Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin became interested in constructing a “Zeppelin balloon” after the Franco-Prussia War of 1870-1871, where he witnessed French use of them to transport mail. He had also encountered Union Army Balloon Corps employed in 1863, during the American Civil War, as a military observer with the Union Army. He began to seriously pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52.
Count Zeppelin presented his plans to an expert committee in 1894 but they showed little interest and so he was on his own in realizing his idea. Construction of the first Zeppelin began in 1899 in a floating assembly hall on the Bodensee in the Bay of Manzell, Friedrichshafen. The prototype airship LZ 1 had a length of 128m, was driven by two, 14.2-hp, Daimler engines and was controlled in pitch by moving a weight between its two nacelles.
The first Zeppelin flight occurred on July 2, 1900 over Bodensee and lasted only 18 minutes before LZ 1 was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight broke. Two subsequent flights did little to convince possible investors and Zeppelin’s financial resources were depleted.
