<p>An adaptive control strategy is proposed in the paper for trajectory tracking of stratospheric airships, capable of handling uncertainties and external disturbances effectively. Due to intricate flight traits of airships, it is a challenge to develop an adaptive controller that considers all inertia/mass parameters and separable aerodynamic coefficients. Firstly, a key structural property is established for stratospheric airship dynamics, namely that the airship dynamics can be linearly parameterized. Then, an adaptive feedforward controller is designed, which does not depend on precise knowledge of airship dynamics, and the adaptive updating law can effectively compensate for uncertain internal parameters and external disturbances. Then, a continuous nonlinear feedback entity is designed based on adaptive update law and desired regression matrix. Overall stability analysis is provided based on LaSalle-Yoshizawa corollary extension and Lyapunov technique, and trajectory tracking errors converge to zero asymptotically. Comparative tests are conducted to confirm efficacy of the proposed adaptive control strategy in executing various tasks.</p>