Graf Zeppelin Statistics
Graf Zeppelin profile, showing rings, gas cells, and major elements. (click all photos to enlarge)
LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin statistics:
- Length: 776 feet
- Diameter: 100 feet
- Gas capacity: 3,707,550 cubic feet (2,648,585 cu. hydrogen for lift, 1,059,435 cu. Blaugas for fuel)
- Lift: 191,799 lbs
- Speed: 80 MPH
- Main Powerplant: 5 Maybach VL-2 12-cylinder engines (550 HP Takeoff, 450 HP Cruise)
- Crew: 36 officers and crew
- Passengers: 20 sleeping berths
- First flight: September 18, 1928
- Final flight: June 18, 1937
- Total flight hours: 17,177
- Total flights: 590
- Total people carried: 34,000
- Paying passengers carried: 13,110
The size and shape of LZ-127 was not ideal aerodynamically, structurally, or economically, but it was the best that could be achieved within the limitations of the hangar at Friedrichshafen.
Relative sizes of LZ-11 Viktoria Luise, LZ-120 Bodensee, LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin. and LZ-129 Hindenburg
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Where is now the Graf Zeppelin?
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
August 16th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
LZ-127 was dismantled at the beginning of the Second World War.
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Did the Graf Zeppelin ever fly over St. Louis?
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Can sombody tell me where the Graf Zeppelin was on March 16 – 1935. Is it possible that the ship on that moment flew in the neighbourhood of Rotterdam in the Netherlands?
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
August 11th, 2010 at 10:37 am
LZ-127 was in its hangar at Friedrichshafen on March 16, 1935.
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Hi Dan!!!
You have the most wonderful website. I wanted to ask you a question: how much did the Graf Zeppelin weigh? As lift weight is: 191,799 lbs , but the useful lift would really be: total lift- wight of ship. I know the Hindenburg could carry a bit over 100 tons of extra weight (which was amazing, even by todays standards) I know the Graf didn’t really have a very large payload due to it’s limited ammount of lift due to it’s physcical limitations + Blau gas taking a large part of it’s volume as fuel for the ship.
Thanks.
Francisco
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
August 1st, 2010 at 1:21 pm
According to Harold Dick, LZ-127 had a dead-weight of approx. 150,000 lbs and total lift of approx. 210,000 lbs, for a useful lift of approx. 60,000 lbs.
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Francisco Carvallo Reply:
August 1st, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Thank you Dan!!!
Wikepedia was absolutely worthless in this matter. Thanks for all you do!
Francisco
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This site is wonderful! Zeppelins have always fascinated me, been trying to get a copy of the movie ‘Dirigible’ for a long time (Region2 – UK). Do you think that these wonderful machines will ever fly commercially again? I know there are some smaller ones flying around Friedrichafen.
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I just purchased the Graf Zeppelin by Hawk and would like to paint it as authentically as possible. Cant seem to find any reference other then black and white photos. Can you help…? Please don’t say “Silver”….
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As a small boy between 1934 & -6, I saw Graf Zeppelin in daylight almost directly overhead, low & enormous headed South over my home in Austin, TX. My impression was that it was very slow, maybe under 50 mph. My first word, age 1, was “airp’ane”, & one of my published works is “The Big Lifters” (q.v.) so no wonder the house-shaking drone of Maybachs drew me outside. When did I see it, & where was it headed? I’m pondering a mention of it in an upcoming book. Thanks Dean Ing
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 10:22 am
If you saw a large rigid airship over Texas, it would have been the LZ-127 in 1929 (during the Round-the-World flight), or one of the U.S. Navy rigids. No large rigid airships could have flown over Texas in 1934-1936, so it must have been a few years earlier. Thanks for sharing your memory of the impact the ship had on you as a boy!
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Brilliant site. I have been reading every corner.
What would have been changed on the Graf if they had no limits to the hangar? Would the shape have changed?
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
The ship would likely have been larger, and had more of a teardrop shape (similar to Bodensee/Nordstern).
