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Ferdinand Adolf August
Heinrich Graf (Count) von
Zeppelin (July 8, 1838 – March
8, 1917) was a German aircraft
manufacturer, the founder of
the Zeppelin airship company.
He was born in Konstanz, Grand
Duchy of Baden (now part of
Baden-Württemberg,
Germany).
 Airships
Ferdinand von Zeppelin was
first seen in the balloon camp
of Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe
during the Peninsular Campaign
of the American Civil War. The
balloons were placed off limits
to civilian riders and Lowe was
not to entertain the curious
von Zeppelin. He sent him to
another balloon camp where the
German aeronaut John Steiner
could be of more help to the
young man. In 1869 von Zeppelin
returned to America to meet and
learn from the experienced
Prof. Lowe to gain all the
knowledge he could in
ballooning.
From the 1880s onward, Zeppelin
was preoccupied with the idea
of guidable balloons. In 1899,
he started constructing his
first guidable rigid airship
(based on an earlier design by
David Schwarz) which he used
for three ascents over the
Bodensee. The flights became
more and more successful,
igniting a public euphoria
which allowed the Count to
pursue the development of his
vehicle. In fact, the second
version of his airship was
entirely financed through
donations and a lottery. The
final financial breakthrough
only came, ironically, after
the Zeppelin LZ4 crashed in
1908 at Echterdingen. The crash
sparked public interest in the
development of the airships. A
subsequent collection campaign
raised over 6 million German
marks and the money was used to
create the
'Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin GmbH'
and a Zeppelin foundation.
The same year the military
administration bought the LZ3
and put it to use as the
renamed Z1. Starting in 1909,
zeppelins also were used in
civilian aviation. Up until
1914 the German Aviation
Association (Deutsche
Luftschifffahrtsgesellschaft or
DELAG) transported nearly
35,000 people on over 1500
flights without an
incident.
Count Zeppelin died 1917,
before the end of World War I.
He therefore did not witness
either the provisional shutdown
of the Zeppelin project due to
the Treaty of Versailles or the
second resurgence of the
zeppelins under his successor
Hugo Eckener.
Unfinished WWII German aircraft
carrier Graf Zeppelin and
airships LZ 127 and LZ 130 Graf
Zeppelin were named after him.
The British rock group Led
Zeppelin's name derives from
his airship as well.
Source : Some
of the information on this page
came from a Wikipedia
article and is
licensed under the GNU
Documentation License.
©2008
www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Ferdinand
Graf Von
Zeppelin - Generator
- Biography