LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin

It was built using funds raised by public subscription and from the German government, and its operating costs were offset by the sale of special postage stamps to collectors, the support of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and cargo and passenger receipts.

[5] In 1917, the German LZ 104 (L 59) was the first airship to make an intercontinental flight, from Jambol in Bulgaria to Khartoum and back, a nonstop journey of 6,800 kilometres (4,200 mi; 3,700 nmi).

Eckener saw an opportunity to start an intercontinental air passenger service,[12] and began lobbying the government for funds and permission to build a new civil airship.

[33] Graf Zeppelin was powered by five Maybach VL II 12-cylinder 410 kW (550 hp) engines, each of 33.251 L (2,029.1 cu in) capacity, mounted in individual streamlined nacelles[nb 5] arranged so that each was in an undisturbed airflow.

[51][52][nb 8] The ship flew in with its nose trimmed slightly down, made its final approach into the wind descending at 30 m (100 ft) per minute, then used reverse thrust to stop over the landing flag, where it dropped ropes to the ground.

Two 8.9 kW (12 hp) Wanderer car engines adapted to burn Blau gas, only one of which operated at a time, drove two Siemens & Halske dynamos each.

[74] Two ram air turbines attached to the main gondola on swinging arms provided electrical power for the radio room, internal lighting, and the galley.

Passengers paid premium fares to fly on the Graf Zeppelin (1,500 ℛ︁ℳ︁ from Germany to Rio de Janeiro in 1934, equal to $590 then,[79] or $13,000 in 2018 dollars[15]), and fees collected for valuable freight and air mail also provided income.

[83] He took complete responsibility for the ship, from technical matters, to finance, to arranging where it would fly next on its years-long public relations campaign, in which he promoted "zeppelin fever".

[86] Eckener cultivated the press, and was gratified when the British journalist Lady Grace Drummond-Hay wrote, and millions read, that: The Graf Zeppelin is a ship with a soul.

[90] On one visit to Rio de Janeiro people released hundreds of small toy petrol-burning hot air balloons near the flammable craft.

[92] On visits to England, it photographed Royal Air Force bases, the Blackburn aircraft factory in Yorkshire, and the Portsmouth naval dockyard; it is likely that this was espionage at the behest of the German government.

Graf Zeppelin carried Oskar von Miller, head of the Deutsches Museum; Charles E. Rosendahl, commander of USS Los Angeles; and the British airshipmen Ralph Sleigh Booth and George Herbert Scott.

It flew from Friedrichshafen to Ulm, via Cologne and across the Netherlands to Lowestoft in England, then home via Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden, a total of 3,140 kilometres (1,950 mi; 1,700 nmi) in 34 hours and 30 minutes.

[94] On the fifth flight, Eckener caused a minor controversy by flying close to Huis Doorn in the Netherlands, which some interpreted as a gesture of support for the former Kaiser Wilhelm II who was living in exile there.

[95][96] In October 1928, Graf Zeppelin made its first intercontinental trip, to Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey, US, with Eckener in command and Lehmann as first officer.

[120][121] American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst's media empire paid half the cost of the project to fly Graf Zeppelin around the world,[122] with four staff on the flight: Lady Hay Drummond-Hay, Karl von Wiegand, Australian explorer Hubert Wilkins, and cameraman Robert Hartmann.

After five days at a former German airship shed that had been removed from Jüterbog and rebuilt at Kasumigaura Naval Air Station,[129][130] Graf Zeppelin continued across the Pacific to California.

[126] On 26 April 1930, Graf Zeppelin flew low over the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in England, dipping in salute to King George V, then briefly moored alongside the larger R100 at Cardington.

[146][147] The Europe-Pan American flight was largely funded by the sale of special stamps issued by Spain, Brazil, and the US for franking mail carried on the trip.

Graf Zeppelin crossed the Mediterranean to Benghazi in Libya, then flew via Alexandria, to Cairo in Egypt, where it saluted King Fuad at the Qubbah Palace, then visited the Great Pyramid of Giza and hovered 20 m (66 ft) above the top of the monument.

The costs of the expedition were met largely by the sale of special postage stamps issued by Germany and the Soviet Union to frank the mail carried on the flight.

[174] Graf Zeppelin made 64 round trips to Brazil, on the first regular intercontinental commercial air passenger service,[176] and it continued until the loss of the Hindenburg in May 1937.

[177][178] When the Nazis gained power in 1933, Joseph Goebbels (Reich Minister of Propaganda) and Hermann Göring (Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe) sidelined Eckener by putting the more sympathetic Lehmann in charge of a new airline, Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei (DZR), which operated German airships.

[181] They toured the country for four days and three nights, dropping propaganda leaflets, playing martial music and slogans from large loudspeakers, and broadcasting political speeches from a makeshift radio studio on Hindenburg.

[182] The crew heard of the Hindenburg disaster by radio on 6 May 1937 while in the air, returning from Brazil to Germany; they delayed telling the passengers until after landing on 8 May so as not to alarm them.

[183][184] The disaster, in which Lehmann and 35 others were killed, destroyed public faith in the safety of hydrogen-filled airships, making continued passenger operations impossible unless they could convert to non-flammable helium.

[178][190] President Roosevelt supported exporting enough helium for the Hindenburg-class LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II to resume commercial transatlantic passenger service by 1939,[191] but by early 1938, the opposition of Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, who was concerned that Germany was likely to use the airship in war, made that impossible.

"[192][193] Graf Zeppelin II made 30 test, promotional, propaganda and military surveillance flights around Europe using hydrogen between September 1938 and August 1939; it never entered commercial passenger service.

[78] By the time the two Graf Zeppelins were recycled, they were the last rigid airships in the world,[199] and heavier-than-air long-distance passenger transport, using aircraft like the Focke-Wulf Condor and the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, was already in its ascendancy.

Looking down the interior of a partially completed airship frame. Two passageways are highlighted; one along the bottom and one right through the middle. The closest two structural polygons are also highlighted; the cantilevers on the nearest one are visible. The two people in the foreground are barely visible.
Construction of Graf Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen: the keel and axial gangways are highlighted green with main rings in red; two people are shown in yellow
A dilapidated egg-shaped streamlined nacelle on display in a museum. The pointed end is towards the camera and has a large adjustable rectangular vent.
One of the engine nacelles, preserved in Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen
A plan of the airship's gondola accommodation, as described in the text.
Gondola deck plan
A graphite drawing on coarse-weave paper. The view inside the keel corridor; a series of V-shaped trellis girders are coming down from the structural members above. At their apex they support a narrow walkway. Along the walkway are small beds, each one with a large fabric hood at the head end. We can see one on the left and three on the right. The nearer ones are occupied by resting crewmen. At the let, behind a dark shape, a man is leaning forwards.
Theo Matejko 's drawing of the crew accommodation on the keel corridor from the first transatlantic flight
The gondola while the airship is being manoeuvred on the round. Around forty people on the ground are manhandling it. Two officers are visible in the gondola, one looking down at the people, the other looking backwards. The ram air turbine is folded flush with the gondola's side.
Many people were needed to hold down the airship. The ram air turbine electric generator is just under the radio room window.
A pale green handbill or poster. In black is the title "To South America by Zeppelin", followed by the schedule for the ten departures of 1934, roughly every two weeks from June to October. There is an aeroplane connection from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires. There is a price list and the booking address is that of HAPAG in London.
1934 South America timetable
A piece of badly distressed fabric on a red background. The fabric is crossed by three seams and there are three eyelets at the bottom of it.
A piece of the damaged fabric removed from Graf Zeppelin in October 1928
Graf Zeppelin over Jerusalem on 26 March 1929
A black-and-white photograph from under the airship's hull while on the ground. In the right middle ground a crewman wearing a leather cap is leaning out of one of the engine nacelles. The wooden grain is visible in the two-bladed propeller, which is stationary and horizontal. The rear engine nacelle is visible and the bottom of the fin. Around 30 people are visible, and about 10 are around the rear nacelle. One man is walking briskly towards the camera. In the background are two large hangars, of unequal size.
Emergency landing in France, May 1929
Graf Zeppelin and USS Los Angeles in the airship hangar at NAS Lakehurst , August 1929
Drummond-Hay on board the Graf Zeppelin , August 1929
Graf Zeppelin over Tokyo on 19 August 1929
A rectangular postage stamp, torn from a perforated sheet. It is in landscape format and is printed with blue ink on a white background. At the top it says "Graf Zeppelin: Pan-American Flight" and on the bottom "$2.60 United States Postage $2.60". In between is a depiction of the airship, flying from right to left, against a background of the planet Earth. Stylised clouds swim across the scene, and rays of sunlight are shining in from the top-left corner.
$2.60 Europe-Pan American issue (C-15), 24 April 1930
The reverse side of a postcard. A Cyrillic inscription is printed at the top, then "Par Avion". The two stamps are for 30 kopecks (magenta on white) and 1 rouble (black on white). They show a dramatic depiction of the airship above the icebreaker, with a polar bear on a spur of ice in the foreground. At the top is the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union and the words "Pole du Nord 1931". At the bottom is a legend in Cyrillic script. There are four postmarks; bottom-left says "25 VII 31 Leningrad" and the bottom right "27.8.31 Lorch". An address in Lorch, Germany, is type-written below. At left are three cachets and a "Par Avion" sticker with Cyrillic translation.
USSR franked postcard delivered to the Malygin
The Graf Zeppelin and icebreaker Malygin on a Soviet stamp (1931)
A black-and-white photograph. The Graf Zeppelin flies from left to right, with a high sun glinting off its envelope. The two right and the rear engine nacelles are visible, and the very base of the control room is catching the sun. Behind it are rocks, mountains and sea and a large city, Rio de Janeiro, built around a bay.
Graf Zeppelin over Rio de Janeiro on 25 May 1930
An elegant drinking cup on a saucer. Both are in white ceramic with pale blue and gold decoration.
Food and drinks service on board was of a high standard. [ 59 ] [ 164 ]
The reverse of a postcard. The consignee's address is in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It bears (on the right, above the address) 25 ℛ︁ℳ︁ worth of postage stamps and a special Deutsche Luftpost stamp for 2 ℛ︁ℳ︁. The stamps are cancelled by a postmark: "Berlin, 26.5.34", and a red cachet saying: "Deutsche Luftpost: Europa-Sudamerika" with a motif of a zeppelin and a Dornier Wal. On the left is the receiving postmark: "Buenos Aires, Argentina 31 May 1934"
German "First 1934 South America Flight" cover
Graf Zeppelin flying near the Barolo Palace in Buenos Aires (1934)
A large tall grey concrete hangar, with the main doors slightly open. In the background, a blue sky. In the foreground are a row of individual aircraft shelters. In one of them, an F-5 is visible in silhouette.
Airship hangar near Rio de Janeiro
A black-and-white photograph from slightly above of the Graf Zeppelin, a large slim airship, flying from right to left against a low sun. The ground below is misty and consists of rolling hills, woods, and a meandering road which is catching the sun. The silvery airship is also reflecting the sun. It bears black swastikas on white circles on its vertical tail surfaces.
Flying over Germany, late career
Internal components and gas cell locations shown schematically, excluding passenger and engine gondolas