1838-1917

German Military Officer and Inventor

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin was responsible for the development of the dirigible, a lighter-than-air vehicle known as the zeppelin. These airships were used extensively in the early 1900s until the Hindenburg disaster of 1937.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born in Konstanz, Baden, Germany, in 1838. Even at 12 years of age, Zeppelin exhibited a keen interest in technology. At the age of 17, he attended the military academy in Ludwigsburg and was also educated at the University of Tübingen, receiving a degree in civil engineering.

He entered the Prussian Army in 1858, and served in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War from 1870-1871. In 1863 he went to the United States as a military observer with the Union Army with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the military use of hot...