Wired celebrates the anniversary of that very special day, March 14, 1899, when Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin got the U.S. patent for his design for a hard-bodied balloon with engines and rudders:
Zeppelin, who received a German patent nearly four years earlier, can more accurately be said to have perfected, rather than invented, the cylindrical-shaped craft. His final designs were based on ideas originally conceived by David Schwartz, a Croatian aviation pioneer employed by the German army.
Upon Schwartz’s premature death, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose interest in maneuverable balloons went back to his days as a German military observer during the American Civil War, bought the rights to Schwartz’s designs from his widow and established a commercial company.
After several false starts, including a couple of near-disastrous demonstrations, Zeppelin’s rigid airship was reliable enough to attract interest from the army.
Structural rigidity, i.e., a metal airframe, is what distinguishes a zeppelin from a blimp. Zeppelin airframes were made of a lightweight alloy with a fabric skin stretched over the framework. The lifting gas that provided the buoyancy, either helium or hydrogen, was contained in multiple gas cells.
Rudders and engine-driven propellers moved zeppelins through the air, much as they propel a ship through the seas, with the fastest of them traveling at speeds of up to 90 mph.
The fact that it has a framework also means that the rigid airship can be huge. Like aircraft carriers in the sky.
I say “can” rather than “could” because they’re always just about to make a comeback.