This photograph shows LZ-5 backing out of its floating shed on Lake Constance, just before its first flight. (George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress)Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin (Bundesarchive)
26 May 1909: The creation of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the rigid airship LZ-5 made its first flight at Lake Constance (Bodensee).
This was an experimental airship, 442 feet (136 meters) long, with a diameter of 42 feet (13 meters). Powered by two Daimler engines producing 105 horsepower each, it was capable of 30 miles per hour. The structure of the airship was a framework built of a light alloy covered with a fabric skin. Buoyancy was provided by hydrogen gas stored inside the envelope.
LZ-5 was purchased by the army and renamed ZII. It was destroyed in a storm 24 April 1910.
Airship D-LZ129 Hindenburg moored at New Jersey at the end of a previous voyage.
6 May 1937: After a three-day Trans-Atlantic crossing from Frankfurt, Germany, the rigid airship Hindenburg (D-LZ129) arrived at Lakehurst, New Jersey, with 36 passengers and 61 crewmembers.
Airship LZ-129 Hindenburg burning, 1925 hours, 6 May 1937, at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
At 7:25 p.m., while the airship was being moored, it suddenly caught fire. The fabric covering burned first, but then the hydrogen gas contained in the buoyancy tanks exploded and burned. Hindenburg settled to the ground and was completely destroyed within 30 seconds.
Water ballast rains down as Hindenburg burns at the mooring mast 1925 hours, 6 May 1937, at Lakehurst, New Jersey. SFA003016395Hindenburg NY Daily NewsHindenburg settles to the ground. (Arthur Cofod, Jr./USAF 12293 A.C.)
Of those on board, 13 passengers and 22 crewmembers died. One member of the ground crew was also killed.
Surprisingly, though there were many survivors and witnesses—as well as newsreel footage of the accident—the cause has never been determined.
This dramatic accident ended the airship passenger industry.
Airship LZ-129 Hindenburg burning, 1925 hours, 6 May 1937, at Lakehurst, New Jersey.Hindenburg burningWreckage of Hindenburg, photographed the following day.
Luftschiff LZ 11, Viktoria Luise, over Marburg Afföllerwiesen, 5 May 1912. (Bildindex der Kunst & Architectur)
19 February 1912: The lighter-than-air rigid airship (luftschiff) LZ 11, Viktoria Luise, made its first flight. The Zeppelin was named for Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, daughter of Kaiser Wilhem II, and granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
LZ 11 and its sistership, LZ 13 Hansa, were G-class passenger airships, operated by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG). It had a crew of six and could carry eleven passengers.
During World War I, LZ 11 was used by the German Navy as a training ship. It was damaged beyond repair while being placed in its hangar, 1 October 1915.
Viktoria Luise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte, Princess of PrussiaZeppelin LZ 11, Viktoria Louise made its first flight, 19 February 1912.Passengers boarding Viktoria Luise. (airships.net)
Luftschiff Zeppelin LZ24, the Imperial German Navy bomber L3. (Royal Air Force Museum)
19–20 January 1915: The Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Germany Navy) airship L3, under command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Fritz and Leutnant zur See v. Lynckner, departed Fuhlsbüttel, Hamburg, Germany, at 11:00 a.m., in company with L4 and L6, on a reconnaissance flight over the North Sea, then continued on to Britain, planning to attack during darkness.
Route of Zeppelins L3 and L4
L3 reached the British coast at 8:50 p.m. and proceeded to the area around Norfolk. At 9:20 p.m., Captain Fritz and his airship had reached Greater Yarmouth. Flying in rain at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters), over the next ten minutes they dropped six 110 pound (49.9 kilogram) bombs and seven incendiaries on the city below. As L3 turned to leave the area, another four 110 pound bombs were dropped. Completing the attack, L3 returned to Germany, arriving at the airship base at Fuhlsbüttel at 9:30 a.m.
L4, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Magnus von Platen-Hallermund and Leutnant zur See Kruse, dropped eleven bombs on Sheringham and King’s Lynn.
L6 had returned to Germany prior to the attack.
Reports are that a total of 4 people were killed and 16 wounded. Damage was limited.
In the short history of aerial warfare, this was the first time that a civilian population center was the target. It would not be the last.
Damage at King’s Lynn caused by the Zeppelin raid of 19–20 January 1915. (Imperial War Museum)
It was plain that the source of the disturbance was aircraft, though precisely of what kind could only be conjectured. The opinion is generally held that it was a dirigible, for what appeared to be searchlights were seen at a great altitude. Others, however, say that the lights were not the beams of a searchlight, but the flash of something resembling a magnesium flare.
— The Times, Wednesday, 20th January 1915, at Page 8.
Artist’s impression of the 19 January 1915 air raid, with Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin.
Luftschiff Zeppelin 24 was the third airship built for the Imperial German Navy, which designated it L3. It was operated by a crew of fifteen. The dirigible was 518 feet, 2 inches (157.937 meters) long with a diameter of 48 feet, 6 inches (14.783 meters).
