Up Ship! The Airship History Podcast

🚨PODCAST LAUNCH DAY 🚨 ‘Episode 1 - Airships: The Once and Future Kings’ is out NOW. We look at why large airships have disappeared from our skies, why that matters and why you should be interested in airship history. Links below 👇🏻

Talking airships with the Float team, 6pm UK time. Tune in!

Starting now!

Join to listen in on a live discussion about airships!

Today in airship history: In 1929, the Graf Zeppelin lifted off from Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the first leg of its round-the-world flight. Twenty-one days later, Hugo Eckener and his crew returned as global heroes - welcomed by a New York ticker tape parade. #OnThisDay #AvGeek

This was the start of history’s first sustained strategic bombing campaign.

Today in airship history: The German Army Zeppelin Z VI (LZ 21) carried out WWI’s first airship bombing raid, targeting Belgian forts in Liege and killing nine civilians. Damaged by ground fire and leaking gas, it crash-landed near Bonn and was dismantled on site. #OnThisDay

Today in airship history: The mighty Graf Zeppelin left Leningrad and crossed the Arctic Circle en route to Franz Josef Land as part of a German–Soviet polar science mission. Not the first airship to reach the Arctic but undoubtedly my favourite! #aviation #avgeek #history

On this day in airship history, 1907: French PM Clemenceau and Minister Picquart flew aboard the Patrie airship. A burst pipe doused Clemenceau in hot water mid-flight, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. France was serious about airships. #OnThisDay #AirshipHistory #AvGeek

Today in airship history: in 1919 Goodyear’s Wingfoot Air Express blimp caught fire over Chicago and crashed onto the roof of a bank, killing both passengers, a crew member and ten bank employees - the worst US airship crash up to that time. #OnThisDay #avgeek #Aviation

Today in airship history: The R80 took to the skies for the first time in 1920. Designed by Barnes Wallis of bouncing bomb fame, the R80 was Britain’s first fully streamlined airship. It never entered full service, but showcased Wallis’s talent. #OnThisDay #Airship #AvGeek

Today in airship history: 17th July 1925 - the first @GoodyearBlimp ‘Pilgrim’ became the first ever airship to be inflated with safe helium rather than flammable helium. Its dinky little control car is on display in the Udvar-Hazy Center. #onthisday #aviation #avgeek #airship

Today in airship history: 15th July 1919 - RNAS airship NS11 exploded off Norfolk’s coast during a mine‑hunting patrol, killing all nine aboard. Lightning is suspected. #onthisday #aviation #avgeek #airship

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/up-… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0DU5Gp… YouTube: youtu.be/6AdAExaG0dQ?si…

New BONUS episode out now!! I chat to Toby Page, MD of Skyship Services. We touch on what it’s like to be out on the road on a blimp campaign, how the industry has changed over the years and how Skyship Services are helping train airship pilots of the future. Links below 👇🏻

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/up-… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/22FoTS… YouTube: youtu.be/BUlsqQSAojM?si…

Episode 10 out now!! As political tensions escalated across Europe, the major powers engaged in an aerial arms race to develop their airships into war-winning weapons. Britain, Italy, France and Germany vied with each other in an era of ambition and tragedy. Links below 👇🏻

An amazing photo of Italian airships bombing Ottoman positions in the Italo-Turkish War, 1912. This was the first time airships went into battle.

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/up-… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7cK2n3… YouTube: youtu.be/ZG9HQ8W91AE?si… Or wherever you get your podcasts!

Episode 9 out now!! The world’s first airline had a rocky start, with their first 3 airships lost in high-profile accidents. But DELAG would go on to make history, transporting thousands of passengers in comfort and safety, beating aeroplanes by many years. Links below 👇🏻

Extremely moving to visit the location of the 1930 R-101 disaster, which claimed the lives of 48 of the 54 on board and ended British involvement with rigid airships.