Welcome!

This website intends to become, in time, the world's foremost collection and gallery of hot air airship history and current information. The stories, photos and artifacts contained within (and to be contained) have largely been untold, and it is the aim of this site to preserve the rich history of thermal airship projects for future generations of pilots, crew, designers, builders and enthusiasts alike.

As well, this website will eventually attempt to list as many current and historical hot air airships as possible in a database/gallery format. Evidence in my collection shows that there have been at least 218 different manned hot air airships constructed since 1973 (but not all necessarily have flown successfully). There certainly may be more, and one of the goals of this website is to allow others to help expand my research.

If you find yourself able and willing to contribute to preserving the history of hot air airships around the world, please send me your materials and recollections to be added. Contributions may be credited or confidential, as you wish. This website would be absolutely impossible without the expert assistance and contributions of countless members of the Lighter-Than-Air community, many quite notable in their own right. A credits page will soon recognize their efforts.

If there are any questions about contributing, most of them can be answered for now by visiting The Early Years of Sport Ballooning, checking out the FAQ's section and applying the concept to this site.

Lastly, anyone with hot air airships for sale (or associated equipment) may email me, and I will be glad to put them in touch with potential buyers. I'm always in the market for another airship, too.

Jon Radowski, Editor, Pilot, Constructor

Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Hot Air Airship Constructors:

Airstar
ART Airships
Augur
Boland
Bonanno
Byron
Byron/Fortin
BUAA
Caldwell
Cameron
Cerveny
GEFA-Flug
Hammars
Kubicek
Lindstrand
Pampa
Raven
Recks
Skyacht
SkyMedia
Smith/Brighton
Stokes
Thunder & Colt
Tyler / The Blimp Co.
World Balloon
Zhong Hua

Unknown Airships

World Championships:

1988 - Luxembourg
1990 - Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, England
1992 - Besancon, France
1994 - Chateau-d'Oex, Switzerland
1996 - Aosta, Italy
1998 - Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
2000 - Schielleiten, Austria
2008 - St. Petersburg, Russia
2010 - Dole, France
2018 - Tegernsee, Germany

European Championships:

1989 - France
1991 - Luxembourg

Airship Multimedia:

Airship Movies
Uncategorized Images