Buoyancy was created by 18 gas cells filled with hydrogen, which had a total volume of 794,500 cubic feet (22,497.3 cubic meters). The empty weight of the airship was 37,250 pounds (16,896 kilograms) and it had a payload of 20,250 pounds (9,185 kilograms).
Three water-cooled, normally-aspirated, 22.921 liter (1,398.725 cubic inches) Maybach C-X six-cylinder inline engines, each producing 207 horsepower at 1,250 r.p.m., gave L3 a maximum speed of 47.4 miles per hour (76.3 kilometers per hour).
The Zeppelin’s maximum altitude, limited by the gas cells’ ability to contain the hydrogen as it expanded with increasing altitude, was 6,560 feet (2,000 meters). The maximum range was 1,366 miles (2,198 kilometers).
L3 made its first flight at Friedrichshafen 11 May 1914. On 17 February 1915, the loss of two engines in high winds forced it to ground at Fanoe Island, Denmark, where the crew abandoned it and Captain Fritz set it afire. The crew was interned for the duration of the war.
The crew of L3 was interned in Denmark for the duration of the war.
L4 (Luftschiff Zeppelin27)was of the same airship class as L3. It was very slightly heavier and its Maybach C-X engines slightly more powerful. It was retired from service 17 February 1915, the same day that L3 was lost.
Note: Steve Smith’s Internet blog, “Great War Britain NORFOLK Remembering 1914–18” https://stevesmith1944.wordpress.com/about/ has a series of detailed articles about the Zeppelin raids, as well as many other events of World War I. Recommended.
Graf von Zeppelin’s LZ 2 at Lake Constance, 1906. (RAF Museum)
18 January 1906: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin’s second airship, Luftschiff Zeppelin 2, designed by Ludwig Dürr, made its first—and only—flight, at Lake Constance (Bodensee), a large lake at the base of Alps.
Ludwig Dürr (1878–1956)
LZ 2 was 127 meters (416 feet, 8 inches) long and 11.70 meters (38 feet, 5 inches) in diameter. It had a volume of 10,400 cubic meters (367,273 cubic feet). The rigid structure was built of triangular-section girders that combined light weight and strength. Hydrogen gas contained in bags inside the airship’s envelope gave it buoyancy.
Ladislas d’Orcy described the airship:
. . . Hull-frame of aluminum-alloy lattice girders, cross-braced by wire stays, and subdivided into compartments for independent gas-cells. No ballonets. Fabric skin. Trim controlled by lifting planes. Cars rigidly connected. Gangway affording passage between the cars.
—D’Orcy’s Airship Manual, by Ladislas d’Orcy, M.S.A.E., The Century Company, New York, 1917, at Page 127
The airship was powered by two 85 horsepower Daimler-Motoren-Gesellchaft gasoline-fueled engines designed by Karl Maybach. They turned four three-bladed propellers at 820 r.p.m. It was capable of reaching 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour). The airship’s ceiling was 2,800 feet (853 meters).
L’AÉROPHILE reported:
Une nouvelle sortie—la derniére—eut lieu le jeudi 18 janvier 1906. Parti de son garage et parvenu à 500 mètres environ, le ballon était désemparé, et après avoir passé au-dessus de Raverasburg, Kisslegg et Sommerstadt, venait s’abattre en territoire suisse, à Allgaen. Certains correspondants assurent qu’il était monte par l’inventeur, , des officiers allemands et des hommes d’équipage qui n’eurent pas de mal. Mais, dans la chute, das avaries irréparables se produisirent si bien que le comte Zeppelin, decouragé, ne continuera pas ses essais. ¹
—L’AÉROPHILE, 14º Année,Noº 1, Janvier 1906, at Page 32
THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER reported:
AERONAUT’S ILL LUCK.
CABLE TO THE ENQUIRER AND N. Y. HERALD.
(Copyright, 1906, by N. Y. Herald Company.)
Berlin, January 18.—Count Zeppelin made a second trial to-day with hi snew airship. Starting from Lake Constance, the airship passed over Ravensberg, Kisslegg and Sommersledat and landed at Allgaen. It was seriously damaged in the storm, and further trials will be impossible at present.
An engine failure forced the ship to make an emergency landing close to a small town named Sommersried, Allgäu, in southern Germany, and was so badly damaged by a storm during the night that it had to be scrapped.
Wreckage of LZ 2.
¹ Google Translation: “A new exit-the last-took place on Thursday, January 18, 1906. From his garage and reached about 500 meters, the balloon was clueless/distraught, and after passing over Raverasburg, Kisslegg and Sommerstadt, came crashing down in Swiss territory, in Allgaen. Some correspondents assert that he was mounted by the inventor, German officers and crewmen who were not hurt. But in the fall, irreparable damage occurred so that Count Zeppelin, discouraged, did not continue his attempts.”
