Zeppelin
This is an article about Zeppelin airships. For general article about airships, see airship. For the famous British rock band, see Led Zeppelin. For the knot, see Zeppelin bend |
The famous Zeppelin Hindenburg. |
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LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, one of the two zeppelins that carried passengers from Germany to the United States. |
A
Zeppelin is a type of
dirigible, more specifically a type of
rigid airship pioneered by
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century based in part on an earlier design by
David Schwarz. Due to the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term
zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships. This article, however, focuses on Zeppelins in the narrower sense of the word. For a broader discussionof this type of
aircraft, see
airship.
These giant aircraft were used for passenger transport as well as for military purposes. The DELAG (
Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG), which can be considered the first commercial
airline, served scheduled flights well before
World War I, and after the outbreak of the conflict, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts.
The
German defeat halted the business temporarily, but under the guidance of
Hugo Eckener, the successor of the deceased count, civilian Zeppelins experienced a renaissance in the 1920s. They reached their zenith in the 1930s, when the airships
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and
LZ129 Hindenburg operated regular
transatlantic flights between Germany and both North and South America.
The
Hindenburg disaster in 1937 triggered the fall of the "giants of the air", though other factors, including political issues, contributed to the demise of the Zeppelin.
The most important feature of Zeppelin's design is a rigid
aluminium alloy skeleton, made of rings and longitudinal girders. The advantage of this concept is that the ships can be built much larger, which enables them to lift heavier loads and be equipped with more numerous and powerful engines than non-rigid airships commonly known as
blimps, which rely on a slight overpressure within the single gasbag to maintain their shape.
The overall form of the first Zeppelins was cylindrical with rounded ends and complex multi-plane
empennage. During World War I, as a result of successful design improvements by the competing firm of
Schutte-Lanz Luftschiffbau the design was changed to the familiar
streamlined shape and cross shaped
empennage that has been used by almost all airships since. Within this outer envelope several separate balloons called "cells" contained the
lighter-than-air gas
hydrogen. Non-rigid airships do not have multiple gas cells.Motive power was provided by several
internal combustion engines, mounted in
nacelles rigidly connected to the skeleton. Steering was made possible by adjusting and selectively reversing engine thrust and by using rudder and elevator fins.
A comparatively small compartment for passengers and crew was built into the bottom of the frame, but the small structure on the bottom of the large Zeppelins is not the entire habitable space of the craft; they often had crew or cargo space internally for aerodynamic reasons.
Early Zeppelin history
The first Zeppelin
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The first ascent of LZ1 over the Bodensee in 1900. |
Count
Ferdinand von Zeppelin became interested in constructing a "dirigible
balloon" after the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871, where he witnessed the use of
French balloons during the siege of
Paris. He had also encountered the military use of such aircraft in 1863 during the
American Civil War, in which he participated as a military observer on the side of the Union. He began to seriously pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52.
Convinced of the potential importance of aircraft, he started working on various designs shortly after leaving the military. He eventually purchased the rights to the designs of
Croatian inventor
David Schwarz after that inventor died suddenly before successfully flying. His first aircraft drew heavily on Schwarz's design.
On
August 31,
1895, he obtained a
patent which already included most of the aforementioned features. One peculiar idea however that never made it into construction was to provide the ability to connect several independent airship elements like train wagons; in fact, the patent title called the design "Lenkbarer Luftfahrzug" (steerable air-cruising train).
An expert committee to whom he had presented his plans in 1894 showed little interest, so the Count was on his own in realizing his idea. In 1898 he founded the
Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Luftschiffahrt (company for the promotion of airship flight), contributing more than half of its 800,000
Mark share capital himself. He delegated the technical implementation to the engineer
Theodor Kober and later to
Ludwig Dürr.
