RE: Ridged Airships
Sometime in the 1980s, someone was flying about a 12 foot long model of the Akron at a Mall show in the Cleveland area. Radio controled, electric power, slow, stately. Also I think the Late Bill Winter publishe a couple plans in American Modeler magazine for both a control line and a radio control blimp. The CL blimp used a couple Cox 020, and the RC blimp controled altitude by rotating the arm the motors were attached too. They both used panels cut from dry cleaning garment bags. Weight was a major concern, as was the fact that helium will slowly difuse through most materials.