Dirigibles and
blimps probably aren't more widely considered
useful because they hold the undisputed title of all-time least-
power-to-
surface area vehicle (except, trivially,
kites). Most of their lives they cruise along like
Dali's
sky elephants, until a
storm blows up behind that tips their
nose strongly downward, or headbutts them and
stalls them, or just generally flings them around until things start breaking. Like their seagoing sisters,
airships take a long time to change
heading or
speed. Unlike the ocean, the air airships float in doesn't take nearly as much
energy to move fast; so gusts can
pitch the ship rapidly up or down despite the moveable
ballast and the
tailplanes on the
rudder. Then, the
stately cruising altitude of five hundred or a thousand feet becomes a
hazard. The
US Navy lost the
Akron,
Macon, and
Shenandoah in the
1930's and many crew with them.
Unsuitable kinds of fabric on early ships might also have been susceptible to static electricity, which could be generated by dry air on the skin of the ship, or by internal flexing of the rigid airframe. Airships I've seen have rubberized Nylon/Dacron skins that probably resist static charges well, if only for burn and puncture resistance now that helium is more widely available again.