LZ 127

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LZ 127 over Berlin (1928)
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin back from the "Weltfahrt" in Germany (1929)

The rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin from the series of zeppelins is considered the most successful airship of its time. It was put into service on September 18, 1928 after a construction period of 21 months and was given the aircraft registration D-LZ127.

Hugo Eckener initiated the so-called Zeppelin Eckener donation to finance the construction . This collection brought in 2.3 million Reichsmarks , but this only partially covered the construction costs. After lengthy negotiations, the German Reich added 1.1 million Reichsmarks. Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH raised 0.8 million Reichsmarks from its own resources.

LZ 127 was christened by his daughter Hella Countess von Brandenstein-Zeppelin on July 8, 1928 on the occasion of the 90th birthday of the company's founder Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who died in 1917 .

Originally built as a test ship, the LZ 127 proved so reliable that it soon became famous through numerous spectacular voyages. These include the 20-day world trip and the polar trip .

The airship

LZ 127 shortly after landing
LZ 127 over the Netherlands (1929) Video 2:13 min

The Graf Zeppelin (LZ 127) was 236.6 m long, had a diameter of 30.5 m and a lifting gas volume of 105,000 m³. It was built in Friedrichshafen by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH . Commander Hugo Eckener put the airship into service for DELAG on September 18, 1928 .

Due to the dimensions of the hangar had LZ 127 unfavorable for airships ratio of length to diameter. This can be seen from the relatively long cylindrical middle part. When the hall left and right there was only one meter each and only about 65 cm at the top.

The framework construction was largely based on that of LZ 126 . However, a newer duralumin alloy was used.

The drive consisted of five gasoline engines of the type Maybach VL 2 with a total power of 2096  kW ( twelve-cylinder - V-engines , each with 570 hp (419 kW) at 1600 min -1 ). These allowed a cruising speed of around 115 km / h, a top speed of 128 km / h and a range of around 12,000 km. The engines could be operated with gasoline as well as with motor gas , the so-called blue gas (see lift compensation ).

The airship had two small wind generators on the outside of the nacelle, one of which fed the radio system. The electrical energy was buffered in accumulators so that the radio operation remained largely independent of the current generator output. The other generator generated the electricity for the lighting on board and served as a backup device. There was also a petrol emergency power generator in the driver's gondola. The radio station of the LZ 127 was then the largest radio-technical facility that had ever been installed on an aircraft. It was manned by three radio officers and handled radio communications for the operation of the ship (communications, weather reports) and the private telegram service for the passengers.

Two different methods were used to measure the speed of the airship. On the one hand, a measurement was made using a light beam. On the other hand, a loud whistle was used so that the speed of the airship was measured via the speed of sound propagation .

With the change in the identification system for aircraft and the "Aviation Flag Ordinance" of July 8, 1933, the swastika flag had to be attached to the port side (= left) on the vertical stabilizer . Hugo Eckener was known to be critical of the regime and had contradicted plans by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to apply the Nazi symbol over a large area over the entire height of the airship. It is also recorded that, while circling over Chicago on October 26, 1933, Eckener chose the direction of travel so that the starboard side, which showed the black-white-red flag of the German Empire, was facing the city center , and that the airship was because of the swastika symbol especially in the USA lost sympathy.

The crew consisted of 45 to 50 men, with an average of 45 crew members on board. The LZ 127 could carry a maximum of 25 paying passengers. The cabins for the passengers, the 5 × 6 m lounge and the kitchen were located in the gondola under the fuselage.

Special rides

LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin welcomes the Argentine ship General San Martín off Pernambuco (Brazil) on a trip to South America

The following rides stood out in particular:

  • North American voyage (October 11 to November 1, 1928)
  • Orientfahrt (March 25-28, 1929)
  • World tour (August 1 to September 4, 1929)
  • First trip to South America (May 1930)
  • Special trip on the occasion of the withdrawal of the French occupation from the Palatinate on July 20, 1930, organized by the Neustadt publisher Daniel Meininger
  • Moscow / Soviet Union (September 9-11, 1930)
  • Tour of Palestine (April 9-13, 1931)
  • to the north polar region (July 24th to 31st, 1931)
  • Great Britain, landing next to the British airship R100 in August 1931
  • across the American continents (Pan America trip)
  • Propaganda drive to the Nazi Party of the NSDAP (2 September 1933) and use the airship in the propaganda film The victory of faith by Leni Riefenstahl
  • Propaganda trip together with the airship LZ 129 Hindenburg , during which leaflets for the NSDAP were dropped over Germany (March 26-29, 1936)

North American voyage (1928)

First intercontinental voyage, October 11 to November 1, 1928

On October 11, 1928 at 7:50 a.m., the airship with 20 passengers and 40 crew members left Friedrichshafen for Lakehurst near New York . Due to bad weather, a longer, more southerly route was chosen. On the morning of the third day, the LZ 127 drove south of the Azores into a black wall of clouds at full speed. The bow of the ship sank and the passenger, Lady Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay , an English journalist, described the event as an indescribable mess. Tables, chairs and the white and blue Zeppelin porcelain from the Heinrich company fell apart. The fabric covering the lower rudder unit on the port side was torn as a result of the huge storm. Six crew members volunteered, they were equipped with tools and climbed - still over the ocean - roped into the interior of the fin, which was partially ripped open below. The scraps of fabric were cut off and tied in several hours of work. Sewn together woolen blankets from the company Zoeppritz GmbH, which, like the porcelain, had been specially designed for the Graf Zeppelin, were pulled over the torn area and tied with ropes. After 111 hours and 44 minutes, the airship landed in Lakehurst on October 15 and was celebrated frenetically. After a two-week repair stay in America, the airship started its way back to Germany on October 29th and reached Friedrichshafen on November 1st.

World travel (1929)

On-board service of the LZ 127 from 1928. The luxurious furnishings were designed by well-known architects and designers and corresponded to that of a luxury hotel.

The world tour ( circumnavigation of the world ) in 1929 was completed in several sections between August 1st and September 4th in an easterly direction and can be divided into the American world tour (start / finish NYC) and the German world tour . There were stopovers in Friedrichshafen, Tokyo , Los Angeles and Lakehurst near New York . A total of 49,618 km were covered in 6 stages within 35 days.

The start was on the morning of August 1st at 3:30 a.m. in Friedrichshafen . The LZ 127 drove in a westerly direction via Spain to the Atlantic , where it got caught in heavy storms. He did a few laps over New York and then drove to Lakehurst - the actual starting point of the “American World Tour”. This starting point or end point was requested by the US publisher William Randolph Hearst . By financing the trip, he secured exclusive worldwide reporting rights outside of Europe. This first stage lasted 95 hours and 22 minutes. Among the guests on this trip was Charles E. Rosendahl , a leading figure in US naval aviation.

Route of the circumnavigation of the world, 1929

On the evening of August 7th, the American world tour started for the 20 passengers, including the journalist Grace Hay Drummond-Hay as the only woman. First the route led back to Friedrichshafen, where the airship arrived on August 10th. The German world tour ( circumnavigation ) began there on August 15th . It led to the east. However, Moscow was not flown over as planned. About Yakutsk was Pacific reached. On this section the 19-year-old Clarence Terhune flew as a stowaway . The Graf Zeppelin arrived in Tokyo on August 19. The travel time for this stage was 101 hours and 49 minutes. In Tokyo, the government invited the crew and passengers to a reception in the imperial summer palace. On August 23, the ship set out again. After 67 hours over the Pacific in partly stormy weather, the airship reached San Francisco . The next morning LZ 127 landed in Los Angeles (August 26th, a day was "won" by crossing the date line ). Then he drove to Lakehurst. In New York, the Zeppelin, its crew and passengers were given a great reception with a parade. The American world tour ended there on August 29th after 21 days . It took 12 days and 11 minutes of pure travel time.

American postage stamp on the occasion of the 1930 Pan America voyage

During his short stay in New York, Hugo Eckener drew the Graf Zeppelin's route on the historical globe of the city of New York . He was also received by US President Herbert C. Hoover . The return journey to Friedrichshafen began on September 1st at 7:18 am. The route crossed the Atlantic, the Azores , Spain and France . After 4 days and 19 hours, LZ 127 reached Konstanz in the morning . Around 40,000 spectators greeted the airship at the end of the German world tour.

Tour of Palestine (1931)

LZ 127 over the pyramids, April 10, 1931

9th to 13th April 1931 landing voyage to Egypt

  • Start: April 9, 6:10 a.m. under the command of Hugo Eckener in Friedrichshafen. The ship then followed the Rhone Valley and sailed via Corsica , Sardinia , Sicily and Malta . On the following morning of April 10th around 5:15 am arrival on the African coast near Benghazi , then heading east towards Alexandria , 9 am Bay of Sollum , 1 pm crossing Alexandria, 3:35 pm following the Nile to Cairo .
  • Crossing over the pyramids of Gizeh at a height of 200 m, crossing the Cheops pyramid , then in the Nile valley towards Heluan, in the late afternoon the pyramids of Saqqara are reached.
  • Night drive north along the Nile towards Damiette .
  • April 11th at 5:15 am landing at Almara airfield near Cairo, British Air Force soldiers provided the ground crew, 30,000 onlookers had to be held back, some of them with fire brigade syringes .
  • After a short stay, start towards the east over the Suez Canal and the Bay of Gaza , 10 a.m. arrival in Jerusalem .
  • The engines were turned off 100 m above the Holy Sepulcher and the ship stood still for a few minutes.
  • Continue via Sichem , Emmaus , the barren limestone mountains of the Sinai across the desert , arrival in Cairo at 4:00 p.m., landing in Almara at 5:00 p.m., stop for half an hour, continue towards Siwa oasis (Libyan desert). In the villages of the desert, many people sought refuge from LZ 127 in their huts.
  • At night: The airship crosses Tripoli , on the morning of April 12th it was over Crete , then followed the west coast of Greece , 1:20 p.m. Corfu , then drive along the Albanian coast towards Spalato in Dalmatia . The Karst Mountains were crossed at an altitude of 1700 m. 9:30 p.m. Agram in Yugoslavia , midnight Vienna , Passau , Augsburg , Ulm
  • April 13th at 7 a.m. arrival in Friedrichshafen after 96 hours, 9000 kilometers and crossing 14 countries on three continents.

Polar Run (1931)

LZ 127 with the Russian icebreaker Malygin , painting by Alexander Kircher , July 27, 1931
1- Reichsmark - special stamp of the Reichspost (1931) with LZ 127 for the polar journey in 1931

As early as July 1931, Hugo Eckener took the Graf Zeppelin on a three-day trip to Norway and Svalbard to investigate the behavior of the ship in this area. Shortly thereafter, another three-day trip was made to Iceland . Both trips went without any significant technical problems.

The idea of ​​meeting the polar explorer Hubert Wilkins ' submarine Nautilus at the North Pole had to be given up when the decrepit submarine was unable to meet the scheduled date after repeated technical problems.

Then Eckener began to plan a meeting with a surface ship. The financing of the company was to be secured by mail transport by ship. After some advertising, 50,000 items of mail weighing around 300 kg had arrived from all over the world. The partner ship, the Soviet icebreaker Malygin , on which during this voyage, in addition to the Soviet hydrograph Wladimir Wiese , the Italian aeronaut Umberto Nobile was also, carried another 120 kg of mail. The most important costs of the expedition were covered by the sale of the stamps alone. The rest of the money came from the International Study Society for Exploring the Arctic with Aircraft ( Aeroarctic ), whose president was Eckener, and Ullstein Verlag , which acquired the reporting rights. The 15-minute meeting between LZ 127 and Malygin took place on July 27, 1931 in the Silent Bay ( Russian Бухта Тихая , Buchta Tichaja ) on Hooker's Island .

The journey lasted a week from July 24th to 31st, 1931. The Soviet polar explorer Rudolf Lasarewitsch Samoilowitsch was appointed scientific director of the expedition, during which a series of geographic, geodetic and meteorological work was carried out .

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin covered around 10,600 kilometers, the longest distance of this trip without additional operating resources was 8,600 km. The average speed was 88 km / h despite repeated throttles and stops of the engines.

