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Zeppelin

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The term zeppelin refers to a type of rigid airship (or dirigible) pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century.


Graf Zeppelin
The most traveled airship in history.

The craft of the zeppelin design were so successful, that the word zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins are quite distinct from the non-rigid type of airships commonly known as blimps.

The zeppelin airships were lighter-than-air craft using a rigid frame construction with an aerodynamic outer envelope and several separate balloons called 'cells' containing the lighter-than-air gas hydrogen completely within the frame. A comparatively small compartment for passengers and crew was built into the bottom of the frame. Several internal combustion engines provided motive power.

In addition to founding the airship construction business, which altogether finished 119 ships until 1938, in the early 20th century, Count von Zeppelin also founded the world's first commercial airline called DELAG (Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG). Both business were based in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

When the elderly Count died in 1917, his place as head of the Zeppelin business was taken by Hugo Eckener. Eckener was both a master of publicity as well as an extremely skilled airship captain. It was under Eckener's guidance that the Zeppelins reached their zenith.

The Zeppelin business was successful up to the 1930s and included long-distance routes from Germany to the United States and South America. The most successful airship of this period was LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" which flew over 1 million miles including the first (and, to date, only) circumnavigation of the globe via airship.

The Great Depression and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany both contributed to the demise of the passenger carrying airships. In particular, Eckener and the Nazis had an intense and mutual loathing. The Zeppelin business was nationalized by the German Government in the mid-1930s and closed down a few years later following the Hindenburg disaster, in which the company's flagship zeppelin caught fire during a landing.

However, during approximately 20 years of private operation as an airline, it was at least somewhat profitable, and had a perfect safety record until the Hindenburg fire.


Early Zeppelin history

The first Zeppelin

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin seems to have become 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. Also, he had encountered the military use of such aircraft in 1863 during the American Civil War, where 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, aged 52. On August 31, 1895, he obtained a patent including the following principal features, not all of which actually made it into construction:

  • a rigid aluminium skeleton of slim form, made of rings and longitudinal girders
  • gas space broken up into many small cylindrical cells
  • possibility to navigate using rudder and elevator fins
  • two separate nacelle rigidly connected to the skeleton
  • propellers mounted at the height of maximum air resistance
  • possibility to connect several airships like train wagons

An expert committee to whom he had presented his plans in 1894 showed little interest, so the count was on his own for 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 Lake Constance in the Bay of Manzell, Friedrichshafen. This was intended to facilitate the difficult starting procedure, as the hall could easily be aligned with the wind. The prototype airship LZ 1 (LZ for "Luftschiff Zeppelin") had a length of 128 m, was driven by two 14.2 PS Daimler engines and balanced by moving a weight between its two nacelle.

The first Zeppelin flight occurred on July 2, 1900. It lasted for only 18 minutes, as LZ 1 was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight had broken. Upon repair, the technology proved potential in subsequent flights, beating the 6 m/s velocity record of French airship La France by 3 m/s, but could not yet convince possible investors. With the financial resources depleted, Count von Zeppelin was forced to disassemble the prototype 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 to a reasonably reliable technology. Only then, the airships could profitably be used for civilian aviation and sold to the military.

Donations and the profits of a special lottery, together with some public funding and further 100,000 Mark contributed by Count von Zeppelin himself, allowed for the construction of LZ 2, which took off for the first and only time on January 17, 1906. After both motors had failed, it made a forced landing in the Allgäu mountains, where the provisionally anchored ship was subsequently damaged beyond repair by a storm.

Its successor LZ 3, which incorporated all parts of LZ 2 that were still usable, became the first truly successful Zeppelin, travelling 4398 km in total during 45 flights until 1908. Now the technology became interesting for the German military, who bought LZ 3 and renamed it Z I. It served as a school ship until 1913, when it was decommissioned for being technologically outdated.

The army was also willing to buy LZ 4, but requested a demonstration that the ship could serve a 24 hour trip. While attempting to fulfil this requirement, the crew of LZ 4 had to make an intermediate landing in Echterdingen near Stuttgart. Here, an upcoming storm tore the airship away from its anchorage in the afternoon of August 5, 1908. It then crashed into a tree, took fire and quickly burnt down to ruins. No one was seriously injured (though two technicians repairing the engines only escaped by a hazardous jump), but this accident would certainly have knocked out the Zeppelin project economically, had not one spectator out of a crowd spontaneously initiated a collection of donations that finally yielded an impressive total amount of 6,096,555 Mark. This enabled the count to found the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH (airship construction Zeppelin Ltd.) and to erect a Zeppelin foundation. Thus, the Zeppelin project not only rose like Phoenix from the ashes, but was at last financially secured.

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 (LZ 5 to LZ 25) were finished. (See List of zeppelins for a complete reference).

In 1909, LZ 6 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 until 1914, and were given names in addition to their production numbers, for example LZ 11 "Viktoria Luise" (1912) and LZ 17 "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, transporting 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 (LZ 3 "Z I" included). Five more had been lost in accidents, in two of which people died: a storm pushed Navy zeppelin LZ 14 "L 1" down into the North Sea, drowning 14 soldiers, and LZ 18 "L 2" burst into flames due to an exploding engine, 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 t. They were typically powered by three Maybach motors of around 200 PS 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, they appeared to have compelling advantages over contemporary aircraft - they were almost as fast, carried many more guns, had a greater bomb load and enormously greater range and endurance. These advantages did not translate well in reality.

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 respect for 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 out over the North Sea and the Baltic, 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 make the pace on anti-aircraft defences. The first airship raids were approved by the Kaiser in January 1915. The raids were only to target military sites but raiding at night, and after the black-out became widespread, meant many bombs fell randomly in East Anglia.

The first raid was on January 19, 1915, the first bombing of civilians ever, two Zeppelins dropped 50 kg high explosive bombs and ineffective 3 kg incendiaries on King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth and the surrounding villages. In all five people were killed, although the public and media reaction were out of all proportion to the death toll. There were a further nineteen raids in 1915, dropping 37 tons of bombs killing 181 people and injuring 455. British defences were divided between the Royal Navy and the Army at first (the Army took full control in February 1916) and a variety of sub 4-inch calibres were converted to anti-aircraft use and searchlights were introduced, initially manned by the police and their inexperience led to a number of illuminated clouds being mistaken for attacking airships. Aerial defences against Zeppelins were haphazard, the lack of interruptor gear in early aircraft meant that the first successes was achieved by dropping 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 won the Victoria Cross.

Raids continued in 1916, London was accidentally bombed in May and in July the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres. There were twenty-three airship raids in 1916 dropping 125 tons of ordnance killing 293 and injuring 691 people. Anti-aircraft defences were becoming tougher and new Zeppelins were introduced that doubled 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 oberver through the clouds to direct the bombing. The improved safety was balanced against 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.

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, the final raid occurred on August 5, 1918 and 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, dropping 196.5 tons in 5,806 bombs, 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, diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defences.


Technological progress

Strategic issues aside, Zeppelin technology clearly improved considerably owing to 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 t and reach speeds up to 100-130 km/h using five or even six Maybach engines of around 260 PS each.

In fleeing enemy fire, Zeppelins rose to altitudes up to 7600 m, and they also proved capable of long-range flights. For example, LZ 104 "L 49", based in Jamboli, 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 upon reports of German defeat to British troops, but it had travelled 6757 km in 95 hours and thus broken a long-distance flight record.

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 with dirigibles explicitly:

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, England 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. Then, with Dr. Hugo Eckener a man who had long before envisioned dirigibles as vessels of peace rather than warfare had taken command of the Zeppelin business.

While the Treaty of Versailles had knocked out their only serious national competitor, the Schütte-Lanz airship company which had focused entirely on military crafts, the Zeppelin company and the airline DELAG hoped to resume civilian flights quickly. In fact, despite considerable difficulties, they accomplished two small Zeppelin constructions: LZ 120 "Bodensee" which first flew in August 1919 and, in the following two years, actually transported some 4000 passengers; and LZ 121 "Nordstern" which was foreseen for a regular route to Stockholm.

However, in 1921, the Allied Powers demanded these two Zeppelins to be delivered in the context of war reparations, too, 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.

Eckener and his coworkers however 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 I "USS Shenandoah" (see below), and ordering another one in England. However, the British R 38, foreseen to become ZR II, performed disappointingly; although it had successfully crossed the Atlantic, it turned out to be too slow, and its structural integrity did not withstand a refitting with stronger engines.

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 LZ 126, 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.

The USS Los Angeles Flying Over Southern Manhattan
ZR III "USS Los Angeles" over southern Manhattan

No insurance company was willing to issue a police 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, 7:30 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 III "USS Los Angeles", the former LZ 126 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 LZ 126 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 LZ 127.

Another two years later, on September 18, 1928, the new dirigible, which was 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 LZ 127 "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 LZ 127 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.