Construction of the first Zeppelin airship began in 1899 in a floating assembly hall on the
Bodensee in the Bay of Manzell,
Friedrichshafen. This location was intended to facilitate the difficult starting procedure, as the hall could easily be aligned with the wind. The
prototype airship
LZ1 (
LZ for "Luftschiff ('Airship') Zeppelin") had a length of
128 m, was driven by two 14.2
horsepower (10.6
kW)
Daimler engines and was balanced by moving a weight between its two nacelles.
The first Zeppelin flight occurred on
July 21900 over the Bodensee. It lasted for only 18 minutes before the
LZ1 was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight broke. Upon repair, the technology proved its potential in subsequent flights (Its second flight was in October 1900. The third and final flight was on
October 241900.), beating the 6
m/s velocity record of the French airship
La France by 3
m/s. But this performance was unable to convince possible
investors. With his financial resources depleted, Count von Zeppelin was forced to disassemble the prototype, sell it for scrap, and close the company.
Birth from disaster
It was largely due to support by aviation enthusiasts that von Zeppelin's idea got a second (and third) chance and could be developed into a reasonably reliable technology. Only then could the airships be profitably used for civilian aviation and sold to the military.
Donations and the profits of a special
lottery, together with some public funding and a further 100,000 Mark contribution by Count von Zeppelin himself allowed for the construction of
LZ2, which took off for the first and only time on
January 17,
1906. After both motors failed, it made a forced landing in the
Allgäu mountains, where the anchored ship was subsequently damaged beyond repair by a storm.
Its successor
LZ3, which incorporated all parts of
LZ2 which were still usable, became the first truly successful Zeppelin, which by 1908 had travelled
4398 km in total in the course of 45 flights. Now the technology interested the German military, who bought
LZ3 and renamed it
Z I. It served as a school ship until 1913, when it was decommissioned as technologically outdated.
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Wreckage of LZ4. The LZ4 was destroyed when a storm broke the zeppelin from its mooring causing it to crash into a tree and catch fire. |
The army was also willing to buy
LZ4, but requested a demonstration of the ship's ability to make a 24 hour trip. While attempting to fulfil this requirement, the crew of
LZ4 had to make an intermediate landing in
Echterdingen near
Stuttgart. During the stop, a storm tore the airship away from its anchorage in the afternoon of
August 5,
1908. The airship crashed into a tree, caught fire and quickly burnt to ruins. No one was seriously injured, though two technicians repairing the engines escaped only by making a hazardous jump. This accident would have certainly knocked out the Zeppelin project economically had not one of the spectators in the crowd spontaneously initiated a collection of donations that yielded an impressive total of 6,096,555 Mark. This enabled the Count to found the
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH (airship construction Zeppelin Ltd.) and to create a
Zeppelin foundation. Thus, the Zeppelin project not only rose like a
Phoenix from the ashes, but was at last financially secure.
Zeppelins before World War I
In the following years until the outbreak of
World War I in summer 1914, a total of 21 more Zeppelin airships (
LZ5 to
LZ 25) were finished. (See
List of Zeppelins for a complete reference).
In 1909,
LZ6 became the first Zeppelin to be used for commercial passenger transport. For this purpose, it was taken over by the world's first
airline, the newly founded
Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG). Another six airships were sold to the DELAG by 1914, and were given names in addition to their production numbers. Three such were the
LZ8 "Deutschland II (1911), the
LZ11 "Viktoria Luise" (1912) and the
LZ17 "Sachsen" (1913). Four of these ships were destroyed in accidents, mostly while being transferred into their halls. There were no casualties.
Altogether, the DELAG airships travelled approximately
200,000 km, and transported about 40,000 passengers.
The remaining 14 pre-war Zeppelins were purchased by the German Army and Navy, who labelled their aircraft
Z I/II/... and
L 1/2/..., respectively. (During the war, the Army changed their scheme twice: following
Z XII, they switched to using the
LZ numbers, later adding 30 to obscure the total production.)
