Zeppelin is just a brand (at this point, anyway). While the Zeppelin NT isn't a blimp, it's not a rigid airship either, but rather a hybrid of the two with an internal frame. Better than a blimp at high speeds and in bad weather, but I doubt the design would scale to the size of the 1930s behemoths.

Well the maker of the Zeppelin NT is the original Eckener entity that created the Zeppelins, so to the extent that a "Zeppelin" is an airship built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, the Zeppelin NT is a real Zeppelin.

But I think it's not accurate to think of the Zeppelin NT as a blimp with some rigid parts. The original Zeppelins had non-rigid fabric gas chambers as well, hung from a duralumin frame which also supported the airfoils and helped the fuselage maintain shape.

The gas chambers of a Zeppelin NT support their own shape through positive pressure, as in a blimp. But they don't have to also support the airfoils, etc. For that, the vessel has a rigid composite structure.

So I think it's more accurate to describe the Zeppelin NT as "a rigid airship with self-supporting gas chambers." And I see no reason why the design could not be scaled up to Graf Zeppelin or Hindenburg size if economics permitted it.

>Well the maker of the Zeppelin NT is the original Eckener entity that created the Zeppelins, so to the extent that a "Zeppelin" is an airship built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, the Zeppelin NT is a real Zeppelin.

Well, yes. He said "this is a Zeppelin, not a blimp", which is a lot like saying "this is a Chevy, not a butterfly". A blimp built by Zeppelin would still be a Zeppelin, and Zeppelin builds all sorts of things that aren't related to airships.

The reason I don't think it will scale well is, like a blimp, pressurization of the gas bag is what keeps a hybrid in the proper shape. This means as the size of the airship increases the envelop pressure must also increase to deal with greater external forces, making the lifting gas heavier and therefor less efficient.

The US navy fielded blimps larger than the Hindenburg until the early '60s, but they were never able to get more than about half the Hindenburg's lift capability for this reason.

With a hybrid you still get the benefit of placing engine pods more efficiently and you don't have to worry about the nose collapsing if you go too fast. However, if you were going to go through the trouble and expense of building an 800 ft airship there's no reason to sacrifice that much lift.