Route of the trip

  1. Friedrichshafen – Berlin - 600 km in 8 hours (75 km / h)
  2. Berlin– Leningrad - 1400 km in 16 hours (87 km / h)
  3. Leningrad– Kanin - 1300 km in 12 hours (108 km / h)
  4. Kanin– Franz-Josef-Land - 1200 km in 18 hours (67 km / h)
  5. Franz Joseph Land - Severnaya Zemlya - Taimyr Peninsula - Novaya Zemlya - 2400 km in 32 hours (75 km / h)
  6. Novaya Zemlya – Leningrad - 2300 km in 25 hours (92 km / h)
  7. Leningrad – Berlin - 1400 km in 13 hours (108 km / h)
  8. Berlin – Friedrichshafen - 600 km in 8 hours (75 km / h)

Goals of the trip

  • Testing the Zeppelin in arctic conditions
  • scientific and geographic exploration of large areas of the Arctic
    • Measurements of the change in the magnetic field at high latitudes
    • meteorological measurements (including the launch of weather balloons)
    • geophotographic coverage of large areas with a panorama camera (that would have taken years from land or ship)

Everyone involved was extremely satisfied after the trip. The airship had proven its suitability for the arctic region.

Transatlantic service

ZR-3 (built as LZ 126 ) and LZ 127 in the airship hangar at Lakehurst, August 7, 1929

The first Atlantic crossing took place from October 11 to 15, 1928 as the seventh voyage of the airship and led to the USA. It lasted 111 hours and 44 minutes. It was not entirely by chance that Eckener chose the date. The trip coincided with the festivities for October 12th, the anniversary of Christopher Columbus ' discovery of America , which was intended to increase public awareness.

Under Hugo Eckener , regular airship traffic between Germany and Brazil was operated between 1931 and 1937 , sometimes with a stopover in Seville / Spain. At the time, this was the fastest connection by air and the only non-stop flight on these routes. One of these trips (start: March 23, 1932 in Friedrichshafen) was accompanied by the writer Heinrich Eduard Jacob as a guest of the Zeppelin Society and travel reporter for the Berliner Tageblatt . Jacob wrote about this the report With the Zeppelin to Pernambuco (see literature below). The Graf Zeppelin was the pioneer of the transatlantic flight service. In addition, trips were made repeatedly within Europe and a few times to North America.

By December 1935, the airship had covered 1.35 million kilometers and carried a total of 12,000 passengers and a large amount of zeppelin mail without accidents.

LZ 127 over Washington, DC
Vector drawing based on a model of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin

The successor model LZ 128 was discarded during construction after a hydrogen fire on the British airship R101 . Real successor was originally for use with helium as the carrier gas designed LZ 129 Hindenburg .

Achievements / records

When it first appeared, the LZ 127 was the largest aircraft in the world.

The ship covered a total of almost 1.7 million kilometers with 590 accident-free journeys and 17,177 hours of travel (a good 2 years in total), whereby in addition to the circumnavigation of the world, the Atlantic was crossed to North and South America 139 times. 34,000 passengers were carried, of which 13,110 were paying guests, and 78,661 kg of freight were transported. 1,720,000 transport km were covered within the operating time.

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin still holds two absolute FAI world records for airships of all classes today (status at the end of 2005) :

  • longest distance traveled by an airship with 6384.50 km
  • longest travel time of an airship with 71 hours

Both records were awarded on November 1, 1928 for the journey from Lakehurst to Friedrichshafen under Hugo Eckener. However, they are not the absolute top performances, as other journeys, such as the 118-hour drive to Recife in November 1935 (the landing was delayed by political unrest) or records set by military airships, are not recognized by the FAI.

Captains of LZ 127

The command of the airship LZ 127 was held by the following captains: Hugo Eckener , Hans Flemming , Ernst A. Lehmann , Max Pruss , Hans von Schiller , Anton Wittemann .

The end

The Graf Zeppelin was just over the Atlantic, on the way back from Recife , when the radio operator received the news of the accident of the LZ 129 Hindenburg in Lakehurst. The crew was informed by Captain von Schiller, but the message was withheld from the passengers until their arrival in Friedrichshafen on May 8, 1937. This trip was the last. The Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei decided not to undertake any further passenger trips until the accident was cleared up. The airship was driven to Frankfurt am Main on June 18 and hung there in an airship hangar . Graf Zeppelin was decommissioned on July 19, 1937. After releasing the hydrogen gas, it only served as a tourist attraction that could be visited for an entrance fee, which the population made good use of.

With the beginning of the Second World War , the ship was scrapped together with LZ 130 in Frankfurt in 1940, although it was still fully operational .

