Theodor Kober (born 13 February 1865 in
Stuttgart; died 20 December 1930 in
Friedrichshafen
Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...
)
was a twentieth-century German aviation engineer who contributed to the building of the
first Zeppelin.
Life
As an engineer Kober had worked for a
balloon
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...
manufacturer and in the 1890s
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin enlisted him to produce designs for his
airship
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
In early ...
concept. After several years he and Zeppelin produced the design for the
Zeppelin LZ1
The Zeppelin ''LZ 1'' was the first successful experimental rigid airship. It was first flown from a floating hangar on Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen in southern Germany, on 2 July 1900.Lueger, Otto: Lexikon der gesamten Technik und ihre ...
. Later, in 1912 he founded the
Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen
Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH was a German aircraft manufacturing company.
Overview
The company was founded in 1912 in Friedrichshafen, Germany by Theodor Kober who had previously worked for the Zeppelin company. The town, which is located b ...
GmbH
with financial support from Zeppelin to build over 40% of the
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...
seaplanes during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
His daughter
Ilse Essers was a German engineer who established essential foundations in the field of aeronautical engineering.
References
1865 births
1930 deaths
Members of the Early Birds of Aviation
Airship designers
German aerospace engineers
German airship aviators
Engineers from Stuttgart
People from the Kingdom of Württemberg
{{Germany-engineer-stub