Aeroplanes are now the norm for air travel but there was a brief period early in the aeronautical history when airships or dirigibles were believed capable of playing a crucial role in aviation development. Large, controllable balloons propelled by an engine, airships are one of two types of lighter-than-air aircraft (the other one being… well, balloons of course!)
Now relegated to aerial observations, advertising and other areas where staying aloft is more important than movement, airships come in three main types: the non-rigid airships or blimps, the semi-rigid airships, and the rigid airships, often called zeppelins. The last category is more popular as zeppelins because it was a German man called Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin who conceived and developed the first rigid dirigible.
Born in Konstanz, Germany on July 8, 1938, Zeppelin studied at the University of Tubingen before entering the Prussian Army in 1858. He travelled to the U.S. during the American Civil War and acted as a military observer for the Union Army.
