The Giant Airships

An excellent overview of the brief dirigible period of early flight. From the very first attempts to the Hindenburg disaster, the 30+ years of dirigible/Zeppelin flight is covered, with an emphasis on the Zeppelins. High level, but still good information.

This is an excellent Time-Life book on the history of airships, featuring abundant photographs and fascinating insights on their construction and—sadly—destruction. It begins with innovators of the late 19th century, with an emphasis on airship programs in Germany, Britain, and the United States. The book ends with the Hindenburg. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in airships; this is a book I'll keep on my shelf for reference.

An awesome information and picture book about airships. By chance after purchasing this book, I found a slip of paper inside that mentioned an annual employee reunion held by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen, Germany (down by the Swiss border). This is the company that manufactured Zeppelins up until 1937 or 1938. The reunions are held every 4th of July weekend. During my Army tour in West Germany in the early 80's I strove to attend one of these reunions, but never made it due to training conflicts. During this time period the former employees were thinning out and probably in their 80s and 90s. They are all but gone by now.