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LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin in flight
Career
Nationality
Designer	Ludwig Dürr
Manufacturer	Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Manufactured	1928
Maiden flight	18 September 1928
Fate	Last flight 18 June 1937; scrapped March 1940
General characteristics
Crew	40[1]
Passengers	20[1]
Length	236.53 metres (776.0 ft)
Diameter	30.48 metres (100.0 ft)
Gas type	Hydrogen
Gas capacity	{{Convert}} no longer accepts 105000 as code. Please use instead. Please refer to {{convert}}'s talk page for the reasoning behind this. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Disposable lift	60 metric tonnes
Power plant	5 x 550 horsepower (410 kW) Maybach engines
Max speed	128 kilometres per hour (80 mph) (69.5 knots)

The LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a large German passenger carrying rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who held the rank of Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life the great airship made 590 flights covering more than a million miles.

[edit] Design and development

The LZ-127 was originally planned to exploit the latest technology in airships, building on the advances of the earlier LZ-126. Dr. Eckener had to campaign for its construction and only after two years of lobbying, construction proceeded at the Zeppelin works, Luftschiffbau Zeppelin at Friedrichshafen in Germany.

It flew for the first time on 18 September 1928^[2] and, with a total length of 236.6 metres (776 ft) and volume of {{Convert}} no longer accepts 105000 as code. Please use instead. Please refer to {{convert}}'s talk page for the reasoning behind this. Sorry for any inconvenience., was the largest airship up to that time. It was powered by five Maybach 550 horsepower (410 kW) engines^[2] that could burn either Blau gas or gasoline^[3]. The ship achieved a maximum speed of 128 kilometre per hour (kmh) operating at total maximum thrust of 2,650 horsepower (1,980 kW), which reduced to the normal cruising speed of 117 km/h when running with normal thrust of 2,150 horsepower (1,600 kW), ignoring wind speeds.^[3] Some flights were made using only Blau gas, and for this purpose 12 gas cells were used with a total volume up to 30 thousand cubic metres. That amount allowed around 100 hours at cruising speed. The gasoline tank had a maximum capacity for 67 hours cruise. Using both gasoline and Blau gas could give 118 hours cruise.

Generally the LZ 127 had a usable payload capacity of 15 thousand kilograms for a 10 thousand kilometres cruise.^[3]

Initially it was to be used for experimental and demonstration purposes to prepare the way for regular airship traveling, but also carried passengers and mail to cover the costs.

Two small wind power generators were attached to the main gondola on swinging arms, one of which served the radio room. Accumulators stored the electrical energy produced so that radio operation was independent of airspeed. The other generator served for passenger lighting and as a reserve.^[4] Furthermore the gondala had a gasoline emergency generator.

[edit] Radio equipment

Many people were needed to hold down the LZ 127. Note the wind generator just under the radio room window.

The Graf's radio room was outfitted with the most modern radio equipment for an airship at the time.^[4] Three radio officers served there communicating with ground stations and ships, performing radio navigation,^[4] receiving weather reports as well as sending private telegrams for passengers.^[1] A one kilowatt valve transmitter (about 140 Watt antenna power) was used to send telegrams over the longwave band of 500 to 3,000 metre.^[4] An emergency transmitter with 70 Watt antenna power was available for both telegraph and radio telephone, using 300 to 1,300 metre wavelengths, powered either by the accumulator or the gasoline generator.^[4]

The main antenna comprised two 120 metre long wires, with lead weights at their ends. They could be lowered by electric motor or hand crank. The emergency antenna was a 40 metre wire stretched from a ring on the airship hull.^[4]

Three high quality receivers, each with six valves, served the wavelength ranges 120 to 1200 metre (Medium frequency), 400 to 4000 metre (Low frequency) and 3,000 to 25,000 metre (overlapping Low frequency and Very low frequency).^[4]

Additionally the room had a shortwave receiver for wavelengths 10 to 280 metre (High frequency).^[4]

A modern direction finder, as was then used for radio navigation in large passenger ships, used a steerable ring antenna to determine the airship's position from any two radio transmitters either land or ship-based.^[4]

[edit] Operational history

Graf Zeppelin in Helsinki, Finland.

