DIRIGIBLE ZEPPELIN
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century.
It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899. Given the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships.
Before World War I
Before World War I, a total of 21 Zeppelin airships (LZ 5 to LZ 25) were manufactured. In 1909, LZ 6 became the first Zeppelin used for commercial passenger transport. The world's first airline, the newly founded DELAG, bought seven Zeppelins by 1914.
Seven of the twenty-seven were destroyed in accidents, mostly while being moved into their halls. There were no casualties. All together, the several airships traveled approximately 200,000 kilometers (120,000 miles) and transported about 40,000 passengers.
The German Army and Navy purchased 14 Zeppelins.
By 1914, state-of-the-art Zeppelins had lengths of 150 to 160 meters (490 to 520 ft) and volumes of 22,000–25,000 m3, enabling them to carry loads of around 9,000 kilograms (20,000 lb).
They were typically powered by three Maybach engines of around 400 to 550 horsepower (300 to 410 kW) each, reaching speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph).
During World War I
Zeppelins were used as bombers during World War I.
At the beginning of the conflict the German command had high hopes for the craft, as they appeared to have compelling advantages over contemporary aircraft – they were almost as fast, carried many more guns, and had a greater bomb-load and enormously greater range and endurance. However, their great weakness was their vulnerability to incendiary ammunition.
The German airships were operated by both the Army and Navy. The main use of the craft was in reconnaissance over the North Sea and the Baltic, where the endurance of the craft led German warships to a number of Allied vessels divisions.
The Naval and Army Air Services also directed a number of strategic raids against Britain, leading the way in bombing techniques and also forcing the British to bolster their anti-aircraft defenses.
The possibility of airship raids was approved by the Kaiser on 19 January 1915, although he excluded London as a target and further demanded that no attacks be made on historic or government buildings or museums.
The nighttime raids were intended to target only military sites on the east coast and around the Thames estuary.
Technological progress
Strategic issues aside, Zeppelin technology improved considerably as a result of the increasing demands of warfare.
The pre-war M-class designs were quickly enlarged, first to the 530 feet (160 m) long duralumin P-class, which increased gas capacity from 880,000 cubic feet (25,000 m3) to 1,130,000 cubic feet (32,000 m3), introduced a fully enclosed gondola, and extra engines. These modifications added 2,000 feet (610 m) to the maximum ceiling, over 10 mph to the top speed, and greatly increased crew comfort and hence endurance.
In 1916, the Zeppelin Company had spawned several dependencies around Germany and delivered airships of around 200 meters (660 ft) in length (some even more) and with volumes of 56,000–69,000 m3.
These M-class dirigibles could carry loads of 3–4 tons of bombs and reach speeds of up to 100 to 130 kilometers per hour (62 to 81 mph) using six Maybach engines of 260 hp (190 kW) each.
To avoid enemy defenses such as British aircraft, guns and searchlights, Zeppelins became capable of much higher altitudes (up to 7,600 meters (24,900 ft)) and they also proved capable of long-range flights.
For example, LZ.104 L.59, based in Yambol, Bulgaria, was sent to reinforce troops in German East Africa (today Tanzania) in November 1917. The ship did not arrive in time and had to return following reports of a German defeat by British troops, but it had traveled 6,757 kilometers (4,199 miles) in 95 hours and thus had broken a long-distance flight record.
End of the war
The German defeat in the war also marked the end of German military dirigibles, as the victorious Allies demanded a complete disarmament of German air forces and delivery of the remaining airships as reparations. Specifically, the Treaty of Versailles contained several articles dealing explicitly with dirigibles.
After World War I
Count von Zeppelin had died in 1917, before the end of the war. Dr. Hugo Eckener, a man who had long envisioned dirigibles as vessels of peace rather than of war, took command of the Zeppelin business.
With the Treaty of Versailles having knocked out their competitor Schütte-Lanz, the Zeppelin company and DELAG hoped to resume civilian flights quickly. In fact, despite considerable difficulties, they completed two small Zeppelins: LZ 120 Bodensee, which first flew in August 1919 and in the following two years actually transported some 4,000 passengers; and LZ 121 Nordstern, which was envisaged being used on a regular route to Stockholm.
However, in 1921, the Allied Powers demanded these two Zeppelins be delivered as war reparations.
Further Zeppelin projects could not be realized, partly because of Allied interdiction. This temporarily halted German Zeppelin aviation.
Eckener and his co-workers refused to give up and kept looking for investors and a way to circumvent Allied restrictions. Their opportunity came in 1924. The United States had started to experiment with rigid airships, constructing one of their own and ordering another from the UK.
