History Blog #5 The First Zeppelin 1900 July 2th

The First Flight of Zeppelin

This handsome guy on the picture is Ferdinand von Zeppelin. In July 2th, 1900 he became the first man to ever fly with a Zeppelin balloon. Yeah, the balloon type has his name because he is the inventor of it.

The Baloon that you can see below was 128m long and was 11m wide. Also at an altitude of 400m, it could travel at a speed of 21km/h by modern standards that is quite slow.

By the way, the first Zepplin flight had to be cut short due to the detachment of a cable.
Just so Ferdinand von Zeppelin does not get all the credit for inventing the modern steel framed air balloon he actually bought the idea from the widow of David Schwarz.

Dawid Schwarz

Here is Scharw's steel framed ship in action.