From: Ken Duffey

I have come into this thread late ............

Has anyone mentioned why they are called blimps????

Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast

The two most popular theories a

1) some British officer thumped one and the sound returned was "blimp."

2) one of the early designations was "balloon, class B, limp" which was
shortened to blimp in conversation.

An interesting aside is the term "dirigible" which some people use to
differentiate between blimps and rigid airships. The term "dirigible" is from
Latin which means give direction to. In other words it's steerable which both
blimps and rigid airships are.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired