Zeppelin
A large (upwards of 300m), rigid, regularly-shaped German airship used in World War I. At first it was used for observation, but from the start of 1915 it was used as a bomber carrying 4 1/2 tons of bombs. They had crews over about 10, who steered the craft, physically dropped the bombs and manned defensive machine guns. Though they had a top speed of about 40mph they were prone to bad weather, manoeuvring difficulties and ground- and air- defences.
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