When
World War I broke out, the military also took over the three remaining DELAG ships. By this time, it had already decommissioned three other Zeppelins (
LZ3 "Z I" included). Five more had been lost in accidents, in two of which people died: a storm pushed Navy Zeppelin
LZ14 "L 1" down into the
North Sea, drowning 14, and
LZ18 "L 2" burst into flames following an engine explosion, killing the entire crew.
By 1914,
state-of-the-art Zeppelins had lengths of
150-160 m and volumes of
22,000-25,000 m3, enabling them to carry loads of around
9 tonnes. They were typically powered by three
Maybach motors of around 400-550
horsepower (300 - 410 kW) each, thus reaching speeds up to about 80
km/h.
Zeppelins in World War I
Bombers and scouts
Zeppelins were used as bombers during
World War I but were not notably successful. 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 capacity and enormously greater range and endurance. However, their great weakness was their vulnerability to gunfire.
The first offensive use of Zeppelins was just two days after the invasion of Belgium. A single craft, the
Z VI, was damaged by gunfire and made a forced landing near
Cologne. Two more Zeppelins were shot down in August and one was captured by the French. Their use against well-defended targets in daytime raids was a mistake and the High Command lost all confidence in the Zeppelin, leaving it to the Naval Air Service to make any further use of the craft.
The main use of the craft was in reconnaissance over the
North Sea and the
Baltic, where the admirable endurance of the craft led German warships to a number of Allied vessels. During the entire war around 1,200 scouting flights were made. The Naval Air Service 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 defences. The first airship raids were approved by the
Kaiser in January 1915. The nighttime raids were intended to target only military sites, but after
blackouts became widespread, many bombs fell randomly in
East Anglia.
The first raid was on
January 19,
1915, the first bombing of civilians ever, in which two Zeppelins dropped twenty-four 50 kg high explosive
bombs and ineffective 3 kg incendiaries on
Great Yarmouth,
Sheringham,
Kings Lynn and the surrounding villages. In all four people were killed, sixteen injured and monetary damage estimated at £7,740, although the public and media reaction were out of all proportion to the death toll. There were a further nineteen raids in 1915, in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 181 people and injuring 455. British defences were divided between the Royal Navy and the Army at first, before the Army took full control in February 1916, and a variety of sub 4-inch calibre
guns were converted to anti-aircraft use.
Searchlights were introduced, initially manned by the police, but their inexperience led to a number of illuminated clouds being mistaken for attacking airships. Aerial defences against Zeppelins were haphazard and the lack of an
interrupter gear in early aircraft meant that the basic technique of downing them was to drop bombs on them. The first man to bring down a Zeppelin in this way was
R. A. J. Warneford of the
RNAS, flying a Morane Parasol on
June 7,
1915. Dropping six 9 kg bombs, he set fire to
LZ 37 over Ghent and as a result won the
Victoria Cross.
Raids continued in 1916. After an accidental bombing of London in May (not the first, as the plaque to the right shows), in July the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres. There were 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Anti-aircraft defences were becoming tougher and new Zeppelins were introduced which were able to fly at twice the altitude, increasing the operating altitude from 1,800 m to 3,750 m. To avoid searchlights these craft flew above the cloud layer whenever possible, lowering an observer through the clouds to direct the bombing. The improved safety was counteracted by the extra strain on the airship crews and the British introduction in mid-1916 of forward-firing fighters. The first night-fighter victory came on
September 2,
1916 when
W. Leefe-Robinson shot down one of a sixteen strong raiding force over London. He too won the
Victoria Cross. Early in the morning of
September 24,
1916 an airborne fighter and anti-aircraft guns caused the L.33 Zeppelin to crash land at Little Wigborough near
Colchester,
Essex on its first raid. The pilot was
Kapitänleutnant Bocker. A close inspection of its wrecked structure enabled the British to understand where their own rigid airship designs had been deficient. Furthermore, one 250 hp engine recovered from the crashed L.33 was subsequently substituted for two (of four) 180 hp engines on a Vickers-built machine, the hitherto underpowered R.9.
The introduction of effective fighters marked the end of the Zeppelin threat. New Zeppelins came into service that could operate at 5,500 m but exposed them to extremes of cold, and changeable winds could, and did, scatter many Zeppelin raids. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on August 5, 1918 which resulted in the death of
KK Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department.
A total of eighty-eight Zeppelins were built during the war. Over sixty were lost, roughly evenly divided between accident and enemy action. Fifty-one raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defences.
Technological progress
Strategic issues aside, Zeppelin technology improved considerably as a result of the increasing demands of warfare. In late World War I the
Zeppelin Company, having spawned several dependencies around Germany with shipyards closer to the fronts than Friedrichshafen, delivered airships of around
200 m in length (some even more) and with volumes of
56,000-69,000 m3. These dirigibles could carry loads of
40-50 tonnes and reach speeds up to 100-130
km/h using five or even six
Maybach engines of around 260
horsepower (195 kW) each.
In fleeing enemy fire, Zeppelins rose to altitudes up to
7600 m, and they also proved capable of long-range flights. For example,
LZ104 "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 German defeat by British troops, but it had travelled
6757 km in 95 hours and thus had broken a long-distance flight record.
A considerable, though frequently overlooked contribution to these technological advancements originated from Zeppelin's only serious competitor, the
Mannheim-based
Schütte-Lanz airship construction company. While their dirigibles never became comparably successful, Professor Schütte's more scientific approach to airship design led to a number of important innovations that were, over time, copied by the Zeppelin company. These included, for example, the streamlined hull shape, the simple yet functional cruciform four-fin empennage replacing the more complicated box-like arrangements of older Zeppelins, individual direct-drive engine cars, anti-aircraft machine-gun positions and gas ventilation shafts which removed excess hydrogen for safety.
The end-of-war Zeppelins
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
war reparations. Specifically, the
Treaty of Versailles contained the following articles dealing explicitly with dirigibles:
Article 198.The armed forces of Germany must not include any military or naval air forces. [...] No dirigible shall be kept.Article 202.On the coming into force of the present Treaty, all military and naval aeronautical material [...] must be delivered to the Governments of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers. [...] In particular, this material will include all items under the following heads which are or have been in use or were designed for warlike purposes:[...]:*
Dirigibles able to take the air, being manufactured, repaired or assembled.:*
Plant for the manufacture of hydrogen.:*
Dirigible sheds and shelters of every kind for aircraft.Pending their delivery, dirigibles will, at the expense of Germany, be maintained inflated with hydrogen; the plant for the manufacture of hydrogen, as well as the sheds for dirigibles may at the discretion of the said Powers, be left to Germany until the time when the dirigibles are handed over. [...]On
June 23,
1919, a week before the treaty was signed, many war Zeppelin crews destroyed their airships in their halls in order to avoid delivery. In doing so, they followed the example of the German fleet which had been sunk two days before in
Scapa Flow. The remaining dirigibles were transferred to
France,
Italy,
Britain and
Belgium in 1920.
Zeppelin history after World War I
First steps towards a renaissance
Count von Zeppelin had died in 1917, before the end of the war. Dr.
Hugo Eckener, a man who had long before envisioned dirigibles as vessels of peace rather than warfare, took command of the Zeppelin business. With the
Treaty of Versailles having knocked out their competitor Schütte-Lanz, who had specialized entirely in military airships, the Zeppelin company and the airline DELAG hoped to resume civilian flights quickly. In fact, despite considerable difficulties, they accomplished two small Zeppelin constructions:
LZ120 "Bodensee" which first flew in August 1919 and in the following two years actually transported some 4000 passengers; and
LZ121 "Nordstern" which was foreseen for a regular route to
Stockholm.
However, in 1921, the Allied Powers demanded these two Zeppelins be delivered in the context of war reparations as well, as a compensation for the dirigibles destroyed by their crews in 1919. Further Zeppelin projects could not be realized, partly because of Allied interdiction. This temporarily halted German Zeppelin aviation.
