Originally Posted by
tdracer
Perhaps being a bit anal here, but every definition of "Zeppelin" I've ever heard or seen is for a rigid airship - which the Goodyear Blimps definitely are not.
Yes, I see that it's called a "Zeppelin" on the referenced website, but that doesn't make it correct. There are Zeppelins (rigid), and there are Blimps (non-rigid). The two terms are mutually exclusive.
Well, technically they are Zeppelins. As they were built by the
Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik in Friedrichshafen, Germany on the coast of Lake Constance. The same place where the "original" Zeppelin were built, and in fact the company is still in the net of companies founded by the Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in 1908 which eventually manufactured the Hindenburg amongst others of its kind. Therefore, it has, from a company perspective, a direct line to the first Zeppelin ever built, although it is of course a bit more indirect.
A little less technically, the Zeppelin NT is a semi rigid airship, roughly a halfway point between the old gas-bags like the old Goodyear blimps and full rigid airships.