So that's how they built airships. Some really interesting photos here

Airship is a type of an aerostat, with an impressive structure and really impressive terminology, we really got blown away by the wide spectrum of names there are for an aircraft (aerostat, airship, dirigible, zeppelin, blimp, lighter-than-air- aircraft ).

Dirigible can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from large gas bags filled with 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 nonflammable, unlike hydrogen, but is rare and relatively expensive. Significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and, for a while, helium was rarely used for airships outside the United States. Most airships built since the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air.Airships were the first aircraft capable of controlled powered flight, and were most commonly used before the 1940s, but their use decreased over time 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 British R101 in France, the 1933 storm-related crash of the USS Akron and the 1937 burning of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg. From the 1960s, helium airships have been used in applications where the ability to hover in one place for an extended period outweighs the need for speed and manoeuvrability such as advertising, tourism, camera platforms, geological surveys, and aerial observation.

We found this amazing photo collection of the construction and detailed structure of a dirigible, zeppelin, airship or however you would like to name it.