Zeppelin was born in Konstanz and was educated at the
        Ludwigsburg Military Academy and the University of T?bingen. He
        entered the Prussian army in 1858 and went to the United States in
        1863 to work as a military observer for the Union army. He served in
        the Franco-German War of 1870-1871 and, in 1891, retired with the rank
        of brigadier general.
               Zeppelin took keen interest in balloon flight and devoted
        himself to the design and construction of airships. He completed his 
        first rigid dirigible in 1900. This ship had a rigid frame and served
        as the prototype of many subsequent models. The first zeppelin airship
        consisted of a row of 17 gas cells indicidually covered in rubberized
        cloth; the whole was confined in a cylindrical framework covered with
        smooth surfaced cotton cloth. It was about 420 feet long and 38 feet
        in diameter; the hydrogen-gas capacity totalled 399,000 cubic feet.
        The ship was steered by forward and aft rudders and was driven by two
        15-hp Daimler internal-combustion engines, each rotating two
        propellers. Passengers, crew, and engine were carried in two aluminium
        gondolas suspended forward and aft. At its first trial, on 2 July
        1900, the airship carried five persons; it attained an altitude of
        1300 feet and flew a distance of 3.75 miles in 17 minutes.
              Despite many setbacks, Zeppelin continued his research and in
        1910 one of his airships provided the first commercial air service for
        passengers. During World War I, zeppelins were used in German air
        raids but were found to be vulnerable to antiaircraft fire. After the
        war they were widely used in commercial flights. However, safety
        problems that led to accidents, including the crash of the Hindenburg
        in 1937, brought on the end of the zeppelin's popularity.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas