The Zeppelin airship history should start with its predecessor: the hot air balloon and the personal history of the Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin. While young he choose to be a missionary, but his destiny was completely different. Being a young military officer, he fall in love with one oh his cousins, but .... he was destroyed when his mother rejected his Request to marry her. At 31st his family choose him the lady to marry the Baroness Isabella Von Wolf. At the end of the 19th. century , French and Germans inventors where at the point to develop an airship safety enough to fly. The Count Von Zeppelin was one of the few that was able to build a rigid structure capable of flying. Not being an engineer, the Count look for help from a young and talented professional with whom sharing his enthusiasm. The man was, Theodor Kober, who had previously worked for a hot air balloon German constructor. After failing with numerous designs and projects, and suffering several jokes from the aristocrats who called him the "stupid count", finally he was almost ready to quit all his efforts. But in 1898 he discern for the first time the possibility to materialize his dreams. By that year the combined forces with the aluminium maker Carl Berg allowed the construction of an airship. The construction of the Luftschiff Zeppelin One (LZ1) was done staggering through successive trials and errors, . After two years of hard work, on a sunny and clear day, the 2nd of July 1900, , the LZ1 made his first flight over the Constance Lake, under the command of Count Zeppelin, who was 62 years at that moment. After a 16 minutes flight, the airship, with 126 m of total length and 2 engines of 16 horses of power was forced to land at the lake for technical failures. Eight years later, the Imperial German Government decided to offer financial assistance to his enterprise, with the condition that the airship should perform a nonstop 24 hours flight. The LZ4 overflew the Rhine river but, before ending the cruise, a storm completely destroyed the airship and with her his dreams of obtaining extra help from the empire. But at that time Zeppelin airships had become so popular, making the German citizens believe that they were the owners of the air space, that public fund collects were raised, allowing the continuity of the enterprise. Before the start of the 1st World War, the Zeppelins had a record of 1600 hours of flights, 32,000 passengers transported in 7 airships, at a mean velocity of 20 km/hour and 20 passengers per airship. The count Von Zeppelin died in Berlin during 1917. For this reason, one of his employees and principal collaborator Hugo Eckener took the command of the enterprise. Under his leadership the airship would fly over the skies of the Alps, Rome, Seville, Alicante and other important cities. During the 1st WW other Zeppelins were built, achieving new records of distance and velocity, reaching the altitude of 7,300 m. After the end of the 1st.WW, the winning powers demanded the control of the three remaining airships in German hands. Some time later the LZ126 was granted to the United States of America being named Los Angeles. It had 2OO m of length, 5 engines and could attained a maximum speed of 120km/hour. During 1928 and after 13 months of hard work, the LZ127 was out of the hangar. It made more than 600 flights, it overflew the Atlantic Ocean 150 times, the North Pole with polar scientists on board and during 1929 it made the first flight around the world. A company was established for regular flights transporting passengers, cargo and postal mail from South America to Europe. During one of those cruises a new record was reached: 128 hours on the air without landing. On the 3Oth.of June 1934 it overflew the skies of Buenos Aires city and landed in the Palomar airport. During 1936 the biggest airship appeared: the LZ127, with a total length of 248 m and capacity for 80 passengers. The end of the Zeppelin golden era took place on the 6th.May 1937 in New York (New Jersey?). While landing maneuvers , the Hindemburg was destroyed by the flames, falling to earth as a great ball of fire, as was recorded by photos and film, and causing the death of 35 people. From that moment on the Zeppelins began to loose their prestige so hardly won over the years. Nowadays we can only marvel ourselves by carefully observing and enjoying these magnificent postcards, photographs and memorabilia.

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