the Royal Air Force |journal=The Aeronautical Journal |publisher=[[Royal Aeronautical Society]] |volume=72 |issue=694 |page=857 |year=1968 |doi=10.1017/S0001924000085237 |s2cid=115595814 |issn=0001-9240 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Goddard, Robert Victor (Oral history) |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80000302|date=1973-08-09 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=[[Imperial War Museum]] |language=en}} In the section of the interview beginning at 9:55 on reel 8, Air Marshal [[Victor Goddard]] claims that this incident occurred when Cunningham was inspecting Goddard's airship. Goddard says he told the story of the incident to other officers in the RNAS, who christened his airship "the blimp".</ref>
}}

A 1943 etymology, published in ''[[The New York Times]]'', supports a British origin during the First World War when the British were experimenting with lighter-than-air craft. The initial non-rigid aircraft was called the A-limp; and a second version called the B-limp was deemed more satisfactory.<ref>{{cite news |title=Origin of 'Blimp' Explained |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 3, 1943}}</ref>

Yet a third derivation is given by Barnes and James in ''[[Short Brothers|Shorts]] Aircraft since 1900'':
{{blockquote|
In February 1915 the need for anti-submarine patrol airships became urgent, and the [[SS class blimp|Submarine Scout]] type was quickly improvised by hanging an obsolete [[B.E.2c]] [[fuselage]] from a spare [[Willows airships|Willows]] envelope; this was done by the [[Royal Naval Air Service|R.N.A.S.]] at [[RNAS Kingsnorth|Kingsnorth]], and on seeing the result for the first time, [[Short Brothers|Horace Short]], already noted for his very apt and original vocabulary, named it "Blimp", adding, "What else would you call it?"{{sfn|Barnes|James|1989|p=13}}
}}

Dr. A. D. Topping researched the origins of the word and concluded that the British had never had a "Type&nbsp;B, limp" designation, and that Cunningham's coinage appeared to be the correct explanation.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LW0VAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA119 |last=van Beverhoudt |first=Arnold E. |title=These Are the Voyages: A History of the Ships, Aircraft, and Spacecraft Named ''Enterprise'' |date=2013 |page=119 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-0-557-17825-4}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' notes its use in print in 1916: "Visited the Blimps&nbsp;... this afternoon at [[RNAS Capel|Capel]]". In 1918, the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'' said that it was "an onomatopœic name invented by that genius for apposite nomenclature, the late Horace Short".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://oed.com/oed2/00023588 |title=blimp |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd |date=1989}}</ref>

[[File:Blimp in Japan - 2013 12 1.webm|thumb|Blimp flying in [[Japan]]]]

==Use==
[[File:Blimp making practice landing runs at local NJ airport.JPG|thumb|Advertising blimp landing at local airport in New Jersey]]

{{More citations needed section|date=September 2025}}

The [[B-class blimp]]s were patrol airships operated by the [[United States Navy]] during and shortly after [[World War I]]. The Navy learned a great deal from the [[DN-1]] fiasco. The result was the very successful B-type airships. [[Jerome Clarke Hunsaker|Dr. Jerome Hunsaker]] was asked to develop a theory of airship design. This was followed by then-[[Lieutenant (navy)|Lieutenant]] [[John H. Towers]], [[USN]], returning from Europe having inspected British designs, and the [[U.S. Navy]] subsequently sought bids for 16 blimps from American manufacturers. On 4 February 1917 the Secretary of the Navy directed that 16 nonrigid airships of Class B be procured. Ultimately [[Goodyear Blimp|Goodyear]] built 9 envelopes, [[Goodrich Corporation|Goodrich]] built five and [[Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company|Curtiss]] built the gondolas for all of those 14 ships. Connecticut Aircraft contracted with [[U.S. Rubber]] for its two envelopes and with [[Albree Pigeon-Fraser Scout|Pigeon Fraser]] for its gondolas. The Curtiss-built gondolas were modified [[JN-4]] fuselages and were powered by [[OX-5 engines]]. The Connecticut Aircraft blimps were powered by [[Hall-Scott engines]].

In 1930, a former German airship officer, Captain Anton Heinen, working in the US for the US Navy on its dirigible fleet, attempted to design and build a four-place blimp called the "family air yacht" for private fliers which the inventor claimed would be priced below $10,000 and easier to fly than a fixed-wing aircraft if placed in production. It was unsuccessful.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882391,00.html |title=Aeronautics: Air Yacht |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 3, 1930 |volume=16 |number=18}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA967 |title=Dirigible Air Yacht Has Automobile Cabin |magazine=[[Popular Mechanics]] |date=December 1930 |page=967 |volume=54 |number=6}}</ref>

In 2021, ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' said that "consensus is that there are about 25 blimps still in existence and only about half of them are still in use for advertising purposes".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rd.com/article/why-you-dont-see-blimps-anymore/ | title=Here's Why You Don't See Blimps Anymore | first1=Morgan | last1=Cutolo | date=April 3, 2021}}</ref> The Airsign Airship Group is the owner and operator of 8 of these active ships, including the Hood Blimp, [[DirecTV]] blimp, and the MetLife blimp.<ref name="Broughton">{{cite web |url=https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/23/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Blimp-main.aspx |title=Flying high: How sponsors, networks and fans make the business of blimps soar |first1=David |last1=Broughton |date=June 23, 2014|work=Sports Business Journal |access-date=November 1, 2015}}</ref>