From its first flight on September 18, 1928 until its last flight on June 18, 1937, the Graf saw nearly nine years of uninterrupted service, totaling nearly two years in the air and traveling 1.7 million kilometres.^[5] Its seventh flight was its first Atlantic crossing,^[6] thereafter it made regular flights across the South Atlantic to Brazil, one round the world tour, a polar expedition, two roundtrips to the Middle East, and a few within Europe.

[edit] First intercontinental passenger airship flight

Dr. Eckener commanded the "Graf Zeppelin" on its first intercontinental trip, a transatlantic crossing which left Friedrichshafen, Germany, at 07:54 on October 11, 1928, and arrived in the United States at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, on October 15 after having traveled 9,926 km in 111 hours. Notwithstanding the headwinds that slowed the journey, Eckener had repeated the success of his first transatlantic crossing to deliver the LZ 126 (renamed the USS Los Angeles to the U.S. Navy four years earlier, and the crew was welcomed enthusiastically on the with a "ticker tape" parade in New York the next day and an invitation to the White House.

A portion of the damaged fabric covering removed from the "Graf Zeppelin" in October, 1928, after its first transatlantic flight from Germany to NAS Lakehurst, NJ. (The Cooper Collections)

This first transatlantic trip was not without its difficulties, however, as the airship suffered potentially serious damage to its port tail fin on the third day of the flight when a large section of the linen covering was ripped loose while passing through a mid-ocean squall line. With the engines stopped, the ship's riggers did their best to tie down the torn fabric to the framework and sew blankets to the ship's envelope while attempting to not fall to the raging seas just below. Fortunately the riggers finished just before Dr. Eckener had to restart the engines when the ship had dropped to within a couple of hundred feet of the ocean's surface. During that trip the radio room had sent 484 private telegrams and 160 press telegrams.^[4]

[edit] The "Interrupted Flight"

Cover autographed by the "Graf Zeppelin's" commander, Dr. Hugo Eckener, and flown on the nearly disastrous 1929 "Interrupted Flight". (The Cooper Collections)

While the "Graf Zeppelin" would eventually have a safe and highly successful nine year career, the airship was almost lost just a half a year after its maiden flight while attempting to make its second trip to the United States in May, 1929. Shortly after dark on May 16, the first night of the flight ("1 Amerikafahrt 1929"), the airship lost two of its five engines while over the Mediterranean off the southwest coast of Spain forcing Dr. Eckener to abandon the trip and return to Friedrichshafen. While flying up the Rhône Valley in France against a stiff headwind the next afternoon, however, two of the remaining three engines also failed and the airship began to be pushed backwards toward the sea.

As Dr. Eckener desperately looked for a suitable place to crash land the airship, the French Air Ministry advised him that he would be permitted to land at the Naval Airship Base at Cuers-Pierrefeu about ten miles from Toulon to use the mooring mast and hanger of the lost airship Dixmude, France's only dirigible, if the Graf could reach the facility before being blown out to sea. Although barely able to control the Graf on its one remaining engine, Eckener managed to make a difficult but successful emergency night landing at Cuers.^[7] After making temporary repairs, the Graf finally returned to Friedrichshafen on May 24. Mail carried on the flight received a one-line cachet reading "Due to mishap the flight was delayed for the first America trip" and was held at Friedrichshafen until August 1, 1929, when the airship made another attempt to cross the Atlantic for Lakehurst arriving on August 4, 1929. Four days later the "Graf Zeppelin" departed Lakehurst for another daring enterprise — a complete circumnavigation of the globe.

[edit] Round-the-World Flight

Cover flown on the "Graf Zeppelin" from Lakehurst to Lakehurst on the "Round-the-World" flight, August 8 - September 4, 1929 (The Cooper Collections)

Silver 3 Reichsmark coin (1930 A) honoring the "Graf Zeppelin's" "Round the World" flight (Weltflug 1929). (The Cooper Collections)

The growing popularity of the "giant of the air" made it easy for Zeppelin company chief Dr. Hugo Eckener to find sponsors for a "Round-the-World" flight. One of these was the American press tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who requested the tour to officially start at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, NJ.^[8] As with the October 1928 flight to New York, Hearst had placed a reporter, Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay, on board,^[8] who thereby became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by air.

