For the most part, the photographs recount celebratory moments plucked from a history riddled with tragedy. They chronicle the early days of the dirigible, or airship, up to the fateful 1937 crash of the Hindenburg over Lakehurst, N.J., which killed 36 and put a quick end to the age of the airship.

In 1919, a British airship made the first transatlantic flight for a lighter-than-air vessel. The years that followed saw the life and death of the Shenandoah, the first American-built rigid airship. A less tragic tale was that of the ZMC-2, below, the first “all-metal, lighter-than-air” flying machine, which made made a 49-minute flight in August 1929. Known as the Navy’s “tin balloon,” the ZMC-2 — which used helium, like the Shenandoah — flew until 1941.

In 1931, The Times covered the final stages of the birth of the the Navy’s 75-foot dirigible the U.S.S. Akron, from its skeletal moments (Slide 11) to a “corps of girls” who were busy stitching its outer cover — more than 21 acres of fabric (Slide 16).

Times Wide World Photos

The Akron, a $5,500,000 flying machine, soared over New York in October that year, embarking upon a 48-hour, 2,000-mile test ride before the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation handed it over to the United States Navy (Slide 1). But less than two years later, The Times reported that the Akron had crashed, with more than 70 officers and men on board. “It had previously proved its airworthiness and ability to ride out any ordinary storm,” the article said.

The loss, and others, led the newspaper to cast doubt on the future of the airship a few days later. “Since the experiments of Count Zeppelin began to hold out promise of serious pretensions for the dirigible type of aircraft at the turn of the century,” Reginald M. Cleveland wrote, “these vessels have had a checkered career; emblazoned at one moment by spectacular accomplishments which have won the admiration of the world, marred the next by equally spectacular destruction which has shaken the faith of all but the most steadfast of their proponents.”

The New York Times

But the era of the airship has not entirely passed us. George Tames captured “the whales of the air” — reinflated during the war in Korea — for a 1955 piece for The Times. And in 2008, “ Why Fly When You Can Float?” asked an article reflecting upon the utility — and, yes, the romance — of a dirigible in a modern age. Hotel in the sky? Why not? After all, at one time inventive minds envisioned dirigibles docking Midtown Manhattan.

Alas, we couldn’t find any real photos of an Empire State docking, either.

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