In 1898, Germany's Zeppelin designed and built the first rigid airship. This kind of airship uses a complete skeleton to maintain the shape of the airbag and uses a piston engine as power, so it has good flight performance and a large loading capacity. In 1900, Zeppelin successfully flew over Lake Constance in his huge rigid airship, causing a sensation.

Since then, the development of balloons and airships has entered its peak and has been widely used in the military and transportation fields. In terms of military affairs, Germany, France, Russia, Britain and other countries have successively established airship troops and introduced airships into the battlefield. In the Italian-Turkish War in 1911, Italy used three airships for the first time to conduct reconnaissance and bombing of Turkey.