Upstate New York’s Weird History With Airships

One of the past's eccentricities that I mourn more than anything else is the airship. Giant balloons piercing the sky, carrying hundreds of people for thousands of miles.

Unfortunately, one ship had to ruin that for the rest of us, but had the legendary Hindenburg disaster not occurred, the Capital Region could look very, very different.

Get our free mobile app

Albany's Airship Future

Before the airship industry crashed and burned (literally), Albany was being looked at as a major port. The earliest report I could find was from 1909, in which a man named George E. Tinker of East New York incorporated the New York Aerial Manufacturing and Navigation Company. He had hoped to mass-produce airships and use them for transport.

The first route? New York City to Albany. The goal was to showcase the new airships at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in the fall of 1909, and then begin a continuous passenger line to Albany, that would have developed the Capital into somewhat of a second NYC, or simply an extension.

Obviously, this never came to pass, and Tinker's airship line was never fully produced, aside from a new models.

The Capital Region's Airship Experience

Sure, Airships didn't take off like they were expected to, but the Capital Region still witnessed aviation history in 1936, when we got a visit from the world-infamous Hindenburg.

The Hindenburg disaster

On July 1st, 1936, the sky above Plattsburgh was swallowed by the airship, causing a media frenzy the city has yet to see again. The ship made its way south from there, passing over Glens Falls, Albany, and Schenectady before making port in New Jersey, where the fateful accident would happen just under a year later.