However, 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, the
ZR-1 "USS Shenandoah" (see below), and ordering another one in
England. However, the British
R38, foreseen to become
ZR-2, broke apart and exploded during a test flight above the
Humber on
August 23 1921, killing 44 crewmen.
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
LZ126, 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
August 27,
1924.
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ZR-3 "USS Los Angeles" over southern Manhattan. ZR-3 operated a successful commercial passenger service in the United States for eight years. |
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
October 12, 0730 local time, the Zeppelin took off for the States under his command. His faith was not disappointed, and the ship completed its
8050 km 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
ZR-3 "USS Los Angeles", the former
LZ126 became the most successful American airship. It operated reliably for eight years until it was retired in 1932 for economic reasons and dismantled in August 1940.
The Golden Age of Zeppelin aviation
With the delivery of
LZ126 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 to be hard work 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
LZ127.
Another two years passed before, on
September 18,
1928, the new dirigible, christened
Graf Zeppelin in honour of the Count, flew for the first time. With a total length of
236,6 m and a volume of
105,000 m3, it was the largest dirigible so far.
Eckener's initial concept consisted of using
LZ127 "Graf Zeppelin" for experimental and demonstration purposes to prepare the way for regular airship travelling, but to carry passengers and mail to cover the costs. In October 1928 the first long-range voyage led the craft to Lakehurst, where Eckener and his crew were once more welcomed enthusiastically with confetti parades in New York and another invitation to the White House. Later
Graf Zeppelin toured in Germany and visited
Italy,
Palestine and
Spain. A second trip to the States was aborted in
France due to engine failure in May 1929.
In August 1929
LZ127 departed for another daring enterprise: a complete
circumnavigation of the globe. The growing popularity of the "giant of the air" made it easy for Eckener to find sponsors. One of these was the American press tycoon
William Randolph Hearst, who requested the tour to officially start in Lakehurst. From there,
Graf Zeppelin flew to Friedrichshafen first, continuing to
Tokyo,
Los Angeles and back to Lakehurst. It completed the voyage in 21 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes. Including the initial and final trips Friedrichshafen-Lakehurst and back, the dirigible travelled
49,618 km.
 |
US Air Mail 1930 picturing Graf Zeppelin |
In the following year,
Graf Zeppelin undertook a number of trips around Europe, and following a successful tour to
South America in May 1930, it was decided to open the first regular transatlantic airship line. Despite the beginning of the
Great Depression and growing competition by fixed-wing aircraft,
LZ127 would transport an increasing amount of passengers and mail across the ocean every year until 1936. Besides, the ship pursued another spectacular venue in July 1931 with a research trip to the
Arctic; this had already been a dream of Count Zeppelin twenty years earlier, which could, however, not be realized at the time due to the outbreak of war.
Eckener intended to supplement the successful craft by another, similar Zeppelin, projected as
LZ128. However the disastrous accident of the British passenger airship
R101 on
October 5 1930 led the Zeppelin company to reconsider the safety of hydrogen-filled vessels, and the design was abandoned in favour of a new project.
LZ129 would advance Zeppelin technology considerably, and was intended to be filled with the
inert gas
helium.
The Fall of the Zeppelins
However, from 1933 on, the establishment of the
Nazi dictatorship 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 that the dirigibles would be useless in combat and thus chose to focus on the development of heavier-than-air aircraft 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 Nazi Air minister, formed a new airline in 1935, the
DZR (Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei), which took over operation of airship flights. Zeppelins would now prominently display the Nazi
swastika on their fins and occasionally tour Germany to indoctrinate the people with march music and Nazi propaganda speeches from the air.
On
March 4,
1936,
LZ129 "Hindenburg", quickly named after the former
President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg by Eckener in an attempt to preempt the Nazi Party from naming the ship after the German dictator, made its first flight. 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 to be a fatal decision, the
Hindenburg was filled with flammable
hydrogen. Apart from the propaganda missions,
LZ129 began to serve the transatlantic lines together with
Graf Zeppelin.
On
May 6,
1937, when landing in
Lakehurst after a transatlantic flight, in front of thousands 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
Hindenburg disaster remained undiscovered, though
sabotage speculations abound (alternately blaming the
Nazis or their enemies). Some present-day researchers have hypothesized that a new coating material on the skin of the dirigible may have played a key role in the accident. Other investigators have rejected this "flammable coating" explanation. (See
Hindenburg disaster for a discussion of these continuing controversies.)
Whatever may have caused the
Hindenburg disaster, the true cause of the end of the dirigible era was due to politics and the upcoming War, not the disaster itself, though it surely led to some public misgivings. Despite everything, after the disaster, there remained a list of 400 people who still wanted to fly as passengers and had paid for the trip. In 1940, they were given back their money, though they did not want the money; they wanted to fly in a new ship.
The LZ127
Graf Zeppelin completed more flights, though not for overseas commercial flights to the US, and was retired one month after the disaster and turned into a museum. Dr. Eckener kept trying to obtain helium gas for the
Hindenburg's sister ship, the
"Graf Zeppelin II", but due to political bias against the airship's commercial use by the Nazi leadership, coupled with the inability to obtain helium gas in sufficient quantities due to an embargo by the United States, his efforts were in vain. The intended new flagship Zeppelin was completed in 1938 and, inflated with hydrogen again, made some test flights (the first on
September 14), but it never transported any passengers. Another project,
LZ131, which was designed to become even larger than the
Hindenburg and the
Graf Zeppelin II, never progressed beyond the production of some single skeleton rings.
The career of
Graf Zeppelin (LZ130) was not ended. It was assigned to the
Luftwaffe and performed about 30 test flights prior to the start of
World War II. Most of those test flights were carried out near the
Polish southwestern border; first in the
Sudetes mountains region and later in the
Baltic Sea region. During one flight LZ130 crossed the Polish border near
Hel Peninsula where it was intercepted by a Polish
Lublin R-XIII plane from
Puck naval airbase and forced to retreat beyond Polish territorial waters. During this time LZ130 was used as an electronic scouting vehicle and was equipped with various telemetric equipment. From May to August 1939 it performed flights near the coastline of Great Britain in an attempt to determine whether the 100 meter towers erected from
Portsmouth to
Scapa Flow were used for aircraft radiolocalisation. Tests included photography, radiowave interception, magnetic analysis and radio frequency analysis but were unable to detect operational British
Chain Home radar due to the search in too high frequency bands, which Germans used for their own radio detection systems. The (incorrect) conclusion was that the British towers were not connected to radar operations, but formed a network of naval radiocommunication and rescue.
After the
German invasion of Poland started the
Second World War on
1 September, the Luftwaffe ordered the LZ127 and L130 moved to a large Zeppelin hangar in
Frankfurt, where the skeleton of LZ131 was also located. In March 1940 Göring ordered the destruction of the remaining vessels and the
aluminium parts were fed into the German war industry. In May of that year 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.
Non-German Rigid Airships
Airships using the Zeppelin construction method are sometimes referred to as zeppelins even if they had no connection to the Zeppelin business. Several airships of this kind were built in the
USA and
Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly imitating original Zeppelin design derived from crashed or captured German World War I airships.
The British
R33 and
R34, for example, were near identical copies of the German L-33, which crashed virtually intact in Yorkshire on
September 24 1916. Despite being almost three years out of date by the time they were launched in 1919, these sister ships were two of the most successful in British service. On
July 2 1919 R34 began the first double crossing of the
Atlantic by an
aircraft. It landed at Mineola, Long Island on
July 6,
1919 after 108 hours in the air. The return crossing commenced on
July 8 because of concerns about mooring the ship in the open, and took 75 hours. Impressed, British leaders began to contemplate a fleet of airships that would link Britain to its far-flung colonies, but unfortunately post-war economic conditions lead to most airships being scrapped and trained personnel dispersed, until the
R-100 and
R-101 commenced construction in 1929.
