page_title: Zeppelin
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Zeppelin / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: Airship D-LZFN Friedrichshafen, a Zeppelin NT, on the way back into the hangar, Friedrichshafen, district Bodenseekreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Deutsch: Der Zeppelin NT D-LZFN Friedrichshafen auf dem Weg zurück in den Hangar, Friedrichshafen, Bodenseekreis, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland
context_page_description: A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893. They were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word zeppelin came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG, the world's first airline in revenue service. By mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as bombers and as scouts, killing over 500 people in bombing raids in Britain.
  The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed the airship business. Although DELAG established a scheduled daily service between Berlin, Munich, and Friedrichshafen in 1919, the airships built for this service eventually had to be surrendered under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which also prohibited Germany from building large airships.
context_section_description: Since the 1990s Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, a daughter enterprise of the Zeppelin conglomerate that built the original German Zeppelins, has been developing Zeppelin "New Technology" (NT) airships. These vessels are semi-rigids based partly on internal pressure, partly on a frame.
  The Airship Ventures company operated zeppelin passenger travel to California from October 2008 to November 2012 with one of these Zeppelin NT airships.
  In May 2011, Goodyear announced that they would replace their fleet of blimps with Zeppelin NTs, resurrecting their partnership that ended over 70 years ago. Goodyear placed an order for three Zeppelin NTs, which then entered service between 2014 and 2018.
  Modern zeppelins are held aloft by the inert gas helium, eliminating the danger of combustion illustrated by the Hindenburg. It has been proposed that modern zeppelins could be powered by hydrogen fuel cells.  Zeppelin NTs are often used for sightseeing trips; for example, D-LZZF (c/n 03) was used for Edelweiss's birthday celebration performing flights over Switzerland in an Edelweiss livery, and it is now used, weather permitting, on flights over Munich.
caption: Zeppelin NT
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