The Airship Heritage Trust was set up in 1985 by a group of dedicated enthusiasts and relatives of the original crew members. Over the last few years from its humble beginning the Trust has grown and worked very hard to where it is today, with it's membership spanning many countries, worldwide.
Our Three main objectives:
The work carried out by a dedicated band of enthusiasts can be followed in "Our History" page on our website, which gives the full insight into a lot of the little-known trials and tribulations regarding how difficult the road we have travelled to get to where we are today.
The Trust operated with a council of 5 Trustees bringing a broad spectrum of interests and knowledge in lighter than air history and a passion for sharing this for the future. Any AHT member can join the council and we also have non-Trustees who can attend the council meetings, and bring their wealth of knowledge and experience to the running of the Trust.
Many of the members do not live in the Bedford area, however still help out in promoting the Trust with lectures and displays in their own locale. We have an extensive photo archive, a large number of display photos and also many materials and artefacts which we can show to a school or society. We are always looking for new members and volunteers who have an interest in lighter-than-air history, and so please contact us.
We work alongside the Higgins Museum, Bedford, the Fleet Air Air, and Yeovilton to assist with displays and funding for special LTA events, as well as working with Bedfordshire Country Council to assist with local historical knowledge.
Our in-house magazine "Dirigible" is distributed free to members worldwide, three times per year, and is also recorded as a science journal by the British Museum, and the Smithsonian Museum and Library in Washington, USA. The lecture programme is proving very popular, as members undertake lectures to history societies and also other interested organisations, often requesting further talks into other parts of the British lighter-than-air history. Along with our magazine, our members receive regular updates via our newsletters during the year.
Online Activities
We are also very active on our social media pages, so check out our Facebook Airship Heritage Trust Page and Group offer advice on how to find long out-of-print books, and also reviews of new books.
Due to the CoronaVirus pandemic, we have been unable to reach out to the public as much as we had wanted using traditional methods by talks etc, however we have moved online and our recent addition of a YouTube Channel is a new and popular way of presenting and sharing the knowledge of airship history. We also moved online for all our AGM and talks, but combine both physical meetings along with online meetings.
Our Office and Research Archive
We have set up an office, LTA library and archive based near Nottingham, which we are using for a digitisation project, to bring as much historical materials online and to be shared with the public. We are more than happy to have visitors to the office and come and see some of the items we have and use the library for research. Please Contact Us for visiting our office.
