Zeppelin, Count Ferdinand von

Zeppelin, Count Ferdinand von (1838-1917), German inventor.

Count von Zeppelin was an officer in the German army.

He believed aircraft could be used in warfare and designed a new kind of airship. It had a frame of aluminum covered with cloth.

His first airship, LZ127, made a successful trial flight in July 1900.

Zeppelins, as these rigid airships were called, were used to bomb England in the First World War (1914-18) and for passenger services across the Atlantic Ocean for a time afterwards.

The most famous zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin. It flew round the world in 1929.

See T.E. Guttery Zeppelin