David Schwarz (; , ; 20 December 1850 – 13 January 1897) was a Hungarian aviation pioneer. He is known for creating an airship with a rigid envelope made entirely of metal. Schwarz died only months before the airship was flown. Some sources have claimed that Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin purchased Schwarz's airship patent from his widow, a claim which has been disputed. He was the father of the opera and operetta soprano Vera Schwarz (1888–1964). Birth date and nationality Sources for his date of birth vary. The OCLC cites Rotem, Ẓ. giving it as 7 December 1850, while Brockhaus gives it as 20 December 1850 The OCLC, as well as Brockhaus, show Schwarz's place of birth as Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. Early life Schwarz was born in Keszthely, Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the Austrian Empire, the son of Jewish. He was a timber merchant raised in Županja, but he spent most of his life in Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. Although Schwarz had no special technical training, he became interested in technology and developed improvements for woodcutting machinery. First airship thoughts Schwarz first became interested in airships during the 1880s. This occurred while working away from home supervising the felling of some forest land. As the work took longer than planned, he had his wife send him books to while away the evenings. These included a mechanics textbook. Although Schwarz became excited, it is not certain that this inspired him to build his own airship. His lumber business suffered due to his obsession and, like other aviation pioneers, his project attracted mockery. Nevertheless, his wife Melanie supported him. Schwarz proposed aluminium, then a very new material, for construction. First airship in Russia Having worked out the design of an all-metal airship, Schwarz then offered his ideas to the Austro-Hungarian war minister. Some interest was shown, but the government was not ready to provide financial support. The Russian military attaché, a technically educated man, advised Schwarz to demonstrate his airship in St. Petersburg, where an airship using Schwarz's ideas was built in 1893. Schwarz, and later his widow, assumed that test flights would also be made there, but this did not happen. He began construction in late 1892, with the industrialist Carl Berg supplying the aluminium and necessary funding. Problems arose during gas-filling: on inflation, the framework collapsed. Schwarz apparently intended the metal skin to contain the gas directly without