LZ 2

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LZ 2, 1905

The Zeppelin LZ 2 was an improved version of Count Zeppelin's first airship LZ 1 .

history

After the financial failure with his first airship LZ 1 in 1900, Graf Zeppelin looked for new sources of money for his airship project. It was only with the approval of a lottery for airship construction by the King of Württemberg that 125,000 marks could be raised. Reich Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow contributed 50,000 marks from a special government fund and Zeppelin gave 100,000 marks from his private assets for the construction of LZ 2. With the engineer Ludwig Dürr , his only employee who remained from the construction of LZ 1, LZ became 2 constructed. A new airship hangar was built at the point on Lake Constance where the hall for LZ 1 had stood .

LZ 2 was the same size as the previous LZ 1, but significantly improved. Due to delays, the new zeppelin was only finished in November 1905, when the winter storms began. When LZ 2 was pulled out of the hall for its first take-off, a gust of wind hit the airship and pushed it against the hall wall. The repairs took almost two months.

On January 17, 1906, LZ 2 was driven out of the hall again. The engines started and the ship took off. Due to a very strong buoyancy, the airship could only be brought into equilibrium at a height of 450 m, when the rudder control jammed and the ship came into an incline of 20%. As a result, the engines were no longer adequately supplied with fuel and stalled. As rudderless as a balloon, LZ 2 drifted towards the Allgäu . Graf Zeppelin decided to land the ship by releasing gas from the buoyancy cells. The anchor was thrown out and hooked into a frozen field. The two gondolas hit the ground a few times when the anchor chain broke and LZ 2 was driven further close to the ground. Finally, the airship brushed against two birch trees , which slightly damaged the hull, before the ship gently sat down on the ground near Fischreute / Sommersried Kißlegg .

Farmers helped the crew haul in heavy stones and anchor the ship at the bow and stern. It was the first time a zeppelin landed on land. Actually, they wanted to go down on the smooth surface of Lake Constance to avoid landing on land with the associated risks.

End of LZ 2

A heavy thunderstorm in the night destroyed the airship before anything could be done. If the airship had only been anchored at the bow, it could have turned into the wind and could probably have been saved.

The airship was dismantled with saws and axes and the parts were driven on horse-drawn carts to Kisslegg, where the metal was melted down and sent back to the factory.

Technical specifications

  • Carrying gas volume: 11,300 m³ hydrogen
  • Length: 128 m
  • Diameter: 11.25 m
  • Payload: 2.8 t
  • Drive: 2 four-cylinder Daimler engines, each 85 PS (63 kW)
  • Speed: 11.0 m / s

literature

  • Peter Meyer: Airships - The History of the German Zeppelins , Wehr & Wissen, Koblenz / Bonn 1980.

See also