A zeppelin is a type of giant airship that floats through the sky like an enormous blimp. Zeppelins have a rigid metal frame inside, covered by fabric, with huge bags of gas (originally hydrogen, later helium) that make them lighter than air. Underneath hangs a cabin where passengers and crew ride.

These magnificent flying machines were named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the German inventor who perfected their design in the early 1900s. For a brief period, zeppelins were the luxury airliners of their day, carrying passengers across oceans in style. The most famous was the Hindenburg, which could cross the Atlantic in about three days (much faster than ships).

Zeppelins seemed like the future of travel until 1937, when the Hindenburg caught fire while landing in New Jersey, ending in tragedy. After that disaster, people lost confidence in hydrogen-filled airships, and airplanes soon took over as the main way to fly.

Today, you might see small blimps at sporting events (like the Goodyear Blimp), but true zeppelins with their rigid frames are rare. When someone calls something a zeppelin, they usually mean any large, cigar-shaped airship floating majestically overhead.