Ferdinand von Zeppelin

Count Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin (July 8, 1838 – March 8, 1917) was German general, and aircraft manufacturer. He co-invented the ridged airship, which made use of an envolope unnessisar, along side engineer Theodor Kober. He founded the Zeppelin Airship Company. He had intended, having been an observer of the Union Army during the American Civil War, to produce dirgibles for the Prussian Army, though WWI would prove a trying time, with some Captains even questioning the logic of putting hydrogen air bags into the field of war. Despite this, the Count, and his company continued to get backing from the King of Württemberg. Zeppelin's relationship with the Imperial Army would degrade with time, due to the loss suffered when one of his ships would fall. After the war, the Zeppelin company found it's self pushed into the civilian market. Launching a Passanger Transport campaign to capitalize on the public's fasination with airships, the company continued to flourish. Up until 1914 the German Aviation Association (Deutsche Luftschiffahrtsgesellschaft or DELAG) transported 37,250 people on over 1,600 flights without an incident. Within a few years the zeppelin revolution began creating the age of air transportation.