What does dirigible mean?

Definitions for dirigible
ˈdɪr ɪ dʒə bəl, dɪˈrɪdʒ ə-di·ri·gi·ble

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word dirigible.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. airship, dirigibleadjective

    a steerable self-propelled aircraft

  2. steerable, dirigibleadjective

    capable of being steered or directed

Wiktionary

  1. dirigiblenoun

    A self-propelled airship that can be steered

  2. dirigibleadjective

    steerable

  3. Etymology: The term arose from attempts in the late 1800s to make a balloon steerable. In French, dirigeable means steerable. Over time the phrase “dirigible balloon” was shortened to just dirigible. In modern parlance, the term has been replaced by airship.

Wikipedia

  1. dirigible

    An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early dirigibles, the lifting gas used was hydrogen, due to its high lifting capacity and ready availability. Helium gas has almost the same lifting capacity and is not flammable, unlike hydrogen, but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and for a while helium was only available for airships in that country. Most airships built since the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air.The envelope of an airship may form the gasbag, or it may contain a number of gas-filled cells. An airship also has engines, crew, and optionally also payload accommodation, typically housed in one or more gondolas suspended below the envelope. The main types of airship are non-rigid, semi-rigid, and rigid. Non-rigid airships, often called "blimps", rely on internal pressure to maintain their shape. Semi-rigid airships maintain the envelope shape by internal pressure, but have some form of supporting structure, such as a fixed keel, attached to it. Rigid airships have an outer structural framework that maintains the shape and carries all structural loads, while the lifting gas is contained in one or more internal gasbags or cells. Rigid airships were first flown by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and the vast majority of rigid airships built were manufactured by the firm he founded, Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. As a result, rigid airships are often called zeppelins.Airships were the first aircraft capable of controlled powered flight, and were most commonly used before the 1940s; their use decreased as their capabilities were surpassed by those of aeroplanes. Their decline was accelerated by a series of high-profile accidents, including the 1930 crash and burning of the British R101 in France, the 1933 and 1935 storm-related crashes of the twin airborne aircraft carrier U.S. Navy helium-filled rigids, the USS Akron and USS Macon respectively, and the 1937 burning of the German hydrogen-filled Hindenburg. From the 1960s, helium airships have been used where the ability to hover for a long time outweighs the need for speed and manoeuvrability, such as advertising, tourism, camera platforms, geological surveys and aerial observation.

ChatGPT

  1. dirigible

    A dirigible is a type of lighter-than-air aircraft that is propelled and steered by engine-driven propellers. It includes a rigid frame to maintain its shape, unlike a hot-air balloon. The term is often used interchangeably with "airship" or "blimp," though technically, blimps do not have a rigid framework.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Dirigibleadjective

    capable of being directed; steerable; as, a dirigible balloon

Wikidata

  1. Dirigible

    Dirigible is a 1931 American adventure film directed by Frank Capra for Columbia Pictures. It focuses on the competition between naval fixed-wing and airship pilots to reach the South Pole by air. The female lead is assigned to Fay Wray, while the action scenes are handled by stars Jack Holt and Ralph Graves, who also played fliers two years earlier, in Capra's 1929 airborne adventure, Flight. In fact this film had been intended to emulate the success of 1927's Wings, another production with a very similar plot. Dirigible was characterized as "marginally science fictional" by scifilm.org.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Dirigible

    dir′i-ji-bl, adj. that can be directed.—adj. Dir′igent, directing. [See Direct.]

Editors Contribution

  1. dirigible

    passenger broiler

    The Hindenburg's crash was a real passenger broiler.


    Submitted by shadeglad on March 31, 2020  

How to pronounce dirigible?

How to say dirigible in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of dirigible in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of dirigible in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of dirigible in a Sentence

  1. Remy de Gourmont:

    Science is the only truth and it is the great lie. It knows nothing, and people think it knows everything. It is misrepresented. People think that science is electricity, automobilism, and dirigible balloons. It is something very different. It is life devouring itself. It is the sensibility transformed into intelligence. It is the need to know stifling the need to live. It is the genius of knowledge vivisecting the vital genius.

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Translations for dirigible

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"dirigible." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dirigible>.

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