Starting there on 8 August, Graf Zeppelin flew back across the Atlantic to Friedrichshafen to refuel before continuing on August 15 across the vastness of Siberia to Tokyo, a nonstop leg of 6,988 miles (11,246 km), arriving 3 days later.^[6] Dr. Eckener believed that some of the lands they crossed in Siberia had never before been seen by modern explorers. After staying in Tokyo for five days, on August 23 the Graf Zeppelin continued across the Pacific to California flying first over San Francisco before heading south to stop at Mines Field in Los Angeles for the first ever nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific leg was 5,998 miles (9,653 km) and took three days.^[6] The airship's final leg across the United States took it over Chicago before landing back at Lakehurst NAS on 29 August, taking two days and covering 2,996 miles (4,822 km).^[6][9]

The flying time for the Lakehurst to Lakehurst legs was 12 days and 11 minutes.^[6] The entire voyage took 21 days, 5 hours, and 31 minutes including the initial and final trips between Friedrichshafen and NAS Lakehurst during which time the airship travelled 49,618 km (30,831 miles) whereas the distance covered on the designated "Round the World" portion from Lakehurst to Lakehurst was 31,400 km (19,500 miles). One of Hearst's guests on board was the newlywed couple; the Arctic explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins and his bride Suzanne Bennett. The trip was given to them as a wedding gift.

[edit] Polar trip

Flown USSR ppc delivered by the "Graf Zeppelin" to the Soviet icebreaker "Malygin" on the "Polar Flight" 1931 (The Cooper Collections)

The ship pursued another spectacular destination in July 1931 with a research trip to the Arctic; this had already been a dream of Count Zeppelin 20 years earlier, which could not, however, be realized at the time due to the outbreak of war.

in July 1930, Hugo Eckener had already piloted the Graf on a three-day trip to Norway and Spitsbergen, in order to determine its performance in this region. Shortly after Eckener made a three day flight to Iceland, both trips completed without technical problems.^[1]

The initial idea was to rendezvous with the ill-fated Nautilus, the U-boat of polar researcher George Hubert Wilkins, who was attempting a trip under the ice. This plan was abandoned when the U-boat encountered recurring technical problems, leading to its eventual scuttling in a Bergen fjord.^[10]

Eckener instead began to plan a rendezvous with a surface vessel. He intended funding to be secured by delivering mail post to the ship. After advertising, around fifty thousand letters were collected from around the world weighing a total of about 300 kilograms. The rendezvous vessel, the Russian icebreaker Malygin, on which the Italian airshipman and polar explorer Umberto Nobile was a guest, required another 120 kilograms of post. The major costs of the expedition were met solely by sale of postage stamps.^[1] The rest of the funding came from Aeroarctic and the Ullstein-Verlag in exchange for exclusive reporting rights.

The 1931 polar flight took one week from 24 June 1931 until the 31st. The Graf traveled about 10,600 kilometres, the longest leg without refueling was 8,600 kilometres. The average speed was 88 km/h.

Germany issued this stamp commemorating the Graf polar trip

Route:

• Friedrichshafen–Berlin – 600 km in 8 hours (75 km/h)
• Berlin–Leningrad – 1,400 km in 16 hours (87 km/h)
• Leningrad–Kanin – 1,300 km in 12 hours (108 km/h)
• Kanin–Franz-Joseph-Land – 1,200 km in 18 hours (67 km/h)
• Franz-Joseph-Land–Nordland–Taimyr–Nowaja Semlja – 2,400 km in 32 hours (75 km/h)
• Nowaja Semlja–Leningrad – 2,300 km in 25 hours (92 km/h)
• Leningrad–Berlin – 1,400 km in 13 hours (108 km/h)
• Berlin–Friedrichshafen – 600 km in 8 hours (75 km/h)^[1]

Goals:

• Test the Graf Zeppelin under arctic conditions
• scientific and geographic research of large areas of the arctic
  • measurement of magnetic field changes
  • meteorological measurements (including weather balloon launches)
  • geo-photographic recording of large areas with a panoramic camera (that would take years if by ship or by land)

All participants were satisfied after the trip: the airship demonstrated its usefulness in the arctic.

