Re: [Phys-L] Dirigible Flight Question

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

> Blimps are dirigible.
Yes indeed they are capable of being steered, but the rigid ones are
generally called dirigibles, while the balloon type with soft bags are
usually called blimps.  As far as I know the Hindenburg and others of its
design were always called dirigibles.  I recall that at one time someone
defined the rigid airships as dirigibles, and I think that is a common
definition which may not have made it to the dictionaries.  After all
English dictionaries generally follow common usage except for Websters which
was traditionally prescriptive.

Blimp definition: an airship that maintains its form by pressure from
contained gas 

So a blimp may be dirigible, but a dirigible is not always a blimp.

Good, cute observation.  Perhaps I should have used the word Zeppelin, but
that word implies a German origin for the device.  Definitions are not
always precise.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX