As a kid, it was pretty exciting to look up and see one, not that this happened very often. It usually took place at outdoor sporting events, like a baseball or football game, and it was almost always the famous Goodyear blimp.

Goodyear blimp
Blimps are non-rigid airships (aeronaves), while zeppelins are rigid, lighter-than-air (más ligero que el aire) crafts.
It was 109 years ago yesterday that Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin successfully tested the world’s first rigid airship. And along the lines of Kleenex, Xerox and Coke brand names we use for defining products Ferdinand’s last name is linked to his invention: the “navigable balloon.”
The first zeppelin he built was enormous: 128 meters long and 12 meters in diameter. It was propelled (propulsado) by an internal combustion engine. Two gondola-like compartments carried the passengers and crew (tripulación) and it was equipped with rudders (timones) in the front and back to steer it.

Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
Filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas, it was also very dangerous.
The largest airship ever built by Zeppelin’s company was the Hindenburg: 243 meters long.
Compared to the Titanic not only for reasons of size, the Hindenburg burst into flames (estalló en llamas) while attempting to dock (acoplarse) in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937.
Of course, if you took a lighter-than-air zeppelin and filled it with lead (plomo) it would never take off (despegar).
Just ask Keith Moon.
When asked what he thought of the newly formed rock group New Yardbirds (the precursor to Led Zeppelin), The Who’s drummer Keith Moon responded, “they’re going to take off like a lead zeppelin!”
The members of the New Yardbirds liked the concept so much that they took it as the name for their new formation.
In order to avoid any mispronunciation (“lead” can be pronounced two ways), the letter “a” was removed so that it could only mean one thing: zeppelin de plomo.
By Drew Crosby