I'm all in favor of interplanetary zeppelins, just as I've long advocated supersonic, nuclear-powered war blimps.

But seriously, one little known aeronautical feat is that the Graf Zepplin circumnavigated the globe in 1929. About the same time that Lindbergh nursed his little plane across the Atlantic, the Graf Zeppelin flew around the whole Northern hemisphere, carrying a couple of dozen passengers in luxury accomodations (the trip was sponsored by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst).

Particularly interesting is that they flew over remote parts of Siberia and rural China where it is unlikely the inhabitants had ever even seen a steam engine. Imagine being one of those peasants, looking up one day to see a gigantic object zooming overhead. The Graf was nearly as big as the Titantic, but it flew! That huge thing passing by just 2,000 or so feet up, half a dozen diesel engines roaring, must have confused and frightened the heck out of people who were used to ox carts.

Even today they'd be pretty impressive. The Graf and the Hindenburg were much larger than today's blimps, and would dwarf a 747.