LZ-130 — named Graf Zeppelin — was the last large rigid airship ever built.
LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin (original color photo)
Built from essentially the same blueprints as her sister ship, LZ-129 Hindenburg, LZ-130 was nearing completion at the time of the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. Originally intended to join Hindenburg in transatlantic service in October, 1937, LZ-130 was modified to use helium after the Hindenburg crash, delaying her first flight.
LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin
Because helium provides less lift than hydrogen, LZ-130’s passenger capacity was reduced from the 72 carried by Hindenburg to just 40, and because helium was expensive and difficult to obtain, modifications were required to avoid the need to release helium during normal operations; the engine cars greatly enlarged to accommodate equipment to recover water from exhaust gases, with tractor propellers (facing forward) rather than the pusher propellers on Hindenburg.
After the fiery crash of Hindenburg it seemed likely that the United States, which had a practical monopoly on helium, would lift its 1927 export restriction and allow German passenger airships to use the nonflammable gas, but with the increasing aggression of the National Socialist government in 1938, including the annexation of Austria and the occupation of Sudeten Czechoslovakia, the American government would not allow the exportation of helium to Germany. LZ-130 spent her short career inflated with hydrogen and never carried a paying passenger.
Graf Zeppelin made her first flight on September 14, 1938, under the command of Hugo Eckener, and made a total of 30 flights during her two year career. In addition to propaganda flights over Germany, German-annexed Austria, and German-occupied Sudetenland, LZ-130 conducted multiple military reconnaisance flights including a two-day flight in August, 1939, dedicated to electronic surveillance of Britain’s Chain Home radar network.
LZ-130 Dining Room
LZ-130 Passenger Cabin
Lounge; steps to Dining Room
LZ-130’s last flight took place on August 20, 1939; twelve days later Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II, and the ship never flew again. In March, 1940, Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goring ordered the dismantling of LZ-127, LZ-130, and LZ-131, which was then under construction, and by late April the ships had been cut into scrap. On May 6, 1940 — the third anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster — Wehrmacht demolition specialists destroyed the Zeppelin Company hangars in Frankfurt.
LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin in flight
Я восхищаюсь гениями инженеров – творцов дирижаблей.
Я тоже!
(Изучал русский язык в школе и университете. Но говорю плохо. 🙂 )
Where was cargo stored on a zeppelin?
Usually along the keel.
Was Oskar Fink the navigator on the 130
I like the fact the helium supply was cut off by the US. But today, imagine today’s political leaders. They’re so clueless, and would think selling helium or any commodity to an enemy is fine. They’d be like, okay, and buy some of my son’s paintings.
There is a whole administrative apparatus set up to control the export of strategically valuable commodities to potential adversaries—far more extensive than at the time of the Graf Zeppelin. In fact, the ruckus over the export of helium to Germany played a part in creating this system.
http://www.trade.gov/us-export-controls
I was going through my Dad’s things today and found a German book about the Graf Zeppelin and original newspapers 1929. There is also a postcard that was addressed to the Swiss Consul. I would love to find someone that might be interested in these things.
I am, contact me at [email protected]
Prezados senhores embora lento para os tempos de hoje seria louvável a reconstrução de uma nave como esta com os novos materiais que o mundo hoje dispoem
Ola,sim,eu adora este typo de Aeronave!o Zeppelin fui uma construçao muit legal,hoje tem aqui na Europa umas pequenas Zeppelins para passear com Touristas!
There is an angle that has not been pointed out on how one decision could almost backfire disasterously.If General Martini had been successful with his experiments in detecting the British Radar Chain using the Graf Zeppelin 2 and the germans were able to take advantage of the information and exploit it then Secretary Ickes decision to block the helium sale could in the end have had caused very serious issues for the Allies in WW2.The Graf Zeppelin 2 was only made available to General Martini because it was not allowed under hydrogen filling to carry passengers.If the ship had been inflated with the promised helium then the ship would have only been used as a passenger liner as it was designed and not available for the radio detection missions. Under the safeguards of the Helium Act any usage for military uses would have had the effect of the supply being cut off.Without the helium the germans were left with nothing more than a very large white elephant without real purpose except an unique advantage in being a platform for radio and radar detection experiments.In a sense an airborne USS Liberty or Pueblo.In any case the missions did fail to detect the Radar Chain and history played out as it was meant but it was a close call.
Provided that LZ 129 would not have been destroyed in May 1937 the plan was that LZ 130 should make it´s maiden voyage to Rio in late October 1937. That would mean that LZ 127 would also still be in Operation, so that LZ 130 could not get the Name “Graf Zeppelin”. Does anybody has an idea if there was any other name planned for LZ 130 initially ?
