The Zeppelin was a category of rigid airship first designed and built in Germany by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The first Zeppelin airship flew in 1900, and they became popular in peacetime as passenger liners. The airships were then used in the Zeppelin bombing raids of WWI (1914-18). In the interwar years, the transatlantic Zeppelins regularly carried passengers from Europe to New York and Rio. Following the Hindenburg disaster of May 1937, when the LZ 129 Hindenburg's hydrogen gas cells caught fire and destroyed the airship, Zeppelin travel fell out of public favour, to be replaced after WWII (1939-45) by commercial airplanes. This gallery shows this brief but glamorous history in pictures.
Those who had not travelled on the Zeppelin before could not tear themselves away from the windows, running from one side to the other, exclaiming at every new phase of the scenery. Others were fascinated by the cabin arrangement, the charming little sleeping compartments…
Lady Drummond Hay in 1929 on the Graf Zeppelin (Christopher, 7 & 91)
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
by Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1972-099-15
published on
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), the founder of the Zeppelin airship company in Germany. The first Zeppelin flew in 1900. Photographic postcard, 1900.
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