"WHAT ABOUT THE AIRSHIP?": MILITARY INNOVATION, RIGID AIRSHIPS, AND THE U.S. NAVY (1900–1939)

Abstract

The U.S. Navy’s rigid airship program (1919–1939) represented an innovative attempt to meet the needs of the Fleet in an era of geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological change. However, when it was over, 105 men of the Navy, including Admiral William A. Moffett, and four of the Navy’s five rigid airships, would be lost. Why did the Navy initiate, sustain, and ultimately terminate this controversial program? This thesis answers these questions by analyzing the Navy’s pursuit of rigid airships from 1900–1939 through the four paradigms of military innovation studies. In the end, this study reveals that no single paradigm (civil-military, inter-service, intra-service, or socio-cultural) fully explains why the Navy maintained a rigid airship program for so long. The dynamics of all paradigms contributed to innovation, in varying degrees of intensity, at different times, and in different ways. However, the same dynamics that were critical to the rigid airship program’s inception and initiation transformed and ultimately led to its termination. This study illustrates the simultaneous interaction and interdependence of the different military innovation paradigms. Ultimately, the best understanding of the forces behind the Navy’s rigid airship program comes by synthesizing the different paradigms rather than considering them independently.