[edit] Middle East flights

Flown ppc carried on the DLZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" to Syria on the "Mittelmeerfahrt 1929" (The Cooper Collections)

The "Graf Zeppelin" made two visits to the Middle East during its career. The first took place over four days in April, 1929, without landing but during which mail was dropped to the large German colony at Jaffa in Palestine. The second flight took place in 1931 beginning on April 9 with a flight to Cairo, Egypt, where the airship landed less than two days later. After a brief stop the "Graf Zeppelin" proceeded on to Palestine before returning to Friedrichshafen on April 23, just an hour over four days after departure. The trip took 97 hours, covered 9,000 kilometres and crossed 14 countries on three continents.

The highlights were:

• Launch 9 April at 06:10, following the Rhone valley and over Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta. By 05:15 the following morning Graf reaches the African coast at Tripoli near Bengasi, then on towards Alexandria, the Bucht von Sollum at 09:00, flies over Alexandria at 13:00, follows the Nile towards Cairo.

One image of a stereoscopic pair made while the Graf flew over the pyramids (click to access the full pair)

• Flies 200 metres over the Giza pyramid complex, over the Pyramid of Cheops, then follows the Nile towards Heluan. Late evening reaches the pyramid of Saqqara.
• Nightflight northwards along the Nile towards Damietta.
• 11 April at 5:15 lands at Almara airfield near Cairo. British airforce soldiers comprise the ground crew. Thirty thousand curious onlookers must be held back with fire hoses.
• After a short stayover relaunches eastwards over the Suez canal and the bight of Gaza, 10:00 arrives in Jerusalem
• 100 metres over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the engines are stopped and the ship floats still for several minutes
• Fly over Shechem, Emmaus, the limestone mountains over the desert, 16:00 arrive Cairo, 17:00 land at Almaza, half hour stayover, resume flying towards Siwa Oasis, (Libyan Desert). In the desert villages many people fled into their huts before the airship.
• Night: the airship crosses ober Tripoli, by morning it was over Crete, then along the Albanian coast towards towards Split in Dalmatia. The ship flew 1700 metres over the Karst hills. By 21:30 Agram in Yugoslavia, midnight Vienna, Passau, Augsburg, Ulm
• 7:00 lands at Friedrichshafen.^[1]

[edit] Golden age

Zeppelin passenger lapel pins (The Cooper Collections)

US Air Mail stamp (C-13), issued April 1930

The 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, traveling mainly from Germany to Brazil with occasional stops in Spain. British Pathé News filmed on board one of the Brazil trips.^[11].

In October 1933, the Graf Zeppelin made an appearance at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago. Despite the beginning of the Great Depression and growing competition by fixed-wing aircraft, LZ 127 would transport an increasing number of passengers and mail across the ocean every year until 1936.

[edit] Successor abandoned

Dr. 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 in 1931 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, which was to eventually be named the Hindenburg, would advance Zeppelin technology considerably and was intended to be filled with helium. After the Hindenburg disaster the story arose that an embargo imposed by the United States because of the looming war prevented German access to the required large quantities of helium, leading to the conversion of the Hindenburg to a hydrogen design. However it is now known that Eckener was successful in lobbying the U.S. government for the purchase of helium but ruled it out on financial grounds.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] End of an era

After the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, public faith in the security of dirigibles was shattered, and flying passengers in hydrogen-filled vessels became untenable. LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was retired one month past the disaster and turned into a museum. The end for the Graf Zeppelin came with the outbreak of World War II. In March 1940, Hermann Göring, the German Air Minister (Reichsluftfahrtminister), ordered the destruction of the remaining dirigibles, and the duralumin parts were fed into the German war industry.

[edit] Legacy

During its career, the ship flew more than one and half million kilometres (over a million miles), 590 flights, and made 144 ocean crossings (143 across the Atlantic, one across the Pacific) carrying 13,110 passengers^[5] with a perfect passenger safety record, making it the most successful rigid airship ever built.^[2]

As evidence of how it caught the imagination of the world, a number of countries issued postage stamps either commemorating flights of the Zeppelin or for use on this (and later) airships. Some are fairly common, others quite rare. A considerable number of covers (envelopes) carried on flights still exist and are avidly collected.

[edit] See also

• Zeppelin
• LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin
• List of Zeppelins

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Centpacrr/Sandbox

• Private photographs of Graf Zeppelin over Chicago’s World’s Fair, 1933