Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin graduated from Ludwigsburg Military Academy and received his civil engineering degree from the University of Tubigen. During the decade of the 1860s he was assigned to observe the military use of balloons in the United States and Europe, which convinced him of the military and commercial value of airship operations. In 1887 he published a comprehensive plan for a civil air transportation system based on large lighter-then-air ships. Retiring from the Army in 1891 with the rank of lieutenant general after a distinguished 44-year career, he committed himself and his personal fortune to the design, construction, and flight of airships. After overcoming many difficulties and failures born of this new science, his first successful airship made its maiden voyage on July 2nd 1900, the first of a long line of ships known as Zeppelins. By 1908 his dirigibles were making routine commercial flights carrying mail and passengers throughout Germany. The Zeppelin qualities of streamlined shape, light rigid framework, and maneuvering power made them successful when heavier-than-air machines were yet undeveloped. His quest for a light metal led directly to the invention of Duraluminum, which was to later make the all metal airframe practical. The success of military and civilian Zeppelins had a lasting effect on airpower strategists, and Count von Zeppelin will always be remembered for the graceful mammoths of the sky which he pioneered.
Inducted in 1975.
Portrait Location: Hall of Fame Hallway

Induction Video