Early Days
By 1874 several people had conceived of a rigid dirigible (in contrast to non-rigid powered airships which had been flying since 1852). Frenchman Joseph Spiess had published a rigid airship proposal in 1873 but failed to get funding. Count Zeppelin had outlined his thoughts of a rigid airship in diary entries from 25 March 1874 through to 1890 when he resigned from the military. David Schwarz had thought about building an airship in the 1880s and had likely started design work in 1891, definitely by 1892 he was starting construction. It was not until after Schwarz's death in 1897 that his all-aluminium airship, built with help from with Carl Berg and the Prussian Airship Battalion, was test flown. Schwarz and Berg had an exclusive contract and Count Zeppelin was obliged to come to a legal agreement with Schwarz's heirs to obtain aluminium from Carl Berg, although the two men's designs were different and independent from each other. With Berg's aluminum, Zeppelin was able in 1899 to start building and, in 1900 July, to fly the Zeppelin LZ1.
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