Count Ferdinand Zeppelin freed balloon flight from the whims of the wind with his invention of the dirigible, a framed balloon that could be directed in flight. "Zeppelins," as they were named after their inventor, proved effective for passenger flight before and after World War I, but they were eventually displaced by airplane flight, a safer, more efficient alternative. However, the majestic beauty of zeppelins made an indelible mark on popular consciousness, which retains the image in the name of the hugely popular rock and roll band, Led Zeppelin, and in the appearance of the Goodyear "blimp" at sporting events.
Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Zeppelin was born on July 8, 1838, at Constance, Baden, in what is now Germany. Hailing from an aristocratic family, he received the traditional military education in Stuttgart and then entered the military as an infantry officer. In 1863, he traveled to the United States to serve in the Union Army of the Potomac in the Civil War. He also fought for the independent state of Wurttemberg in alliance with Austria in the Seven Weeks War of 1866, losing to Prussia. He then joined Prussia to fight against France in 1870.
Also in 1870, Zeppelin was invited back to the United States to participate in an expedition exploring the Mississippi River. The journey ended upriver at Fort Snelling in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he took his first ascent in a balloon, a catalytic experience that shaped his later life after he retired from the army in 1891, having reached the rank of brigadier general. Thereafter, he dedicated his efforts to the invention of a dirigible balloon, or one that could be directed instead of floating on the whim of the winds.
By 1893, Zeppelin had devised designs with engineering assistance from Theodore Kober, though when he presented his plan to German authorities, they rejected it outright. He continued undeterred, financing the work with his pension and inherited wealth. In 1898, he patented his design of an elliptical, cigar-shaped balloon and founded a company to produce them. For the next two years, he directed construction in a floating hangar on Lake Constance. In a key innovation, Zeppelin framed the balloon with aluminum, a strong but lightweight metal that had been prohibitively expensive and scarce until the 1880s discovery of new extraction and processing methods. Zeppelin covered the frame with a light fabric, and within the framework inserted individual cells of gas-filled airbags made of rubberized fabric.
On July 2, 1900, Luftschiff Zeppelin No. 1 (LZ1) was launched on its maiden flight. Earlier attempts at manned, directed flight had met with limited success: in 1852, Henri Giffard piloted a balloon propelled by a coke-fired steam engine some 17 miles, from the Hippodrome in Paris to Trappe, but his craft could not fly in anything but the mildest weather conditions. In 1876, gottlieb wilhelm daimler and niko-laus august otto invented the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, which replaced the steam engine in almost all applications, including the first "zeppelin," as the dirigibles were then known.
Journalist Hugo Eckener reported on the second flight of LZ1 in October of 1900. Duly impressed by this invention, he joined Zeppelin’s company, which spent the first decade of the 20th century refining zeppelin design and construction. By 1906, Zeppelin had solved most of the problems, and he tested his zeppelin in a 12-hour flight to Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1908. The next year, DELAG (as his company’s name was abbreviated) introduced passenger flight, with Eckener serving as director of flight operations.
In mid-June 1910, LZ7, or the zeppelin Deutschland, expanded passenger service to Frankfurt, Baden-Baden, and Dusseldorf. By 1914, some 35,000 passengers had traveled in zeppelins with no fatalities. Despite this success, Zeppelin still had to appeal for public support, as he had depleted his considerable personal fortune in developing the zeppelin. Kaiser Wilhelm II offered him patronage, and the general public contributed to the National Zeppelin Fund, generating some six million marks, which went to found the Zeppelin Institution.
The German military tried to utilize the zeppelin as a strategic weapon in World War I, but in 1914 alone, 13 zeppelins were destroyed in action, as their large size and use of flammable gases made them vulnerable targets. Nevertheless, Germany produced about a hundred zeppelins throughout the war, which made successful air raids on France and Britain (reaching London) from 1915 through 1916. However, it was clear to Zeppelin that his invention would not win the war for Germany. He died in Char-lottenburg, near Berlin, on March 8, 1917, before the end of the war.
Eckener inherited many of Zeppelin’s responsibilities, and he offered a zeppelin (subsequently named Los Angeles) as war reparation. After the war, in 1918, he introduced regular long-distance passenger service, which proved a better role for zeppelins than military applications. Graf Zeppelin (named after the dirigible’s inventor, as "graf" is German for Count), made its maiden flight in 1928, and by the next year it had circumnavigated the entire globe. The most successful craft of its kind, Graf Zeppelin made 144 transatlantic flights and maintained a perfect safety record in more than a million miles in flight. However, 12 other zeppelins crashed or were lost at sea. The year 1936 saw the launching of the largest dirigible ever, the 803-foot-long Hindenburg, capable of carrying 70 passengers. The zeppelin era ended in tragedy when the Hindenburg exploded in flight above Lakehurst, New Jersey, in May 1937, killing 35 people.