Another example was the first American-built rigid dirigible
ZR-1 USS Shenandoah, which flew in 1923, while the
Los Angeles was under construction. The ship was christened on
August 20 in
Lakehurst,
New Jersey and was the first to be inflated with the
noble gas helium, which was still so rare at the time that the Shenandoah contained most of the world's reserves. So, when the Los Angeles was delivered, it was at first filled with the helium borrowed from ZR-1.
Recent developments
Economically, it was a bit of a surprise even in the 1930s that Zeppelins could actually compete with other means of transatlantic transport. Their advantage was the ability to carry significantly more passengers than other contemporary aircraft, while providing convenience like the luxury of ship voyages. Less importantly, the technology was potentially more energy-efficient than heavier-than-air designs. On the other hand, operating the giants was quite involved, especially in terms of personnel. Often the crew would outnumber passengers on board, and on the ground large teams were necessary to assist starting and landing. Also, to accommodate Zeppelins like the
Hindenburg (which had about the height of the
Statue of Liberty without the pedestal, not to mention its length of
245 m), vast hangars were required at the airports.
Today, in times of large, fast and cost-efficient
fixed-wing aircraft, it is, to say the least, questionable whether huge airships can ever operate profitably in regular passenger transport again, even though the idea of comparatively slow, "majestic" cruising at relatively low altitudes and in comfortable atmosphere certainly has retained some appeal.
There have been some niches for airships in and after World War II, such as long-time observations, platforms for TV camera crews, and
advertising; these, however, generally require only small and flexible craft, and have thus generally been better fitted to cheaper
blimps.
It has periodically been suggested that the Zeppelin concept could be employed for cargo transport, especially for delivering extremely heavy loads to areas with poor infrastructure. One recent enterprise of this sort was the
Cargolifter project, in which a hybrid (thus not entirely Zeppelin-type) airship even larger than the
Hindenburg was envisioned. Around 2000, this idea had become reality, when the CargoLifter AG constructed the world's largest cantilever shop hall measuring 360 meters long, 210 meters wide and 107 meters high some
60 km south of
Berlin. But in May 2002 the ambitious project ran out of money and the listed company had to file
bankruptcy.
A small company in Germany is currently examining the possibility of building a cruise airship, currently referred to as the Zeppelin ET (for Euro Tour), that could carry passengers on week-long cruises at comfort levels and prices comparable to those of luxury sea cruises of similar duration. However the project is still in its early stages and nothing practical has resulted from this as of 2004.
In the 1990s, the successor of the original Zeppelin company in
Friedrichshafen, the
Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, reengaged in airship construction. The first experimental craft (later christened
Friedrichshafen) of the type
Zeppelin NT flew in September 1997. Though larger than common blimps, the "Neue Technologie" (new technology) Zeppelins are much smaller than their giant ancestors and not actually Zeppelin-type in the classical sense, but only semi-rigid high-tech hybrid airships. Apart from the greater payload, their main advantages compared to blimps are higher speed and excellent maneuverability. Meanwhile, the
Zeppelin NT is produced in series and operated profitably in joyrides, research flights and similar applications.
In June 2004, a Zeppelin NT was sold for the first time to a
Japanese company, Nippon Airship Corporation, who will be using it for tourism and advertising mainly around
Tokyo. It was also given a role at the
2005 Expo held in
Aichi. The aircraft began a flight from Friedrichshafen to Japan, stopping at
Geneva,
Paris,
Rotterdam,
Munich, Berlin,
Stockholm and other European cities to carry passengers on short legs of the flight. However,
Russian authorities denied overflight permission so that the airship had to be dismantled and shipped to Japan rather than recreating the historic
Graf Zeppelin flight from Germany to Japan.
