JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

Here’s an interesting idea: the flying, floating, helium-filled rigid-airship to serve as a flying aircraft carrier, and it appeared in the May 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine.  That places the idea in print six months after Pearl Harbor, when the U.S. was gearing up for its own direct involvement in WWII.  At the time of the attack at Pearl, the U.S. had 7 carriers; from this point out (from May 1942) to the end of the war there would be 16 more aircraft carriers constructed, plus another 33 escort carriers and light aircraft carriers, and of course those were all seaborne–and in addition to everything else that was being manufactured, that was a huge achievement.

One thing the article points out that is an unimpeachable positive for the rigid airship carrier–they were not threatened by submarines. 

And the cross section giving a clearer idea of what is going on in the airship: 

And another, far more awkward variation, from 1924–this has little to do with the idea above though it is somewhat related: