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LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
The D-LZ127 Graf Zeppelin was a large German passenger carrying rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who held the rank of Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life the great airship made 590 flights covering more than a million miles.
Design and developmentThe D-LZ127 (Deutsche Luftschiff Zeppelin #127) was originally planned to exploit the latest technology in airships, building on the advances of the earlier D-LZ126. Dr. Hugo Eckener had to campaign for its construction and only after two years of lobbying did that proceed at the Zeppelin works, Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, at Friedrichshafen in Germany. It flew for the first time on 18 September 1928[1] and, with a total length of and volume of , was the largest airship up to that time. It was powered by five Maybach engines[1] that could burn either Blau gas or gasoline[2]. The ship achieved a maximum speed of 128 kilometres per hour (80 mph, 70 knots) operating at total maximum thrust of , which reduced to the normal cruising speed of 117 km/h (73 mph, 63 knots) when running with normal thrust of , ignoring wind speeds.[2] Some flights were made using only Blau gas, and for this purpose 12 gas cells were used with a total volume up to 30,000 cubic metres. That amount allowed around 100 hours at cruising speed. The fuel tank had a maximum capacity for 67 hours cruise. Using both gasoline and Blau gas could give 118 hours cruise. Generally the D-LZ127 had a usable payload capacity of 15,000 kilograms for a 10,000 kilometres cruise.[2] Initially it was to be used for experimental and demonstration purposes to prepare the way for regular airship traveling, but also carried passengers and mail to cover the costs. Two small wind power generators were attached to the main gondola on swinging arms, one of which served the radio room. Accumulators stored the electrical energy produced so that radio operation was independent of airspeed. The other generator served for passenger lighting and as a reserve.[3] The main electricity generating plant was located inside the hull comprising two fuel-burning generators.[4] The gondola also had a gasoline emergency generator. Gondola layoutBehind the front command cabin through a door lay the map room, with two large open access hatches to allow the command crew to communicate with the navigators. From the map room ascending a ladder allowed access to a keel corridor inside the hull. The map room had two large windows, one on each side. A rear door led from the map room to a central corridor with the three-man radio room to the left and the electric kitchen to the right, and a short passage to the main entrance-exit door on the right (when facing front). The corridor ended at a door that opened into the main dining and sitting room, with four large windows. At the rear of this room a door opened into the long corridor to access the passenger's cabins and washrooms and toilet facilities.[1] Each passenger cabin by day was set with a sofa which by night the crew would convert to two beds, one above the other.[4] The crew's quarters were inside the hull reached by a catwalk. The kitchen was equipped with a single electric oven with two compartments and hot plates on top.[4] Radio equipment
Many people were needed to hold down the D-LZ127. Note the wind-powered electric generator just under the radio room window. The main antenna comprised two 120 metre long wires, with lead weights at their ends. They could be lowered by electric motor or hand crank. The emergency antenna was a 40 metre wire stretched from a ring on the airship hull.[3] Three high quality receivers, each with six valves, served the wavelength ranges 120 to 1200 metre (Medium frequency), 400 to 4000 metre (Low frequency) and 3,000 to 25,000 metre (overlapping Low frequency and Very low frequency).[3] Additionally the room had a shortwave receiver for wavelengths 10 to 280 metre (High frequency).[3] A modern direction finder, as was then used for radio navigation in large passenger ships, used a steerable ring antenna to determine the airship's position from any two radio transmitters either land or ship-based.[3] During the airship's transatlantic flight to the United States in October 1928, the radio room sent 484 private telegrams and 160 press telegrams.[3] Operational historyFrom its first flight on 18 September 1928 until its last flight on 18 June 1937, the Graf saw nearly nine years of uninterrupted service, totaling nearly two years in the air and traveling 1.7 million kilometres.[6] Its seventh flight was its first Atlantic crossing,[7] thereafter it made regular flights across the South Atlantic to Brazil, one round the world tour, a polar expedition, two roundtrips to the Middle East, and a few within Europe. While the Graf Zeppelin only visited the United States five times (twice during the "Round the World Flight"), the airship made a total of 64 flights to South America.First intercontinental passenger airship flight
Flown ppc from the First North American Flight of the D-LZ127 1928 
A portion of the damaged fabric covering removed from the "Graf Zeppelin" in October 1928, after its first transatlantic flight from Germany to NAS Lakehurst, NJ. In addition to the passengers and crew, there was also a stowaway on the fight, 19-year old Clarence Tehune, who had secreted himself onboard the Graf Zeppelin at Friedrichshafen and appears in a Gaumont Graphic Newsreel working for his passage in the airship's kitchen. Terhune was returned to Europe on the French liner SS Ile de France along with a number of airship crewmembers.[9][10][11] The "Interrupted Flight"
Flown cover autographed by the "Graf Zeppelin's" commander, Dr. Hugo Eckener from the nearly disastrous 1929 "Interrupted Flight". As Dr. Eckener desperately looked for a suitable place to crash land the airship, the French Air Ministry advised him that he would be permitted to land at the Naval Airship Base at Cuers-Pierrefeu about ten miles from Toulon to use the mooring mast and hangar of the lost airship Dixmude (France's only dirigible which crashed the Mediterranean in 1923 with the loss of 52 lives) if the Graf could reach the facility before being blown out to sea. Although barely able to control the Graf on its one remaining engine, Eckener managed to make a difficult but successful emergency night landing at Cuers.[12] After making temporary repairs, the Graf finally returned to Friedrichshafen on May 24. Mail carried on the flight received a one-line cachet reading "Due to mishap the flight was delayed for the first America trip" and was held at Friedrichshafen until 1 August 1929, when the airship made another attempt to cross the Atlantic for Lakehurst arriving on 4 August 1929. Four days later, the "Graf Zeppelin" departed Lakehurst for another daring enterprise — a complete circumnavigation of the globe. Round-the-World Flight
Cover flown on the "Graf Zeppelin" from Lakehurst to Lakehurst on the "Round-the-World" flight, August 8 - September 4, 1929 
Silver 3 Reichsmark coin (1930 A) honoring the "Graf Zeppelin's" "Round the World" flight (Weltflug 1929). Starting there on 8 August, Graf Zeppelin flew back across the Atlantic to Friedrichshafen to refuel before continuing on August 15 across the vastness of Siberia to Tokyo (Kasumigaura Naval Air Station), a nonstop leg of , arriving 3 days later on 18 August.[7] Dr. Eckener believed that some of the lands they crossed in Siberia had never before been seen by modern explorers. After staying in Tokyo for five days, on 23 August, the Graf Zeppelin continued across the Pacific to California flying first over San Francisco before heading south to stop at Mines Field in Los Angeles for the first ever nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific leg was and took three days.[7] The airship's final leg across the United States took it over Chicago before landing back at Lakehurst NAS on 29 August, taking two days and covering .[7][14] The flying time for the Lakehurst to Lakehurst legs was 12 days and 11 minutes.[7] The entire voyage took 21 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes including the initial and final trips between Friedrichshafen and NAS Lakehurst during which time the airship travelled 49,618 km (30,831 miles) whereas the distance covered on the designated "Round the World" portion from Lakehurst to Lakehurst was 31,400 km (19,500 miles). One of Hearst's guests on board was the newlywed couple; the Arctic explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins and his bride Suzanne Bennett. The trip was given to them as a wedding gift. A U.S. franked letter carried on the whole trip from Lakehurst to Lakehurst required $3.55 USD in postage, the equivalent in 2007 of roughly $43 if based on the CPI.[15]
The Polar Flight
Flown USSR ppc delivered by the "Graf Zeppelin" to the Soviet icebreaker "Malygin" on the "Polar Flight" 1931 In July 1930, Hugo Eckener had already piloted the Graf on a three-day trip to Norway and Spitsbergen, in order to determine its performance in this region. Shortly after Eckener made a three day flight to Iceland, both trips completed without technical problems.[5] The initial idea was to rendezvous with the ill-fated Nautilus, the U-boat of polar researcher George Hubert Wilkins, who was attempting a trip under the ice. This plan was abandoned when the U-boat encountered recurring technical problems, leading to its eventual scuttling in a Bergen fjord.[16] Eckener instead began to plan a rendezvous with a surface vessel. He intended funding to be secured by delivering mail post to the ship. After advertising, around fifty thousand letters were collected from around the world weighing a total of about 300 kilograms. The rendezvous vessel, the Russian icebreaker Malygin, on which the Italian airshipman and polar explorer Umberto Nobile was a guest, required another 120 kilograms of post. The major costs of the expedition were met solely by sale of postage stamps.[5] The rest of the funding came from Aeroarctic and the Ullstein-Verlag in exchange for exclusive reporting rights. The 1931 polar flight took one week from 24 June 1931 until the 31st. The Graf traveled about 10,600 kilometres, the longest leg without refueling was 8,600 kilometres. The average speed was 88 km/h. 
Germany issued this stamp commemorating the Graf polar trip
Goals:
All participants were satisfied after the trip: the airship demonstrated its usefulness in the Arctic. Middle East flights
Flown ppc carried on the D-LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" to Syria on the "Mittelmeerfahrt 1929"
One image of a stereoscopic pair made while the Graf flew over the pyramids (click to access the full pair)
Golden age
Zeppelin passenger lapel pins 
Schedule of 1934 Flights to South America 
Cover carried on the First 1934 South America Flight of the 10 flown that season. Almost every flight had a reporter on board, who would radio a report to the ground via Morse Code. Such articles made Lady Drummond-Hay famous, and she would be pictured in advertisements featuring the Graf.[22] In October 1933, the Graf Zeppelin made an appearance at the Century of Progress World?s Fair in Chicago, after circling over the fair,[23] then landing and relaunching 25 minutes later. Despite the beginning of the Great Depression and growing competition by fixed-wing aircraft, D-LZ127 would transport an increasing number of passengers and mail across the ocean every year until 1937. Post and cargo provided most of the income for operating the Graf. In one transatlantic flight the Graf would carry 52,000 postcards and 50,000 letters, and by its last flight it had carried 53 tonnes of mail. Since 1912 Zeppelins were allowed to postmark and sort mail onboard and the Graf managed to deliver South America-bound about a week faster than by ship.[24] However in general the Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei made a loss each year. When the Hindenburg entered service in 1936 prospects became better and a profit was expected for 1937 by delivering mail on both it and the Graf, but the Hindenburg's loss in May 1937 put an end to all commercial Zeppelin service.[25] Successor abandonedDr. Eckener intended to supplement the successful craft by another, similar Zeppelin, projected as D-LZ128. However the disastrous accident of the British passenger airship R101 in 1931 led the Zeppelin company to reconsider the safety of hydrogen-filled vessels, and the design was abandoned in favor of a new project. D-LZ129, which was to eventually be named the Hindenburg, would advance Zeppelin technology considerably and was intended to be filled with helium. After the Hindenburg disaster the story arose that an embargo imposed by the United States because of the looming war prevented German access to the required large quantities of helium, leading to the conversion of the Hindenburg to a hydrogen design. However it is now known that Eckener was successful in lobbying the U.S. government for the purchase of helium but ruled it out on financial grounds. End of an eraAfter the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, public faith in the safety of dirigibles was shattered, and flying passengers in hydrogen-filled vessels became untenable. D-LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, which would have been incapable of flying with helium, was retired one month past the disaster and turned into a museum. The end for the Graf Zeppelin came with the outbreak of World War II. In March 1940, Hermann Göring, the German Air Minister (Reichsluftfahrtminister), ordered the destruction of the remaining dirigibles, and the duralumin parts were fed into the German war industry. Legacy
US Air Mail stamp (C-13), issued April 1930 As evidence of how it caught the imagination of the world, a number of countries issued postage stamps either commemorating flights of the Zeppelin or for use on this (and later) airships. Some are fairly common, others quite rare. A considerable number of covers (envelopes) carried on flights still exist and are avidly collected. SpecificationsSee also
ReferencesNotes
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External links
ast:Graf Zeppelin ca:Graf Zeppelin cs:LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin da:LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin de:LZ 127 es:Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 fy:Graf Zeppelin ko:LZ 127 ??? ??? it:LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin li:LZ127 "Graf Zeppelin" nl:LZ127 "Graf Zeppelin" ja:LZ 127 (???) no:LZ 127 «Graf Zeppelin» pl:LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin pt:LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin ru:???? ???????? (?????????) sk:Graf Zeppelin fi:Graf Zeppelin Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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