=== Surveillance blimp ===
[[File:Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment System.jpg|thumbnail|A TCOM 22M Aerostat and Trailer]]

This blimp is a type of [[airborne early warning and control]] aircraft, typically as the active part of a system which includes a mooring platform, communications and information processing. Example systems include the U.S. [[JLENS]] and Israeli [[Aeronautics Defense Skystar 300]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stripes.com/news/military-blimp-escapes-causes-power-outages-before-landing-in-pennsylvania-1.375825|title=Military blimp escapes, causes power outages before landing in Pennsylvania|work=Stars and Stripes|accessdate=30 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Military-Blimp-Gets-Loose-Cuts-Power-Lines-225087-1.html|title=Military Blimp Gets Loose, Cuts Power Lines|work=AVweb|date=28 October 2015 |accessdate=30 October 2015}}</ref>

Surveillance blimps known as [[aerostat]]s have been used extensively in the Middle East by the [[United States Armed Forces|United States military]], the [[United Arab Emirates]] and [[Kuwait]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2011-11-12/aerostats-rise-through-ranks-surveillance-service |title=Aerostats Rise Through the Ranks in Surveillance Service |last=Pocock |first=Chris |date=November 12, 2011 |website=ainonline.com |access-date=May 20, 2022}}</ref>

==Examples of non-rigid airships==
Manufacturers in many countries have built blimps in many designs.<ref>{{cite web|title=FAQs – Business of blimps|publisher=[[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company]]|url=http://www.goodyearblimp.com/faqs/faqs_business.html#three|access-date=2009-12-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302160037/http://www.goodyearblimp.com/faqs/faqs_business.html#three|archive-date=2010-03-02}}</ref> Some examples include:

*[[ADB-3-X01]], the largest lightship ever manufactured by [[Airship do Brasil]], the only blimp manufacturing company in [[Latin America]]
*[[AVIC AS700 Airship]]
*[[Astra-Torres airship]], non-rigid airships manufactured by [[Société Astra]] and used in [[World War I]] by France and UK
*[[British Army airship Beta]]
*[[Coastal class airship]], [[C Star class airship|C* class airship]] UK coastal blimps used in WW I
*[[SS class airship|SS]], [[SSP class airship|SSP]], [[SST class airship|SST]], [[SSZ class airship|SSZ]] and [[NS class airship]]s, convoy escort blimps used by the UK in WW I
*[[G class blimp]] and [[L class blimp]], US training blimps built by Goodyear during [[World War II]]
*[[K class blimp]] and [[M class blimp]], US anti-submarine blimps operated during World War II
*[[Mantainer Ardath|Mantainer ''Ardath'']], an Australian blimp, in use during the mid-1970s 
*[[N class blimp]] (the "Nan ship"), used for anti-submarine and as a radar early-warning platform during the 1950s
*[[Goodyear Blimp]]s, a fleet of blimps operated for advertising purposes and as a [[Professional video camera|television camera]] platform (transitioned to semi-rigid starting in 2014)
*[[Airship Industries Skyship 600|Skyship 600]], a private blimp used by advertising companies
*[[P-791]], an experimental aerostatic/aerodynamic [[hybrid airship]] developed by [[Lockheed Martin|Lockheed-Martin]] corporation
*SVAM CA-80, an airship manufactured by the Shanghai Vantage Airship Manufacture Co in [[China]]
*[[TC-3]] and TC-7, two US Army Corps non-rigid blimps used for [[parasite fighter]] trials during 1923–24
*[[UConn Lumpy |UConn ''Lumpy'']], an airship built and flown in 1975 by students at the University of Connecticut
*[[WDL 2]], airship for aerial advertising manufactured and used by WDL Group, Germany
*[[Willows airships]]
{{Clear}}

<gallery>
File:DIRECTV Airship in North Carolina.jpg|[[DIRECTV blimp]] Airship, Model A-170LS Video Lightsign
File:B class blimp.jpg|
File:Blimps.jpg|
File:Metlife snoopy two blimp.jpg|An A-60+, the [[MetLife]] Snoopy Two<ref>{{cite web|title=The MetLife Blimp|year=2009|publisher=[[MetLife]]|url=http://www.metlife.com/about/advertising/metLife-blimp/index.html|access-date=2009-12-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219054702/http://www.metlife.com/about/advertising/metLife-blimp/index.html|archive-date=2009-12-19}}</ref>
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Airship hangar]]
*[[List of current airships in the United States]]
*[[Mooring mast]]
*[[Solar aircraft]]
*[[Thermal airship]], a type of blimp using hot air for lift

==Notes==
{{Reflist|35em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book
  | last1 = Barnes |first1 = C. H.
  | last2 = James |first2 = D. N.
  | title = Shorts Aircraft since 1900
  | publisher = Putnam
  | location  = London
  | date = 1989
  | isbn = 0-85177-819-4}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Blimps}}
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=bNYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34 ''Popular Mechanics'', June 1943, '' "Gas Bags Go On Patrol" ''] detailed article on antisubmarine blimps during World War II
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=PyEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA114 "How The First Sea-Air Rescue Was Made", October 1944, Popular Science] first air-to-sea rescue without aircraft landing first

[[Category:Airships]]
[[Category:Airship configurations]]
[[Category:Industrial gases]]