Editing Blimp (section)

==Etymology==
{{Wiktionary}}
[[File:Blank ship in Flight.JPG|thumb|right|upright|A modern blimp from [[Airship Management Services]] showing a strengthened nose, ducted fans attached to the gondola under the hull, and cable-braced fins at the tail]]

The origin of the word "blimp" has been the subject of some confusion. Lennart Ege notes two possible derivations:<ref name="ege">{{cite book |last=Ege |first=Lennart |translator-last=Munson |translator-first=Kenneth |title=Balloons and Airships, and Dirigibles 1783–1973 |publisher=Blandford |location=London |date=1973 |isbn=978-0-7137-0568-3}}</ref>
{{blockquote|
Colloquially, non-rigid airships always were referred to as "blimps". Over the years, several explanations have been advanced about the origin of this word. The most common is that in the military vernacular, the Type{{nbs}}B was referred to as "limp bag", which was simply abbreviated to "blimp".<ref name="Meager, Captain George A.F.C. 1970, p. 32">{{cite book |last=Meager |first=George |title=My Airship Flights 1915–1930 |location=London |publisher=William Kimber and Co. |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-7183-0331-0 |page=32}}</ref> An alternative explanation is that on 5{{nbs}}December 1915, Commander A.{{nbs}}D. Cunningham, [[Royal Navy|R.N.]], of the [[RNAS Capel|Capel-Le-Ferne Air Ship Station]], flicked the envelope of the airship SS.12 with his fingers during an inspection, which produced a sound that he mimicked and pronounced as "blimp", and that the word then caught on as the nickname for all small non-rigid airships.<ref name="Meager, Captain George A.F.C. 1970, p. 32">{{cite book |last=Meager |first=George |title=My Airship Flights 1915–1930 |location=London |publisher=William Kimber and Co. |date=1970 |isbn=978-0-7183-0331-0 |page=32}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Goddard |first=Victor | title=Per Ardua—Peradventure: A Contemporary Review of Innovations during the First Fifty Years of the Royal Air Force |journal=The Aeronautical Journal |publisher=[[Royal Aeronautical Society]] |volume=72 |issue=694 |page=857 |year=1968 |doi=10.1017/S0001924000085237 |s2cid=115595814 |issn=0001-9240 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Goddard, Robert Victor (Oral history) |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80000302|date=1973-08-09 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=[[Imperial War Museum]] |language=en}} In the section of the interview beginning at 9:55 on reel 8, Air Marshal [[Victor Goddard]] claims that this incident occurred when Cunningham was inspecting Goddard's airship. Goddard says he told the story of the incident to other officers in the RNAS, who christened his airship "the blimp".</ref>
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A 1943 etymology, published in ''[[The New York Times]]'', supports a British origin during the First World War when the British were experimenting with lighter-than-air craft. The initial non-rigid aircraft was called the A-limp; and a second version called the B-limp was deemed more satisfactory.<ref>{{cite news |title=Origin of 'Blimp' Explained |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 3, 1943}}</ref>

Yet a third derivation is given by Barnes and James in ''[[Short Brothers|Shorts]] Aircraft since 1900'':
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In February 1915 the need for anti-submarine patrol airships became urgent, and the [[SS class blimp|Submarine Scout]] type was quickly improvised by hanging an obsolete [[B.E.2c]] [[fuselage]] from a spare [[Willows airships|Willows]] envelope; this was done by the [[Royal Naval Air Service|R.N.A.S.]] at [[RNAS Kingsnorth|Kingsnorth]], and on seeing the result for the first time, [[Short Brothers|Horace Short]], already noted for his very apt and original vocabulary, named it "Blimp", adding, "What else would you call it?"{{sfn|Barnes|James|1989|p=13}}
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Dr. A. D. Topping researched the origins of the word and concluded that the British had never had a "Type&nbsp;B, limp" designation, and that Cunningham's coinage appeared to be the correct explanation.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LW0VAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA119 |last=van Beverhoudt |first=Arnold E. |title=These Are the Voyages: A History of the Ships, Aircraft, and Spacecraft Named ''Enterprise'' |date=2013 |page=119 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-0-557-17825-4}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' notes its use in print in 1916: "Visited the Blimps&nbsp;... this afternoon at [[RNAS Capel|Capel]]". In 1918, the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'' said that it was "an onomatopœic name invented by that genius for apposite nomenclature, the late Horace Short".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://oed.com/oed2/00023588 |title=blimp |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd |date=1989}}</ref>

[[File:Blimp in Japan - 2013 12 1.webm|thumb|Blimp flying in [[Japan]]]]