The History of The Airship Airships. In the early years of War, these beasts were known for their majestic presence in the sky and were icons of a country's power and prestige. They reigned mostly as reconnaissance and transport utility aircraft but there was something about this "lighter-than-air" ship that made it far more than a mere utility workhorse. In this essay, I will discuss the ever-popular and ever- living king of the sky; the Airship. Airships, or dirigibles, were developed from the free balloon. Three classes of airships are recognized: the non-rigid, commonly called blimp, in which the