Before World War II, dirigibles appeared to have a promising future and much effort and money were spent developing them. According to a 1995 article in the US Naval Institute's Proceedings, the first attempt to build a metal-skinned airship was conducted in Germany in 1897, but the design concept was not successful until the Detroit Aircraft Corporation built one in 1929.
Robert Guttman of History.net says that the ZMC-2 was covered with very thin sheets of aluminum riveted together using a process that kept the structure airtight. The helium was not contained in multiple bags inside. Rather, the hull was one single envelope to contain the gas.
Three crew members could pilot the vessel at a speed of 50 miles per hour for a range of 680 miles. It operated for 12 years and completed 2,265 safe flight hours. Nonetheless, the US Navy decided that its range was too short for anti-submarine patrol and scrapped the vessel in 1941.
-via Aviation Archive
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