In November 2005,
De Beers, a famous diamond-mining company, launched an airship exploration program over the remote
Kalahari desert. A Zeppelin, loaded with high-tech equipment, is used to find potential diamond mines by scanning the local geography for low-density rock formations â€" so-called
kimberlite pipes.
The history of Zeppelins is of particular interest to stamp collectors. From 1909 through 1939, Zeppelins carried mail during their international flights, including covers (envelopes with stamps attached and cancelled) prepared by and for collectors. Many nations issued high-denomination Zeppelin
stamps, intended for franking of
Zeppelin mail. Among the rarest of Zeppelin covers are those carried during the fateful flight of the
Hindenburg; those which survived are invariably charred along the margins, and are worth thousands of dollars. An airship museum is planned to open in
Suffolk, England.
Zeppelins have also occasionally inspired fictional works. Some notable examples include:
*
Zeppelin (UK, 1971): A
movie about a German Zeppelin mission in World War I and a German-born British flier facing loyalty conflicts. Directed by
Étienne Périer.
*
The Hindenburg (USA, 1975): A
disaster film about the fateful last trip of
LZ129, based on a (rather improbable)
sabotage plot. Directed by
Robert Wise, it starred
George C. Scott,
Anne Bancroft,
Gig Young and others.
Zeppelins are a prop of a modern sub-genre of
science fiction that is inspired by the visions of the 1930s. Examples are
The Rocketeer,
Crimson Skies and
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Zeppelins are also featured in certain role-playing and war games, such as "
Twilight 2000".
In addition, sophisticated Zeppelins are the standard cargo lifter in
David Gerrold's SF series
The War Against the Chtorr.
Zeppelins are a form of transportation in the
MMORPG World of Warcraft. They are mainly for the Horde side, as they are located and transport to the Horde cities of Grom'Gol, Ogrimmar, and Undercity. They arrive and leave in 5 minute intervals about and there is transportation for each city at each tower. The
Goblins who run this service insist that they are completely safe, but ban the use of smoking, and fire spells.
Popular
hard rock band
Led Zeppelin derived its name (according to one version of the story) from a quip made by
The Who drummer
Keith Moon about the band going down like "a lead Zeppelin." Their first album,
Led Zeppelin I, features an artist's rendition of the
Hindenburg disaster, created by artist
George Hardie.
Zeppelins were recently used heavily in the
Doctor Who episodes
Rise of the Cybermen and
The Age of Steel, where zeppelins were used in a
parallel universe London as a common form of transport.
The popular name of
Lithuanian national dish
cepelinai (potato dumplings stuffed with meat) is derived from the word Zeppelin due to the resemblance of the shape.
*
List of Zeppelins*
List of airships of the United States Navy*
Schütte-Lanz*
Airship* Ferdinand von Zeppelin, US
621,195 Patent, "Navigable Balloon". March 14, 1899.
*
The Zeppelin museum in
Friedrichshafen*
Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH — The original company, now developing the
Zeppelin NT*
Nippon Airship Corporation*
MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH — producers of lightweight, compact and powerful engines since the days of the Zeppelins
*
German Zeppelin Shipping Company*
IMDb entry for the movie "Zeppelin"*
IMDb entry for the movie "The Hindenburg"*
Old Postcards from Brazil, Zeppelin in Brazil
*
german zeppelin website*
Zeppelin Europe Tours new airship generation
*
Zeppelin seeks hidden diamond stashes in Kalahari from
CNET* Rich Archbold and Ken Marshall,
Hindenberg, an Illustrated History, 1994 ISBN 0446517844
* William F. Althoff ,
USS Los Angeles: The Navy's Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology , 2003, ISBN 1574886207
* Peter Brooks ,
Zeppelin: Rigid Airships 1893-1940 , 2004, ISBN 0851778453
*Manfred Griehl and Joachim Dressel,
Zeppelin! The German Airship Story, 1990 ISBN 1-85409-045-3
*Ces Mowthorpe,
Battlebags: British Airships of the First World War, 1995 ISBN 0905-778-138
