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Unlike most other principle transportation innovations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (automobiles, airplanes, non-rigid airships, etc) which were being actively research and developed by many different people in many different countries, the zeppelin airship (rigid outer frame, separate gas cells, huge size, etc) was the brainchild and obsession of only one man, Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Without von Zeppelin and his obsession, it is arguable that successful large rigid airships might never have been developed, or adopted by the German navy as strategic bombers and naval scouts and later experimented with by the US Navy, or be experimented with or developed by several nations as the main means of long-range commercial air travel in the period after WW1. What effect, if anything, would this have had on early 20th century transportation, military technology, or broader history?

Some possible changes might include:
(1) No early strategic bombing of Britain by zeppelins, which might have delayed by a few years the push to develop of high altitude and well-armed airplanes and effective anti aircraft artillery.
(2) If there were no "babykillers" bombing England in 1914-15 could this have had an impact on neutral and allied attitudes to Germany, perhaps reducing the "hun" image and making a negotiated settlement to WW1 somewhat more possible?
(3) Without the example of strategic bombing of civilian centers by airship in 1914-16, could the later development of heavy airplane strategic bombers in Britain and Germany been delayed?
(4) Without German naval devotion to the zeppelin as its main aerial scout and strategic aerial weapon, could the Germans have developed aircraft carriers in the same way as the Royal Navy did? Is there any possibility both the Royal Navy and High Seas Fleet could have true aircraft carriers deployed by 1917/1918, and could that have significantly affected naval operations?
(5) The US efforts to obtain helium in economically valuable quantities and develop the appropriate extraction/separation technologies was fostered almost solely by the US navy for its airships. Without large military airships and the hopes for commercial airship lines, would an expensive helium industry even be been developed? Could this have had effects on subsequent technologies which use helium today?

Or, was the zeppelin airship completely a blind alley and would the presence or absence of such craft in the period 1902-1940 made essentially no difference in any substantive way?
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