The scrapping was justified with the need for aluminum for the air armaments, the blowing up of the airship hangars on May 6, 1940 with British bombers using the clearly visible hangars as a navigation point. The Reich Aviation Minister Hermann Göring had previously made no secret of his aversion to airships. During a visit shortly before the destruction, he spoke to the assembled photographers from the driver's gondola: "Just take pictures, these pictures will be rare."

See also

literature

  • Douglas Bottig: The Great Zeppelin. Ullstein, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-550-07528-6 .
  • Heinrich Eduard Jacob : With the zeppelin to Pernambuco. A travel report. Katzengraben-Presse, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-910178-06-5 (German and Spanish).
  • Peter Kleinheins: The big zeppelins. The history of airship construction. VDI, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-18-400687-5 .
  • John Provan : LZ-127 "Graf Zeppelin" - The story of an airship. Amazon Kindle ebook, 2011, English, 2 volumes, table part of the trips of LZ 126 / ZRIII and LZ 127.
  • Gudrun Ritscher: Working on an airship: the crews of the passenger airships LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" and LZ 129 "Hindenburg". In: Scientific yearbook of the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Gessler, Friedrichshafen 2005, without ISBN, pp. 78–99.
  • JK Bock, B. Knauer: Lighter than air: transport and carrier systems. Verlag Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 2003, ISBN 3-86180-139-6 .
  • Reinhard Lingenfelder: Zeppelin landing in the liberated Palatinate on July 20, 1930. Hekma-Verlag, Maikammer 2010, ISBN 978-3-9808288-6-4 .

Movie

  • Ditteke Mensink (director): 1929: Around the world in a zeppelin - The love story of Lady Hay and Karl von Wiegand , Netherlands, 2009, 88 min. (Only b / w shots from the period merged)

Web links

Commons : LZ 127  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Eckener: The America trip of the "Graf Zeppelin". Berlin 1928, p. 10.
  2. ^ Gudrun Ritscher: Working on an airship: the crews of the passenger airships LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" and LZ 129 "Hindenburg". In: Scientific yearbook of the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Gessler, Friedrichshafen 2005, without ISBN, p. 81.
  3. ^ Douglas Botting: The great Zeppelin , Ullstein-Verlag Munich, 2002, ISBN 3-550-07528-6 , pp. 281-283.
  4. ^ Gudrun Ritscher: Working on an airship: the crews of the passenger airships LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" and LZ 129 "Hindenburg". In: Scientific yearbook of the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Gessler, Friedrichshafen 2005, without ISBN, p. 79.
  5. ↑ a b c d Clausberg, K. (1990): Zeppelin: The story of an unlikely success , Augsburg, p. 163.
  6. ^ Zeppelin landing in the liberated Palatinate on July 20, 1930. Hekma Verlag Maikammer, accessed on April 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ photographically documented in Zeppelin-Weltfahrten, Heel Verlag, book no. 19484-5 (reprint of a Zeppelin scrapbook from 1932)
  8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ zoeppritz.com
  10. ↑ “Zeppelin Safe at Lakehurst after 111-Hour Flight; Soars Over the White House and then Over New York; Moored to Mast till Wind Drops at 2 am; Now in Hangar. " The New York Times, October 16, 1928.
  11. ^ Peter Meyer: Airships. The history of the German zeppelins. Wehr & Wissen, Koblenz / Bonn 1980, ISBN 3-8033-0302-8 , p. 125.
  12. ↑ Planet Wissen: Why did Graf Zeppelin plan his legendary expedition to the Arctic and which famous polar explorer did the surprise on the airship? , accessed December 26, 2010 (redirected on November 1, 2015 to: http://www.planet-wissen.de/technik/luftfahrt/zeppeline/index.html by Kai Althoetmar, February 20, 2014)
  13. ↑ Bock / Knauer: Lighter than air: Transport and carrier systems , p. 33.
  14. ^ Peter Meyer: Airships - The History of the German Zeppelins , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-7637-5951-4 .
  15. ↑ First broadcast ( memento of February 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on December 5, 2009, arte . Synopsis: Lady Grace Drummond-Hay is the only female traveler on the first sightseeing flight around the globe in 1929. She reports on her travel adventures as a reporter for Hearst Newspapers ... in the style of a romance.