Over the many years, the investment value of the endowment grew to a point where it had become viable for the funds to be put to use for the purpose of designing, developing, and constructing of a new generation of Zeppelins.

In mid 1991, the newly formed development team filed several patents on various technologies that would be later used on the subsequent airship, these included propeller arrangements, structure and girder design, and ballonet implementation.

[3] In March 1991, a flyable remote control proof of concept model was demonstrated, which is claimed to have revealed excellent flight characteristics from the onset.

[3] In 1995, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, Germany's civil aviation authority, officially recognized ZLT as a design organisation, and approved new construction regulations for airships.

According to the manufacturer, the Zeppelin N07 prototype had proven the technical design by mid 1998, and thus could be applied to production models without major modifications.

[3] In July 2000, the prototype performed a high-profile tour of Germany, travelled more than 3,600 km (2,200 mi) in about 75 flight hours and appearing at the Expo 2000 at Hannover.

[3] In 2001, the company formally commenced series manufacturing of the Zeppelin NT, and began the commercial exploitation of the airships.

In April 2001, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt issued type certification for the Zeppelin N07, a key step towards commercial operations; that same month, ZLT became a certified airship-manufacturing company.

On 10 August 2001, the first production airship SN 02 was christened D-LZZR Bodensee by Carl, Duke of Württemberg; five days later, it began providing commercial passenger services, initially involving one-hour sightseeing flights over Lake Constance to members of the public up to ten times per day.

All major components, such as the engines, control cabin and the steering fins, are mounted upon the structure; this allows maneuverability to be maintained even in the event of envelope pressure being lost.

These engines are mounted on the sides and rear of the structure itself to provide optimum efficiency; this arrangement also increases in-flight comfort due to reduced levels of propeller noise and vibration.

[16] The swiveling propellers have been claimed to have provided the Zeppelin NT with unique flight characteristics, such as being able to hover precisely, fly backwards, take off vertically, and turn on its axis.

The functionality of the swiveling propellers allows the Zeppelin NT to carry out both take-offs and landing operations entirely in the vertical plane.

[18] The two-man cockpit of the Zeppelin NT is equipped with modern avionics systems and provides similar levels of external visibility to that of a helicopter.

[21] The base model of the Zeppelin NT has a passenger capacity of 12 in addition to a crew of two; alternatively, it is capable of lifting payloads of up to 1,900 kg (4,200 lb).

[20] In a passenger configuration, up to 13 seats equipped with seatbelts may be installed along with heating/air conditioning systems, a kitchenette, and a restroom in the rear cabin area; large wraparound windows are also present to provide panoramic views of the outside.

The prototype Zeppelin NT (SN 01), D-LZFN, Friedrichshafen, was intended to be used for training pilots for special flights and for presentations.

During the Oktoberfest of 2002 a Zeppelin NT was used for radio experiments in connection with the European Galileo positioning system project for the German Aerospace Center and the ESA.

Steve Fossett and Paul Stroehle set the current speed record for airships over a distance of one kilometer on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 in Friedrichshafen, Germany with a Zeppelin NT.

The airship was moved from Amsterdam to Cape Town by ship and then flown to Gaborone where a Lockheed Martin full tensor gravity gradiometer was installed.

[25] This instrument, owned and operated by Bell Geospace, measures changes in the Earth's gravity field associated with geological density variations.

The technology is based on accelerometers and the data quality is sensitive to the turbulence and motion usually associated with fixed wing aircraft installations.

The airship, flying slowly at night in relatively cool calm air, provides a very stable and vibrationally quiet platform.

The resulting data is capable of revealing the rather faint gravity signals associated with Kimberlite pipes – a source of diamonds – buried under the Kalahari sands.

[32] Between July and September 2008, the airship, registered D-LZNT, operated sightseeing and pleasure flights over eastern London and the Thames Estuary from an airfield close to Upminster, in Essex, England, advertising Stella Artois beer and the DrinkAware responsible alcohol use campaign.

[33] The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the type certificate for the Zeppelin N07, allowing the airship to fly legally in the United States.

Since 15 August 2001, DZR has offered aerial sightseeing tours using a number of Zeppelin NT airships; in June 2010, the 100,000th passenger was carried, less than nine years after commercial operations were launched.