On July 2, 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew the first rigid airship, the LZ 1, over Lake Constance in Germany, lasting only 18 minutes but proving the concept of rigid-framed dirigibles. This achievement launched the Zeppelin company and initiated an era of rigid airship development that would culminate in transatlantic passenger service before being superseded by airplanes.

Zeppelin's achievement inspired Edwardian poetry celebrating German engineering and the promise of regular aerial transportation. The rigid airship became a powerful symbol in early 20th-century literature, appearing in works by Woolf, Joyce, and others as an emblem of modernity, luxury travel, and the ambiguous promise of technology that would later be complicated by the Hindenburg disaster.