Graf Zeppelin – LZ-127 – was slated for retirement as a training ship shortly after LZ-130 came online. This would have avoided any confusion in names.
I have recently read Hans von Schiller´s book “Zeppelinbuch 1938”. He described there in detail the situation of the DZR in winter 1936/37. The LZ 127 was technically revised and it was deciced to stay in service for another 3 years. The DZR expected LZ 130 to have it´s first flight in August 1937 and to go into service in October 1937. DZR already started to train additional crew members in order to built up a third air ship crew for summer 1937. Hans von Schiller was designated commander of LZ 130, Alber Sammt and Heinrich Bauer should become officers. That indicates that LZ 127 was not supposed to be replaced with LZ 130 in 1937. So I still wonder which name the LZ 130 would have got in case that LZ 127 was still active. Can someone help ?
There is at least one image of a large swath of fabric hanging on the Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin hangar wall bearing the name “Graf Zeppelin 2,” although it was obviously never installed on the ship.
The joke I always figured was that the LZ-130 could have been named the Ludendorff after the WW 1 German General.My thinking of this and I am not really being serious is that Field Marshal Von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff worked hand in hand during the war especially at the battle of Tannenberg so you would have had the Hindenburg and the Ludendorff in service for the Fatherland again at the same time.On a serious note the best I can do on the name was quoting from page 101 of Manfred Bauer/Johns Duggan’s excellent book LZ 130 “Graf Zeppelin” and the End of Commercial Airship Travel the rumored name for it was Grossdeutsches Reich.
The unnamed LZ-131, on which work had just commenced in late 1939 and would never progress further than the single a main hull ring completed before the scrapping order came down in 1940, was to be named “Peter Strasser” according to longstanding speculation and rumor. However, there is no known Zeppelin Company documentation that either supports and or disproves this.
Adolf Hitler comes to mind.
Blueprint of the nose here: http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Sh9LH2YujLk/Um_X97TxGyI/AAAAAAAACjo/yFcvFQvnWQQ/s1600-h/LZ%252520129-LZ%252520130%252520bow%252520blueprint%25255B4%25255D.jpg
I would like to add a help to many in the comments box-one person mentions Harold Dick who wrote a book on his five year time living in Germany before the war started. Two Goodyear engineers lived in Germany, one returned to Goodyear after one year and Harold stayed in Germany for five years before Goering got involved with the German Military using some blimps for rallies and installing radar in some of the blimps. Germany worked with Goodyear sharing ideas and technology and the Germans sent over a few foreman and workers around 1927 to who the people at Goodyear how they were making the Duralumin and setting up the blimps. Harold was told to go back to the U.S. just before the war started. After the was in 1945, people in the town in Germany sent a letter to Harold to please come to Germany to help build a museum at Friedrichshafen and when he got there everything was wrecked. All the drawings were gone and they searched Europe and found the drawings in a flea market in France. They purchased the drawings and brought them back to Germany to begin the task of the museum. Harold was one of the few people left after the war that had engineering experience with the blimps and how everything was before the wars destruction. The museum was a memorial to all the people in Germany and America that worked together to bring so many things together. Today we all take too many things for granted and really don’t realize the generation before us made our lives so much better with all the technology that was developed largely as part of the war. The same town in Germany produced tank engines and liquid oxygen and was on the bombing list with England and U.S. bombers. 67% of the town was damaged by all the bombing. Today Germany is making some of the most advanced designs in Military, automobile and other systems that are still amazing in their scope. We have to give tribute to all the people that came before us and appreciate their sacrifice to advance the world. The horrors of war and the deaths of millions is always a tragedy but the brilliant minds and talent of individuals who made all the advances happen deserve notice and credit for their contribution. Werner Von Braun and his team from Penemunde put the U.S. on the moon with his Saturn V rocket design. There were 5 engines on that rocket that burned 125,000 gallons of fuel per minute. There is a challenge for engineering students. How much fuel did this rocket burn before the second stage hit? Werner live with a team of 10 top German scientists at Huntsville Rocket Facility in Alabama after the war and worked with U.S. Scientists at Cape Canaveral to make it happen.
Airship or Zeppelin are the correct terms. A blimp is a non-rigid design.
While this is technically correct, to specify for clarity, only the 119 rigid airships constructed by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, GmbH at Friedrichshafen, or at one of its WW I satellite factories of Staaken, Potsdam or Löwenthal, can and should be identified as “Zeppelins”
The 20 wooden hulled ships constructed by their rival, Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz, GmbH at Mannheim, the 17 constructed by various British companies, the three built by The Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. in the US, and the lone ship built by France are all correctly identified as Rigid Airships.
Calling a dirigible a blimp is like calling a B-29 a glider !
What he said. 🙂