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Zeppelin Personalities Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Graf (Count) von Zeppelin The original mind behind the concept of the rigid airship, Count Zeppelin was a young military observer in the American Civil War when he first saw balloons in use. Not a great technical mind, but a patriot and aristocrat, Zeppelin used his connections to finance and launch the first clumsy airship in 1900. The permanent figurehead of the Zeppelin company, he died in 1917 and will always be remembered as a great, if flawed, genius and German hero. Doktor Hugo Eckener Truly one of the great visionaries of the 20th Century, Hugo Eckener was much more than a businessman and airship captain. His dedication, commitment and legendary expertise thrust the zeppelins onto the world stage as a symbol and peace and international unity when all around him chaos reigned. Eckener died in 1954 at the age of 86 after trying unsuccessfully to resurrect the business from the ashes of WWII. Lady Grace Hay Drummond Hay Plucky and witty, the diminutive Gracie Lethbridge rose to international fame as the lady of the zeppelin, reporting for the Hearst media empire on many of its famous flights including the epic 1929 round-the-word journey. Now largely forgotten, she was at one time the most famous woman in the world. She was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942 and held prisoner for three years along with her lifetime companion and fellow Hearst reporter and zeppelin frequent flyer, Karl von Weigand. She died from “acute exhaustion” in New York soon after release. Sir George Hubert Wilkins Perhaps the most accomplished explorer of the 20th Century, Australian-born Sir Hubert Wilkins was a pioneer of polar flight and remote exploration. He flew in the Zeppelin missions under the employ of Randolph Hearst as a guest commentator. A contemporary of Sir Douglas Mawson and Frank Hurley, he was knighted in 1928 for his feats in Arctic flying and was the first to take a submarine under the polar icecap in 1931, although this over-ambitious exercise nearly broke him and forever damaged his reputation. Wilkins died in 1958 and his ashes were taken to the North Pole by nuclear submarine. More >> Zeppelin Engine Technology
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