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People, I have been working on this for years. I have a book on Zeplins that shows the history of all of them. I think I got the Zeplin bug from my Dad, whom helped tie Navy Blimps down in Mass. My bug is this:
Start thinking this way; imagine these ships as made out of styrofoam, plastics, mesh netting. Now imagine this – look at those Space ships in (whatever) science fiction movie as NOT being steel but plastics and styrofoam(s). That becomes a possible machine! Dreaming is fun! tom r
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hmmmmm……..passenger zeppelins in modern times could work….i envision a hollowed out Styrofoam structure……….foam inject a large cast(the entire dimension of the said ship in a single foam cast)…..then hollow it out according to specs…..fill sections with helium, for lift….and add a few propeller engines….stream lined, and outer layer is composite protected surface….
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fantastic website you got here
would be nice if you could add the metric equivalents in the statistics pages
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Yes, I agree completely, and it is on my list of things to do!
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I was born in the Netherlands on June 1928, until 1939 I spent many summers
at my Dutch grandparents home in Cleve, Germany. There, one summer evening in 1936 I saw boths, the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg at the same time. It was a magnifcient sight and very clear in my memory. The huge airships flew low and slow,
they were lit up like Christmas trees and there was loud music and the sound of bells. It was fantastic— but my granny, a lovely wise lady said it was all a show of propaganda for the regime.
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GONDOLA…………SORRY!!!!!
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What in fact were the propellers used on the Graf Zepplin. I have:
# D305 #
H230
HEINE
44751
8 LAMINATION 120″ (10′) 3.2 M, WITH BRASS TIPS
WOULD THIS WORK AS A PROP ON THE AFT GANDOLA ? tHX RP
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I have what is to be a prop form the Graf Zep. A Hiene Prop that is 10′ ft long.
It was given to me in Buenos Aires, Agentina 10+ years ago. I have found Pix that match, but no other info. Can you help. Thx rp
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 am
What type of help do you mean?
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Dan, I saw the Graf Zeppelin in 1933. I was four years old. It flew over my house in White Plains (Greene County), Georgia at a low altitude. Can you tell me where it came from and where it was going? Also, what was the date?
Dick
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Bryan McFarland Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Dick,
I just stumbled onto this terrific webpage a few days ago. Maybe Dan could concur, but I believe the Graf Zeppelin was heading north to Chicago for the 1933 World’s Fair after leaving Miami where it stopped to drop off passengers from Rio. British Pathe has a film of the ship landing at the stub mast at Opa Locka Naval Air Station, Miami.
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
One of the items on my “to do” list for the website is a listing of Graf Zeppelin’s major flights, but perhaps this will help in the meantime.
After its last South American crossing of 1933, LZ-127 flew to Miami (Opa Locka, as Bryan correctly noted), where the ship landed on October 23, 1933. The ship left Miami/Opa Locka on October 24 and flew to Akron, Ohio, where it landed the next day, before flying to Chicago on October 26 for an appearance at the 1933 A Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago.
Here is a photo of the ship at Opa Locka:
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Bryan McFarland Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Beautiful picture! In the early 1930s, Opa Locka was just a stone throws away from marshland. Now, it’s a sprawling suburb.
Too bad the Graf didn’t make more Germany-Florida visits.
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Hi
Can you tell us the cost of a ticket across the Atlantic, and what would be the equivalent today. Compare with ocean liners of the time. Did the cost reduce or increase from 1928 to 1937.
Thank you
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Dan (Airships.net) Reply:
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 am
@ Charles Johnston:
Thank you for your comment.
You can find the cost of transatlantic passage via Hindenburg vs. ocean liner on this site at http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/lz-129.
(I don’t convert to current values because that is actually a theoretically complicated exercise; different economists approach this topic with different assumptions, since different costs inflate at different rates, so there is no “one answer” to how much a 1936 US dollar is worth in 2009 US dollars, much less how much a 1936 Reichsmark is worth in 2009 Deutschemarks or 2009 US dollars. See, for example, http://eh.net/hmit or http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/.
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