A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893. They were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word zeppelin came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG), the world's first airline in revenue service. By mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts, killing over 500 people in bombing raids in Britain.
Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships; he founded the company Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.
Dr. Hugo Eckener was the manager of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the inter-war years, and also the commander of the famous Graf Zeppelin for most of its record-setting flights, including the first airship flight around the world, making him the most successful airship commander in history. He was also responsible for the construction of the most successful type of airships of all time. An anti-Nazi who was invited to campaign as a moderate in the German presidential elections, he was blacklisted by that regime and eventually sidelined.
Zeppelin mail was mail carried on zeppelins, the German airships that saw civilian use from 1908 to 1939. Almost every zeppelin flight carried mail, sometimes in large quantities; the covers usually received special postmarks, and a number of nations issued postage stamps specifically intended for use on mail carried by the zeppelins.
The Graf Zeppelin was the last of the German rigid airships built by the Zeppelin Luftschiffbau during the period between the World Wars, the second and final ship of the Hindenburg class, and the second zeppelin to carry the name "Graf Zeppelin" and thus often referred to as Graf Zeppelin II. Due to the United States refusal to export helium to Germany, the Graf Zeppelin II was filled with hydrogen and therefore never carried commercial passengers. It made 30 flights over 11 months in 1938–39, many being propaganda publicity flights; but staff of the Reich Air Ministry were aboard to conduct radio surveillance and measurements. The airship was scrapped in 1940, for its aluminum.
Blau gas was an artificial illuminating gas similar to propane, named after its inventor, Hermann Blau of Augsburg, Germany. It was manufactured by decomposing mineral oils in retorts by heat and compressing the resulting naphtha until it liquefied. It was transported in this condition, and like LPG, upon release it assumed the gaseous state again. Chemically, it is similar to coal gas.
DELAG, acronym for Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft, was the world's first airline to use an aircraft in revenue service. It was founded on 16 November 1909 and operated Zeppelin rigid airships manufactured by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Corporation. Its headquarters were located in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen is a museum in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Germany, the birthplace of the Zeppelin airship. The museum houses the world's largest aviation collection and chronicles the history of the Zeppelin airships. In addition, it is the only museum in Germany that combines technology and art. The museum has been in its current location at the Hafenbahnhof since it was reopened in 1996. The exhibition was designed by HG Merz.
A number of institutions are called Zeppelin Museum:
Albert Sammt was a German commander of Zeppelin-airships.
The two Hindenburg-class airships were hydrogen-filled, passenger-carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the 1930s and named in honor of Paul von Hindenburg. They were the last such aircraft ever built, and in terms of their length and volume, the largest Zeppelins ever to fly. During the 1930s, airships like the Hindenburg class were widely considered the future of air travel, and the lead ship of the class, LZ 129 Hindenburg, established a regular transatlantic service. The destruction of this same ship in a highly publicized accident was to prove the death knell for these expectations. The second ship, LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin, was never operated on a regular passenger service, and was scrapped in 1940 by the order of Hermann Göring.
Bartolomeu de Gusmão Airport was a Brazilian airport built to handle the operations with the rigid airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg. The airport was named after Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (1685–1724), a Portuguese priest born in Brazil who did research about transportation with balloons.
Hans von Schiller was famous for over twenty years as an airship Zeppelin crew member and captain.
Born in 1891 in Schleswig-Holstein, the young Hans von Schiller joined the navy at the beginning of World War I. He was Impatient for action and so volunteered for Zeppelin service and was active on numerous Zeppelin raids against the British from a base at Tonder - today the site of an excellent Zeppelin museum.
The airship LZ 37 was a World War I Zeppelin of the German Kaiserliche Marine. It was the first Zeppelin to be brought down during the war by an enemy plane on the night of 6–7 June 1915.
The Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei, abbreviated DZR, is a limited-liability company that operates commercial passenger zeppelin flights. The current incarnation of the DZR was founded in 2001 and is based in Friedrichshafen, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik and operates Zeppelin NT "Next Generation" airships. By 2009 the DZR had transported over 55,000 passengers. As of 2012 the DZR flies a schedule of 12 tour routes between March and November in Southern Germany. The company also operates flights to other selected cities as well as charter flights.
The Zeppelin P Class was the first Zeppelin airship type to be produced in quantity after the outbreak of the First World War. 22 of the type were built as well as 12 of a lengthened version, the Q Class . They were used for many of the airship bombing raids on the United Kingdom in 1915-16, for naval patrol work over the North Sea and Baltic and were also deployed on the eastern and south-eastern fronts.
Zeppelin "L 30" was the first R-class "Super Zeppelin" of the German Empire. It was the most successful airship of the First World War with 31 reconnaissance flights and 10 bombing runs carrying a total of 23,305 kg of bombs, with the first ones targeting England, and the four final raids targeting Livonia and Ösel (Saaremaa). It was at the time of construction the world's largest Zeppelin, and with its 6 engines, "L 30" could reach speeds higher than 100 km/h, making it also the fastest Zeppelin.
The LZ 85 was a World War I R-Class zeppelin of the German Navy with a total length of 198 metres, allocated the tactical numbering L 45. LZ 85 carried out a total of 27 flights including 3 raids on England and 12 reconnaissance missions.
