This documentary talks about how airships have served in aviation history as bombers, air cargo and for military purposes during World War I and II. It all started with The Montgolfier brothers and his balloons, then Zeppelins and Dirigibles. The airships’ lifting was used with hydrogen, but this gas had well-known concerns over its flammability. Helium was rare in most parts of the world, but the United States discovered large amounts of it so evidently, they start using it instead of hydrogen. Airships are often called Zeppelins, as the German inventor Count Zeppelin, indeed the vast majority of rigid airships built were manufactured by the firm he founded. Airships were the first aircraft to enable controlled and powered flight. Back in 1917, The German Army stop using Zeppelins because of an accident that occurred in which over six hundred people were killed, women, men and children. The prospect of airships as bombers had been recognized in Europe well before the airships were up to the task. It was World War I, however, that marked the airship's real debut as a weapon. The Germans, French and Italians all used airships for scouting and tactical bombing roles early in the war, and all learned that the airship was too vulnerable for operations over the front. Count Zeppelin and others in the German military believed they had found the ideal weapon with which to counteract British naval superiority and strike at Britain itself. The darkness, high altitudes and clouds that were frequently encountered by Zeppelin missions reduced accuracy even further. The Zeppelins were initially immune to attack by aircraft and antiaircraft guns: as the pressure in their envelopes was only just higher than ambient air, holes had little effect. But once incendiary bullets were developed and used against them, their flammable hydrogen lifting gas made them vulnerable at lower altitudes. Several were shot down in flames by British defenders, and others crashed en route. They then started flying higher and higher above the range of other aircraft, but this made their bombing accuracy even worse and success
