Or you go with the ships like the Macon that work at under 5000 feet. These ships can also do scouting, but will have to be armed some how because they will be interacting with naval gunfire and naval aviation. I am not terribly found of things like the Macon, because it is basically just a very fast CVE. It has some niche roles like covering convoys from U-boats or harassment raids where the enemy is weak in aviation assets. .
OK, now you have really riled me up. The USN's ZRS (and stillborn ZRCV)concept was the only remotely feasible naval or military application of the zeppelin airship in the interwar period. The zeppelin was and always would be a niche system. As you probably know I possted a lenghty TL based on the continued development of the ZRS/ZRCV concept into WW2, where I believe they could have been extremely useful in the ASW role. Also in the Atlantic, the enemy (Germany) had basically no aviation assets so they could operate without molestation.