====== The Airship President ======

//[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=141895|The Airship President]]// is the first work written by [[offtopic:Eckener]] shortly after he joined the board in 2009. This is an [[early 20th century]] [[aviation timelines|aviation timeline]] which explores an alternate development (and more importantly, survival), of the rigid [[alternate history:airships]], along with alternate political developments in Germany, the United States, and other countries. This timeline goes from 1932 until 1954. 

Its sequel, //[[timelines:The Airship Legacy]]//, picks up in 1954 and continues up until 2005.  

Also, the author's ideas for a mild remake of the timeline can be read [[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=241397|here]].

==== Premise ====

After the untimely death of German President [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg|Paul von Hindenburg]] in early 1932 (two years earlier than OTL), centrist politicians convince famed lighter-than-air proponent [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Eckener|Hugo Eckener]] to run against Adolf Hitler in the presidential election later that spring. 

Eckener defeats Hitler, and this TL follows the aftermath. Nazism becomes a footnote, Germany and the U.S. become close allies, and by the TL's end in 1954, Germany has reinvinted itself as a moderately liberal constitutional monarchy and has defeated the splintering Soviet Union in a war over Poland. 

Thanks to continued government support and a series of accidents suffered by heavier-than-air vehicles, the rigid airship remains the preferred way to criss-cross the globe by air.