Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the context of "Zeppelin"

The Zeppelin NT ("Neue Technologie", German for new technology) is a class of helium-filled airships being manufactured since the 1990s by the German company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH (ZLT) in Friedrichshafen. The initial model is the N07. The company considers itself the successor of the companies founded by Ferdinand von Zeppelin which constructed and operated the very successful Zeppelin airships in the first third of the 20th century. There are, however, a number of notable differences between the Zeppelin NT and original Zeppelins as well as between the Zeppelin NT and usual non-rigid airships known as blimps. The Zeppelin NT is classified as a semi-rigid airship.

There are various roles for the Zeppelin NT; traditional roles have been aerial tourism purposes and for conducting passenger services. The Zeppelin NT have also been used for observation platforms, such as for aerial photographers and by television commentators covering major events. Due to their capability for low-vibration flight for up to 24 hours at a time, ZLT considers the airships suitable for research missions for environmental observation, troposphere research and natural resource prospecting. The envelope of the airship has also been used for advertising purposes.

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin 127) was a German passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight service. The ship was named after the German airship pioneer Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a count (Graf) in the German nobility. It was conceived and operated by Hugo Eckener, the chairman of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.

Graf Zeppelin made 590 flights totalling almost 1.7 million kilometres (over 1 million miles). It was operated by a crew of 36 and could carry 24 passengers. It was the longest and largest airship in the world when it was built. It made the first circumnavigation of the world by airship, and the first nonstop crossing of the Pacific Ocean by air; its range was enhanced by its use of Blau gas as a fuel. It was built using funds raised by public subscription and from the German government, and its operating costs were offset by the sale of special postage stamps to collectors, the support of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and cargo and passenger receipts.

A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pressure airships) and semi-rigid airships. Rigid airships are often commonly called Zeppelins, though this technically refers only to airships built by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company.

In 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin successfully performed the maiden flight of his first airship; further models quickly followed. Prior to the First World War, Germany was a world leader in the field, largely attributable to the work of von Zeppelin and his Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company. During the conflict, rigid airships were tasked with various military duties, which included their participation in Germany's strategic bombing campaign. Numerous rigid airships were produced and employed with relative commercial success between the 1900s and the late 1930s. The heyday of the rigid airship was abruptly ended by the destruction of the Hindenburg by fire on 6 May 1937. The disaster not only destroyed the biggest zeppelin in the world, but the film caused considerable reputation damage to rigid airships in general. Several nations had ended military rigid airship programs after serious accidents earlier in the decade, but widespread public safety concerns in the wake of the Hindenburg disaster led several nations to permanently ground their existing rigid airships and scrap them in subsequent years.

Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German aircraft manufacturing company. It is perhaps best known for its leading role in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, commonly referred to as Zeppelins due to the company's prominence. The name 'Luftschiffbau' is a German word meaning building of airships.

The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1908 as a formal entity to continue advancing his pioneering research into rigid airships. Luftschiffbau Zeppelin became the leading manufacturer in the field of large lighter-than-air vehicles; its products were used in both military and civilian capacities. The firm founded DELAG, the world's first airline to use an aircraft in revenue service, in 1909 on the back of public interest and using its own airships. During the First World War, Zeppelins were employed as the first long distance strategic bombers, launching numerous raids upon Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. Following Count von Zeppelin's death in 1917, control of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin fell to Dr. Hugo Eckener, an enthusiastic proponent of the civil value of airships. However, Germany's zeppelins were claimed by the Allies as war reparations.