The Aircraft Development Corporation ZMC-2 was the first and only metalclad blimp ever built. It was first flown in 1929, and flew safely for over ten years. As a sub-scale test vehicle, it was considered to be very successful, but the company that built it did not weather the Great Depression well, and by the time a successor might have been built, there was little interest in pursuing it.
The ZMC-2 was nicknamed the "Tin Bubble" and was also sometimes called a "tinship". It was not made of tin, but of duraluminum, an aluminum alloy. It was strange-looking for a blimp, being teardrop-shaped, and had eight small stabilizer fins, four of which had rudders.
It was scrapped in 1941 for its metal content.
External links