Under these circumstances, Eckener managed to acquire an order for the next American dirigible. Of course, Germany had to pay the costs for this airship itself, as they were calculated against the war reparation accounts, but for the Zeppelin Company, this was secondary. So engineer Dr. Dürr designed LZ 126 and using all the expertise accumulated over the years, the company finally achieved its best Zeppelin so far, which took off for a first test flight on 27 August 1924.
No insurance company was willing to issue a policy for the delivery to Lakehurst, which, of course, involved a transatlantic flight. Eckener, however, was so confident of the new ship that he was ready to risk the entire business capital, and on 12 October 07:30 local time, the Zeppelin took off for the US under his command. His faith was not disappointed, and the ship completed her 8,050 kilometers (5,000 mi) voyage without any difficulties in 81 hours and two minutes. American crowds enthusiastically celebrated the arrival, and President Calvin Coolidge invited Dr. Eckener and his crew to the White House, calling the new Zeppelin an "angel of peace".
Under its new designation the ZR-3 USS Los Angeles (the former LZ 126), became the most successful American airship. She operated reliably for eight years until she was retired in 1932 for economic reasons. She was dismantled in August 1940.
With the delivery of LZ 126, the Zeppelin Company had reasserted its lead in rigid airship construction, but it was not yet quite back in business. Acquiring the necessary funds for the next project proved a problem in the difficult economic situation of post-World-War-I Germany, and it took Eckener two years of lobbying and publicity work to secure the realization of LZ 127.
Another two years passed before 18 September 1928, when the new dirigible, christened Graf Zeppelin in honor of the Count, flew for the first time. With a total length of 236.6 meters (776 ft) and a volume of 105,000 m3, it was the largest dirigible yet.
Eckener intended to supplement the successful craft by another, similar Zeppelin, projected as LZ 128. However the disastrous accident of the British passenger airship R101 on 5 October 1930 led the Zeppelin Company to reconsider the safety of hydrogen-filled vessels, and the design was abandoned in favor of a new project.
LZ 129 would advance Zeppelin technology considerably, and was intended to be filled with inert helium.
Hindenburg, end of an era
Following 1933, the establishment of the Third Reich in Germany began to overshadow the Zeppelin business.
The Nazis were not interested in Eckener's ideals of peacefully connecting people; they also knew very well dirigibles would be useless in combat and thus chose to focus on heavier-than-air technology.
On the other hand, they were eager to exploit the popularity of the airships for propaganda.
As Eckener refused to cooperate, Hermann Göring, the German Air minister, formed a new airline in 1935, the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR), which took over operation of airship flights. Zeppelins would now display the Nazi swastika on their fins and occasionally tour Germany to play March music and propaganda speeches for the people from the air.
On 4 March 1936, LZ 129 Hindenburg (named after former President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg by Eckener) made her first flight.
The Hindenburg was the largest airship ever built. However, in the new political situation, Eckener had not obtained the helium to inflate it due to a military embargo; only the United States possessed the rare gas in usable quantities. So, in what ultimately proved a fatal decision, the Hindenburg was filled with flammable hydrogen.
Apart from the propaganda missions, LZ 129 began to serve the transatlantic lines together with Graf Zeppelin.
On 6 May 1937, while landing in Lakehurst after a transatlantic flight, in front of thousands of spectators, the tail of the ship caught fire, and within seconds, the Hindenburg burst into flames, killing 35 of the 97 people on board and one member of the ground crew.
The actual cause of the fire has not been definitively determined; it is likely that a combination of leaking hydrogen from a torn gas bag, the vibrations caused by a swift rotation for a quicker landing to have started static electricity in the duralumin alloy skeleton and a flammable outer coating similar to rocket fuel accounted for the fact that the fire spread from its starting point in the tail to engulf the entire airship so rapidly (34 seconds).
Whatever caused the disaster, the end of the dirigible era was due to politics and the upcoming war, not the wreck itself, though it surely led to some public misgivings Graf Zeppelin completed more flights, and was retired one month after the Hindenburg wreck and turned into a museum.
After the German invasion of Poland started the Second World War on 1 September, the Luftwaffe ordered LZ 127 and LZ 130 moved to a large Zeppelin hangar in Frankfurt, where the skeleton of LZ 131 was also located.
In March 1940 Goering ordered the destruction of the remaining airships and the Duralumin fed into the Nazi war industry. In May a fire broke out in the Zeppelin facility, which destroyed most of the remaining parts. The rest of the parts and materials were soon scrapped, with almost no trace of the German "giants of the air" remaining by the end of the year.