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, LZ 127 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 LZ 128. However the disastrous accident of the British passenger airship R 101 in 1931 led the Zeppelin company to reconsider the safety of hydrogen-filled vessels, and the design was abandoned in favour of a new project. LZ 129 should advance Zeppelin technology considerably, and was intended to be filled with helium.

The fall of the Zeppelins

However, from 1933 on, the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in Germany began to shadow the Zeppelin business. The Nazis were not interested in Eckener's ideals of peacefully connecting people; also, they knew very well that the dirigibles would be useless in war, and thus preferred to develop aeroplane 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 paroles from the air.

On March 4, 1936, LZ 129 "Hindenburg", named after the former President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, made its first flight. However, in the new political situation, Eckener had not obtained the helium to inflate it. Only the United States possessed the rare gas in usable quantities, and they had issued a military embargo. So, fatally, the Hindenburg was filled with flammable hydrogen like its predecessors. Apart from the propaganda missions, LZ 129 began to serve the transatlantic lines together with Graf Zeppelin.

On May 6, 1937, when landing in Lakehurst, the tail of the ship took fire, and within seconds the Zeppelin burst into flames. The actual cause of the Hindenburg disaster remained undiscovered; though sabotage speculations abound (randomly blaming Nazis or their enemies), continuing research tends to support an accident theory, in which the new coating material of the dirigible takes a key role.

Whatever may have caused the Hindenburg fire initiated the end of German airship transportation. Public faith in the security of dirigibles was shattered, and flying passengers in hydrogen-filled vessels became intolerable. LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" was retired one month past the disaster and turned into a museum. Dr. Eckener kept trying to obtain helium gas for the Hindenburg sister ship, LZ 130 "Graf Zeppelin II", but in vain. The intended new flagship Zeppelin was finished in 1938 and, inflated with hydrogen again, made some test flights (the first on September 14), but it never transported passengers. Another project, LZ 131, 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 definite end came with the outbreak of World War II. In March 1940 Göring ordered the destruction of the remaining vessels, and the aluminium parts were fed into the Nazi war industry.

Other Zeppelin-like airships

 

U.S. Navy zeppelin,
most likely the USS Macon which was built in the
United States by the Goodyear-Zeppelin company

in the 1930s,
at what appears to be the
airfield later named Moffett Field, in
Santa Clara, California
Public domain image from NASA

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, Britain, Italy, and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly imitating original Zeppelin design derived from crashed or captured German World War I airships.

The first American-built rigid dirigible ZR I "USS Shenandoah" ("daughter of the stars", with ZR standing for "Zeppelin Rigid") flew in 1923. The ship was christened on August 20 in Lakehurst, New Jersey and was the first to use helium gas. It was tested in flight on September 3. It could carry a large amount of fuel to cruise 5,000 miles at an average speed of 65 mph. Helium 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 from ZR I.

Later a series of fatal crashes halted the American construction of "Zeppelins".

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 to carry significantly more passengers than other contemporary aircraft, while providing convenience not unlike the luxury of ship voyages. Less importantly, the technology is 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 are required at the airports.

Today, in times of large, fast and cost-efficient aeroplanes, it is, to say the least, questionable if 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 and advertising; these, however, generally require only small and flexible crafts, and with the main advantage of Zeppelin design being the possibility to build very large ships capable of lifting heavier loads, these purposes have generally been better fitted with cheaper blimps.

It has periodically been suggested that the Zeppelin concept could be interesting for cargo transport, especially for delivering extremely heavy loads to areas with poor infrastructure. One more recent enterprise of this sort was the Cargolifter project, designing a hybrid (thus not entirely Zeppelin-type) airship even larger than the Hindenburg. Around 2000, this venture had become quite concrete, with a huge construction hall being erected in Briesen-Brand, some 60 km south of Berlin. Yet, in May 2002 the ambitious project ran out of money and the listed company had to file bankruptcy.

In the 1990s, the successor of the original Zeppelin company in Friedrichshafen, the Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, has reengaged in airship construction with more descent objectives. The first experimental craft (later christened Friedrichshafen) of the type Zeppelin NT flew in September 1997. Though greater than common blimps, the "Neue Technologie" 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.

Cultural influences

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. See zeppelin mail for further details.

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 Etienne Périer.
  • The Hindenburg (USA, 1975) -- disaster film on the fateful last trip of LZ 129, based on a (rather improbable) sabotage plot. Directed by Robert Wise, starring George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft and others.

See also

Not to be confused with Led Zeppelin, a famous rock band who took their name by substituting "zeppelin" in the expression "lead balloon".

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