Ferdinand von Zeppelin was a retired Prussian General when he decided to devote his attention to developing a rigid airship that could be used for both commercial and military purposes.
Construction on his first dirigible, LZ-1, began in late 1898. On July 2nd, 1900, Zeppelin lifted off in LZ-1 for a flight that lasted 20 minutes. By 1908, Count Zeppelin had enough financial support that he could establish the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH to produce rigid airships commercially. In 1909 he founded the world’s first airline, the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG), which used zeppelins to fly both paying passengers and VIPs on pleasure trips around Germany.
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