Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The zeppelin made its maiden flight on July 2, 1900. . . . Used to bomb Britain and France in the war, the zeppelin proved vulnerable to attack. Zeppelin's death in 1917 and the fatal crashes of the R101 in 1924 and Hindenburg in 1937 meant that the future of flying rested with the airplane--although Zeppelins were still made at the original Friedrichshafen factory until 1997." [Furtado: 1001 Days]