Barring the situations where they violently erupted into flames because the lifting gas was hydrogen, they deflate pretty slowly because of a combination of the relatively low pressure in the envelope and the relatively huge volume of the envelope compared to the size of a bullet hole. WIth the combination of not much force pushing lifting gas out and an enormous quantity of gas to be moved to reduce lift, they have a long time before they sink completely
How did they patch bullet holes in dirigibles mid-flight? Was this necessary?
Barring the situations where they violently erupted into flames because the lifting gas was hydrogen, they deflate pretty slowly because of a combination of the relatively low pressure in the envelope and the relatively huge volume of the envelope compared to the size of a bullet hole. WIth the combination of not much force pushing lifting gas out and an enormous quantity of gas to be moved to reduce lift, they have a long time before they sink completely
Just dodge