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