Non-rigid airship

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Image:Holden blimp.jpg A non-rigid airship, or blimp, differs from a rigid airship (e.g. a Zeppelin) in that it does not have a rigid structure that holds the airbag in shape. Rather, blimps rely on a higher pressure of the gas (usually helium) inside the envelope. For a more complete description of this style of aircraft, please see airship.

Blimps are also distinct from aerostats. While often very similar in shape, aerostats are tethered to the ground in contrast to blimps which are free flying aircraft.

Because blimps keep their shape with internal overpressure, typically the only solid parts are the passenger car (gondola) and the tail fins. A non-rigid-airship that uses heated air instead of a light gas (such as Helium) as lifting medium is called a hot air airship.

The term "blimp" is reportedly onomatopoeic, the sound the airship makes when one taps the envelope (balloon) with a finger. Although there is some disagreement among historians, credit for coining the term is usually given to Lt. A.D. Conningham of the British Royal Navy in 1915.

There is an often repeated, but false, alternative explanation for the term. The erroneous story is that at some time in the early 20th century, the United States military had two classes for airships: Type A-rigid and Type B-limp, hence "blimp". In fact,

"there was no American 'A-class' of airships as such—all military aircraft, heavier or lighter-than-air were designated with 'A' until the appearance of B-class airships in May 1917. There was an American B airship—but there seems to be no record of any official designation of non-rigids as 'limp'. Further, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the first appearance of the word in print was in 1916, in England, a year before the first B-class airship." ("Etymology of 'Blimp'" by Dr. A. D. Topping, AAHS Journal, Winter 1963.)

The perpetuation of this erroneous explanation is an example of false etymology.

[edit] Applications

Blimps have been popularized by several companies, including Goodyear, MetLife, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), and Fujifilm, which use them for advertising, and as platforms to provide mainly High-definition aerial shots of sporting events. In Australia, Whitman's chocolates used a famous advertising blimp in the 1990s and in 2006 released a Holden blimp, which appeared on The Footy Show.

During World War I and World War II, blimps assisted the United States military in aerial reconnaissance along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.

The Mineseeker Project ([1]) seeks to design a system to determine whether landmines are present in areas using ultra-wideband synthetic aperture radar units mounted on blimps.

There are actually only thirteen blimps in the whole world.

For a discussion of current research and development on other types of blimps, including a so-called "space blimp", see airship.

A view of six helium-filled blimps being stored in one of the two massive hangars at the former Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, California during World War II.	A Fujifilm blimp.	One of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's blimp fleet.	In the absence of permanent tie-downs, and to facilitate the movement of blimps on the ground, mobile (truck-mounted) mooring masts are sometimes employed.
Outback Steakhouse blimp hovering over Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium