Following the rapid advances in aviation during and after World War II, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft, able to fly much faster than rigid airships, became the favoured method of international air travel. Modern rigids The last rigid airships designed and built were built in the 1960s. The AEREON III was constructed in Mercer County, New Jersey in the mid-1960s. It was to utilize the method of "propulsion" developed and demonstrated by Doctor Solomon Andrews in the 1860s as well as an aft mounted engine. The AEREON III, which had three side-by-side hulls, flipped over during taxi tests and was never repaired. A replacement, the AEREON 26, with a delta configuration, was constructed and flight-tested in the early 1970s. The test program ended due to the expiration of the life time of the drone engine. It was last reported hangared at the Trenton-Robbinsvile Airport in New Jersey. It is not known whether it still exists after almost 50 years. The Zeppelin company refers to their NT ship as a rigid, but the envelope shape is retained in part by super-pressure of the lifting gas, and so the NT is more correctly classified as semi-rigid. Aeroscraft was certified airworthy by the FAA in September 2013 and has begun flight testing. See also List of Zeppelins List of Schütte-Lanz rigid airships Airship hangar Rigid Airship Design References Citations Bibliography Castle, Ian. British Airships 1905–30 Osprey Publishing, 2013. Dooley, Sean C., The Development of Material-Adapted Structural Form – Part II: Appendices. THÈSE NO 2986 (2004), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Hartcup, Guy. The Achievement of the Airship: A History of the Development of Rigid, Semi-Rigid and Non-Rigid Airships. David & Charles: London. 1974. Hayward, John T., VADM USN "Comment and Discussion." United States Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1978. Higham, Robin. The British Rigid Airship 1908–1931. London: Foulis, 1961. Price Bradshaw: The role of technology in the failure of the rigid airship as an invention. Dissertation, University of Florida 1975. Online via Archive.org. Masefield, Peter G. To Ride The Storm: The Story of the Airship R.101. London: William Kimber, 1982. . McPhee, John (1996). The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed. New York: The Noonday Press. . Mowthorpe, Ces. Battlebags: British Airships of the First World War, 1995. . Robinson, Douglas H. Giants in the Sky. Henley-on-Thames: Foulis, 1973. . External links Airships.net: The Hindenburg and other Zeppelins "Biggest Birds That Ever Flew" Popular Science, May 1962 Airship configurations