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
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
HI!
I am a student from norway that works on my bachelor thieses on airships.
Is it ok that I use some of the information on this page on my bachelor thieses, i will ofcourse state the sources.
Best regards
Ekram
Of course. Thank you for asking! I would love to read your thesis when it is finished.
Thank you, and for this great website!
ok, I will tell you when am finished.
Thank you for such an informative site. I have family photos that were marked Von Hindenburg flying over Beach Haven, NJ. The photos show a process date of November 2, 1936. Since the Hindenburg crashed in May 1937, it is possible these photos were from one of the October 1936 scheduled flights in the US. (according to your scheduled flight list).
According to Harold Dick’s book about the Hindenburg, she flew from Germany on 10 October 1936 and arrived at Lakehurst 12 October 1936. This was her last flight of the season to the USA. She made three more flights to the South Atlantic afterwards in 1936 before being laid up for the winter. Your picture may have been taken in mid October and developed later in November perhaps.
Thank you very much!
I would love to see this giant legendary wonders in the air again. I must give my compliments to the Germans for their superb innovativeability and engineering.
The remark in this article that the shape of the zeppelin was dominated by the hanger it was build in, I believe was not actually a disadvantage because silinder shape vessels like rockets and missles move quite easily through air. The silinder shape’s only disadvantage is the sstructure and rigging against stress outside the hull which can easily be fixed byt todays technology via carbonfibre and compressed polyfoam, hydrogen is out and helium is in…. Axcept if an “alloy” gas superficially be manufactured to have the same ability as hydrogen, but with non lethal caractiristics. Nuclear reactors is for ships,subs & powerplants, our technology level does not permit this idea yet for airships yet. Reason, size,weight & phisical dimentions is still an issue. I like the mushroom concept earlier mentioned, what do you think about the idea of a floating/flying saucer as an star-trek starship design, hehhehehehehe
My Grand Father told me that as a boy he would see it fly over his house between NYC and Ohio.Said was a grand sight and flew not very high. He”s 91 this year.
IN 1933 I WAS A FIRST GRADER IN REYNOLDS SCHOOL (3 MILES NORTH EAST OF HORTON MICHIGAN) AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SCHOOL BOARD CAME IN THE SCHOOL AND TOLD THE TEACHER TO LET ALL OF THE STUDENTS OUT. WE WENT OUTSIDE AND SAW THE GRAf ZEPPELIN GOING FROM WEST TO EAST JUST A LITTLE NORTH OF THE SCHOOL. WHAT A SIGHT FOR A SIX YEAR OLD.
Where is Horton? It is not in my atlas. The reason I ask is that I saw a zeppelin when I was a little kid. I was in Kewaunee, Wisconsin which is about 200 miles north of Chicago. Maybe it then crossed Lake Michigan and flew near Horton.
Horton is on Moscow Road which runs between Moscow and M-60 highway. It is about 5 miles south of M-60. If you do not find it then try Map quest.
Lucian Marks
I can be reached at jordanfatkinson@yahoo.com, 610-203-2121
How high could the Graf Zeppelin climb before hydrogen would need to be valved?
Depends – pressure height is the height the airship is at when the lifting gas inside expands (from the decrease in air pressure at altitude) to fill the gas cell 100%. As you go higher in the air, the air pressure drops. With lifting gas in a cell, the cell or balloon will expand as it rises through the atmosphere as the air pressure which contains the balloon’s shape reduces with altitude, the balloon expands outwards to the limits of it’s envelope skin tension. When the airship goes over it’s pressure height, the lifting gas is forced against the walls of the gas cells as well as the internal structure of the airship, and they will rupture or break the airship apart it if the lifting gas is not released into the atmosphere.
This was done manually or like in the US Navy, automatically with pressure-sensitive valves located on the gas cells. If you go over pressure height too long, you end up bleeding off your lifting gas, and thereby loosing the gas that gives your airship lift and start to descend. As you descend, the air pressure increases, and the gas cells pucker inwards but you don’t regain the lost lifting gas. So the descent is usually not a reversible one unfortunately, and airship skippers are told never to exceed pressure height.
Pressure height’s not a constant, and is a function of the given air pressure the airship is in (which varies with weather), and how far the gas cells are filled. If they are topped off 100% at take off, the airship can’t climb to far up before it has to vent gas. So they are usually filled to what the captain of the airship intends to set his cruise altitude at while being able to lift the airship and it’s cargo off the ground safely. The early WW-1 high altitude German bomber zeppelins flew so high, that they had very little hydrogen in their cells at launch, to allow the cells to expand to full size when at altitude. They were built very, very lightly and were structurally weak, in order to gain altitude.
Being a airship captain then meant knowing your math, namely the laws of statics, the laws of physics concerning gas and pressure, as well as the weather pretty well. Failure to do so meant your career was a short, but spectacular one.
The Graf Zeppelin is considered the finest airship ever built. It flew more miles than any airship had done to that time or would in the future.
Where is now the Graf Zeppelin?
LZ-127 was dismantled at the beginning of the Second World War.
It’s known that the components that made up the actual Graf Zeppelin were scrapped and were used to aid Germany’s uprising going into WWII. For historical preservation purpose, did they salvage anything from the Graf before it was scrapped? Also, I did some research on The Lakehurst historical society’s web page and found that the damaged fabric that was removed for replacement was in great demand at the time for keepsakes/souvenirs. Any ideas as to how much damaged fabric was removed? How people aquired the pieces of fabric? Did they just cut the remains into equal pieces and distribute them to base personnel? Any answers or pointers would be awesome!
There are some (fairly) large pieces of the Graf that exist today. At least one of its engine cars is now at the Zeppelin Museum in Freidrichschafen (I almost certainly misspelled that!)
Flotsam and jetsam from WW-2 German aluminum airplane parts and pieces probably.
Did the Graf Zeppelin ever fly over St. Louis?
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?
LZ-127 was in its hangar at Friedrichshafen on March 16, 1935.
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
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.
Thank you Dan!!!
Wikepedia was absolutely worthless in this matter. Thanks for all you do!
Francisco
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.
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”….
I’m pretty sure it used a zinc oxide combination doping solution (however that might have been the Hindenburg which used a different dope solution. I myself painted the same model kit a simple metallic silver. I hope this helps:)
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
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!
Point of order, if memory serves me correctly the USS Akron (ZRS-4) was flying until her death in 1933. There was a tragic event in which three ground crew members failed to let go of ground lines and were take aloft – one was pulled aboard her.
The event did took place in Texas (I believe) and the ship was experiencing super heat along with gusty winds that triggered the need for quick release by the ground crew officer in charge/and Captain.
Hope this helps – Wick – Naval Airship Association
http://www.naval-airships.org
Well, My sister has claimed all her life that she saw the Graf Zeppelin fly over Fredericksburg while she was living at a certain house. Those years would have been 1933-1935. There was no doubt that it was the Graf Zeppelin. When I was in a museum along Lake Constance I saw the route traced by the Zeppelin to have travelled farther west in Texas than Fredericksburg. The year matched although you say that that acould not have been possible. She would have been only 1 in 1929 and was not living at that address at that time.
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?
The ship would likely have been larger, and had more of a teardrop shape (similar to Bodensee/Nordstern).
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
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….
fantastic website you got here
would be nice if you could add the metric equivalents in the statistics pages
Yes, I agree completely, and it is on my list of things to do!
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.
GONDOLA…………SORRY!!!!!
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
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
What type of help do you mean?
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
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.
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:
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.
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
@ 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/.