It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899. Given the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships.
Before World War I
Before World War I, a total of 21 Zeppelin airships (LZ 5 to LZ 25) were manufactured. In 1909, LZ 6 became the first Zeppelin used for commercial passenger transport. The world's first airline, the newly founded DELAG, bought seven Zeppelins by 1914.
Seven of the twenty-seven were destroyed in accidents, mostly while being moved into their halls. There were no casualties. All together, the several airships traveled approximately 200,000 kilometers (120,000 miles) and transported about 40,000 passengers.
The German Army and Navy purchased 14 Zeppelins.By 1914, state-of-the-art Zeppelins had lengths of 150 to 160 meters (490 to 520 ft) and volumes of 22,000–25,000 m3, enabling them to carry loads of around 9,000 kilograms (20,000 lb).
They were typically powered by three Maybach engines of around 400 to 550 horsepower (300 to 410 kW) each, reaching speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph).
During World War I
Zeppelins were used as bombers during World War I.
At the beginning of the conflict the German command had high hopes for the craft, as they appeared to have compelling advantages over contemporary aircraft – they were almost as fast, carried many more guns, and had a greater bomb-load and enormously greater range and endurance. However, their great weakness was their vulnerability to incendiary ammunition.
The German airships were operated by both the Army and Navy. The main use of the craft was in reconnaissance over the North Sea and the Baltic, where the endurance of the craft led German warships to a number of Allied vessels divisions.
The Naval and Army Air Services also directed a number of strategic raids against Britain, leading the way in bombing techniques and also forcing the British to bolster their anti-aircraft defenses.
The possibility of airship raids was approved by the Kaiser on 19 January 1915, although he excluded London as a target and further demanded that no attacks be made on historic or government buildings or museums.
The nighttime raids were intended to target only military sites on the east coast and around the Thames estuary.
Technological progress
Strategic issues aside, Zeppelin technology improved considerably as a result of the increasing demands of warfare.
The pre-war M-class designs were quickly enlarged, first to the 530 feet (160 m) long duralumin P-class, which increased gas capacity from 880,000 cubic feet (25,000 m3) to 1,130,000 cubic feet (32,000 m3), introduced a fully enclosed gondola, and extra engines. These modifications added 2,000 feet (610 m) to the maximum ceiling, over 10 mph to the top speed, and greatly increased crew comfort and hence endurance.
In 1916, the Zeppelin Company had spawned several dependencies around Germany and delivered airships of around 200 meters (660 ft) in length (some even more) and with volumes of 56,000–69,000 m3.
These M-class dirigibles could carry loads of 3–4 tons of bombs and reach speeds of up to 100 to 130 kilometers per hour (62 to 81 mph) using six Maybach engines of 260 hp (190 kW) each.
To avoid enemy defenses such as British aircraft, guns and searchlights, Zeppelins became capable of much higher altitudes (up to 7,600 meters (24,900 ft)) and they also proved capable of long-range flights.
For example, LZ.104 L.59, based in Yambol, Bulgaria, was sent to reinforce troops in German East Africa (today Tanzania) in November 1917. The ship did not arrive in time and had to return following reports of a German defeat by British troops, but it had traveled 6,757 kilometers (4,199 miles) in 95 hours and thus had broken a long-distance flight record.
End of the war
The German defeat in the war also marked the end of German military dirigibles, as the victorious Allies demanded a complete disarmament of German air forces and delivery of the remaining airships as reparations. Specifically, the Treaty of Versailles contained several articles dealing explicitly with dirigibles.
After World War I
Count von Zeppelin had died in 1917, before the end of the war. Dr. Hugo Eckener, a man who had long envisioned dirigibles as vessels of peace rather than of war, took command of the Zeppelin business.
With the Treaty of Versailles having knocked out their competitor Schütte-Lanz, the Zeppelin company and DELAG hoped to resume civilian flights quickly. In fact, despite considerable difficulties, they completed two small Zeppelins: LZ 120 Bodensee, which first flew in August 1919 and in the following two years actually transported some 4,000 passengers; and LZ 121 Nordstern, which was envisaged being used on a regular route to Stockholm.
However, in 1921, the Allied Powers demanded these two Zeppelins be delivered as war reparations.
Further Zeppelin projects could not be realized, partly because of Allied interdiction. This temporarily halted German Zeppelin aviation.
Eckener and his co-workers refused to give up and kept looking for investors and a way to circumvent Allied restrictions. Their opportunity came in 1924. The United States had started to experiment with rigid airships, constructing one of their own and ordering another from the UK.
