What Gave the Zeppelin Its Name? German airships in the years preceding World War II were referred to as Zeppelins, after Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1836–1917), a German count who was in charge of creating the hydrogen-filled aircraft in its early stages.
An airship or balloon with a similar overall shape is occasionally referred to as a zeppelin, even though they are mostly cigar-shaped. Zeppelin’s robust metal alloy skeleton, which consisted of rings and longitudinal girders, was its most crucial design component.
Because of the metal alloy (typically duralumin or aluminium) employed in this design, the aircraft had the benefit of being much larger than non-rigid airships, which depended on a tiny overpressure within the single gasbag to keep their shape. As a result, Zeppelins were able to carry greater weights and were able to install increasingly potent engines.
Multiple internal combustion engines contained in gondolas or engine cars fastened outside the structural framework propelled zeppelins. Certain ones may offer a backward push for navigating when attached to a buoy. In the Great War, zeppelins were used. They served primarily as propaganda tools for the Nazis during the Second World War.
A popular Zeppelin was the LZ 129 Hindenburg, which caught fire on May 6, 1937, upon landing following a nonstop flight from Germany to New Jersey, USA. Zeppelin passenger service ended at that point. Even with various changes, the LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin remained in service. To make way for alternative uses of their metal, the surviving Zeppelins were destroyed early in the Second World War.
These days, airships are blimps, or one large gas bag held in place by ballonet-controlled internal pressure. The few airships still in operation today are used for tourist excursions (Zeppelin NT), military observation (Lockheed Martin P-791), and advertising (Goodyear and MetLife blimps).
Content for this question contributed by Robynne Guay, resident of Taunton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA
