Aero Linx: History of Dirigibles
The first real dirigible, driven by a steam engine, was built by Henri Giffard of France in 1852. Other early experimenters were Paul Haenlein, who built an airship in Germany in 1872; and Charles Renard and A. C. Krebs, French army officers, whose La France was flown in 1884. The man who made the dirigible practical was Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany. He completed his first rigid airship in 1900. In 1910, his first passenger dirigible, the Deutschland, was flying between Düsseldorf and Friedrichshafen, a distance of 300 miles (480 km). At that time rigid dirigibles became known as Zeppelins.