A lesson from the long history of the Goodyear blimps is the realization that airships are exceedingly difficult to fly. That fact was well demonstrated 92 years ago, when the blimp Columbia crashed, spectacularly, in the middle of New York City.
October 5 represents the anniversary of what is generally considered to have been an aviation first, the first time that the crew of one airplane shot down another airplane- the first aerial victory in history.