Under these circumstances, Eckener managed to acquire an order for the next American dirigible. Of course, Germany had to pay the costs for this airship itself, as they were calculated against the war reparation accounts, but for the Zeppelin Company, this was secondary. So engineer Dr. Dürr designed LZ 126 and using all the expertise accumulated over the years, the company finally achieved its best Zeppelin so far, which took off for a first test flight on 27 August 1924.
No insurance company was willing to issue a policy for the delivery to Lakehurst, which, of course, involved a transatlantic flight. Eckener, however, was so confident of the new ship that he was ready to risk the entire business capital, and on 12 October 07:30 local time, the Zeppelin took off for the US under his command. His faith was not disappointed, and the ship completed her 8,050 kilometers (5,000 mi) voyage without any difficulties in 81 hours and two minutes. American crowds enthusiastically celebrated the arrival, and President Calvin Coolidge invited Dr. Eckener and his crew to the White House, calling the new Zeppelin an "angel of peace".
Under its new designation the ZR-3 USS Los Angeles (the former LZ 126), became the most successful American airship. She operated reliably for eight years until she was retired in 1932 for economic reasons. She was dismantled in August 1940.
With the delivery of LZ 126, the Zeppelin Company had reasserted its lead in rigid airship construction, but it was not yet quite back in business. Acquiring the necessary funds for the next project proved a problem in the difficult economic situation of post-World-War-I Germany, and it took Eckener two years of lobbying and publicity work to secure the realization of LZ 127.
Another two years passed before 18 September 1928, when the new dirigible, christened Graf Zeppelin in honor of the Count, flew for the first time. With a total length of 236.6 meters (776 ft) and a volume of 105,000 m3, it was the largest dirigible yet.
Eckener intended to supplement the successful craft by another, similar Zeppelin, projected as LZ 128. However the disastrous accident of the British passenger airship R101 on 5 October 1930 led the Zeppelin Company to reconsider the safety of hydrogen-filled vessels, and the design was abandoned in favor of a new project.
LZ 129 would advance Zeppelin technology considerably, and was intended to be filled with inert helium.
Hindenburg, end of an era
Following 1933, the establishment of the Third Reich in Germany began to overshadow the Zeppelin business.
The Nazis were not interested in Eckener's ideals of peacefully connecting people; they also knew very well dirigibles would be useless in combat and thus chose to focus on heavier-than-air technology.
On the other hand, they were eager to exploit the popularity of the airships for propaganda.
As Eckener refused to cooperate, Hermann Göring, the German Air minister, formed a new airline in 1935, the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR), which took over operation of airship flights. Zeppelins would now display the Nazi swastika on their fins and occasionally tour Germany to play March music and propaganda speeches for the people from the air.
On 4 March 1936, LZ 129 Hindenburg (named after former President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg by Eckener) made her first flight.
The Hindenburg was the largest airship ever built. However, in the new political situation, Eckener had not obtained the helium to inflate it due to a military embargo; only the United States possessed the rare gas in usable quantities. So, in what ultimately proved a fatal decision, the Hindenburg was filled with flammable hydrogen.
Apart from the propaganda missions, LZ 129 began to serve the transatlantic lines together with Graf Zeppelin.
On 6 May 1937, while landing in Lakehurst after a transatlantic flight, in front of thousands of spectators, the tail of the ship caught fire, and within seconds, the Hindenburg burst into flames, killing 35 of the 97 people on board and one member of the ground crew.
The actual cause of the fire has not been definitively determined; it is likely that a combination of leaking hydrogen from a torn gas bag, the vibrations caused by a swift rotation for a quicker landing to have started static electricity in the duralumin alloy skeleton and a flammable outer coating similar to rocket fuel accounted for the fact that the fire spread from its starting point in the tail to engulf the entire airship so rapidly (34 seconds).
Whatever caused the disaster, the end of the dirigible era was due to politics and the upcoming war, not the wreck itself, though it surely led to some public misgivings Graf Zeppelin completed more flights, and was retired one month after the Hindenburg wreck and turned into a museum.
After the German invasion of Poland started the Second World War on 1 September, the Luftwaffe ordered LZ 127 and LZ 130 moved to a large Zeppelin hangar in Frankfurt, where the skeleton of LZ 131 was also located.
In March 1940 Goering ordered the destruction of the remaining airships and the Duralumin fed into the Nazi war industry. In May a fire broke out in the Zeppelin facility, which destroyed most of the remaining parts. The rest of the parts and materials were soon scrapped, with almost no trace of the German "giants of the air" remaining by the end of the year.
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