These flights were characterized as pleasure trips; and as such none was undertaken during the winter months. Instead, the Zeppelins underwent a thorough overhauling. Sometimes, however, a Zeppelin was kept in service all winter to train airship personnel of the army or navy.
Naturally "DELAG" became noted for its successful operations; and its ships were repeatedly chartered by the military or naval personnel for training flights.
Developed Airship Navigation
The "DELAG" has been credited with the entire development of airship navigating technique. For one thing, it was the only organization of its kind, training airship personnel in practical operations. The "DELAG"
airships and airship crews were used almost exclusively for training purposes when war was declared. At that time there were two other airship construction companies in Germany, Schutte-Lanz and Pa.r.s.eval.
Both of these organizations procured their airship pilots from the trained personnel of the "DELAG."
[PLATE 49: The "DELAG" Pa.s.senger Zeppelin "Nordstern."
Rear view of rear power gondola containing two 260 horsepower Maybach motors.]
Zeppelins Operated Safely
All of the flights listed in the following table were made without a single injury to pa.s.sengers or crew. The =Deutschland= had been repeatedly damaged while entering or leaving her shed and was rebuilt. The "=Schwaben=" was burned at her moorings during a severe storm. It is now known that all these accidents could have been avoided, in view of the progress that has been made in the science of lighter-than-air.
Experience has materially increased the performance and qualities of safety in airships. Better motors, controls, gas bags and other parts of the Zeppelin have been so improved as to preclude possibility of accidents such as those which occasionally hindered the operations of "DELAG" before the war. Each of the flights listed here averaged two hours, 68 miles (109 kilometers), traversed with 22 pa.s.sengers. All the flights aggregated 107,180 miles (172,535 kilometers), more than _four times the girth of the earth_ at the equator.
Commercial Operations of the Zeppelin
---------------------------+---------+-------+------------+----------- | Number | | Total | Number of Airships | of | Hours | Mileage in | Pa.s.sengers | Flights | | Kilometers | Carried ---------------------------+---------+-------+------------+----------- "Deutschland" and the LZ-6 | 62 | 124 | 6546 | 1778 "Schwaben" | 218 | 480 | 27321 | 4354 "Victoria Louise" | 489 | 981 | 54312 | 9738 "Hansa" | 399 | 841 | 44437 | 8521 "Sachsen" | 419 | 741 | 39919 | 9837 +---------+-------+------------+----------- Total | 1588 | 3167 | 172535 | 34228 ---------------------------+---------+-------+------------+-----------
[PLATE 50: The "DELAG" Pa.s.senger Zeppelin "Bodensee."
Front and rear views of rear power gondola. Note radiator temperature control and ladder.
The "DELAG" Pa.s.senger Zeppelin "Bodensee."
Interior view showing location of fuel tanks.]
Trained Germany"s Airship Forces
In the early days of the war the "=Victoria Louise=" made more than a thousand training flights for more than 39,852 miles (64,152 kilometers) in 1292 hours, flying time, all after she had been added to the military training forces. Finally, her framework became so worn that she was dismantled. The "=Sachsen=" and "=Hansa=" (Plate 33) performed similar service.
From the Managing Director to the mechanics, all of the "DELAG"
personnel entered the service during the war, where they were instructors, and it was due to them that the numbers of Zeppelins launched for war service were manned by crews qualified to operate them.
Commercial Operations Resumed
The real work for which the "DELAG" was created, "to develop commercial air transport" was of necessity put aside during the period of the war, but these activities were resumed early in 1919 when it was decided to start a regular daily pa.s.senger service, at first between Berlin and Friedrichshafen, a distance of 373 miles (600 kilometers) and afterward extend it to Switzerland, Italy, Spain in the south and to Sweden in the north. The pre-war personnel of the "DELAG" was a.s.sembled at Friedrichshafen and the route to Berlin started by the new Zeppelin "=Bodensee=" on August 24th, 1919 (Plate 38).
The "Bodensee" an Improved Type
The "=Bodensee=" was designed and built in six months (January to July 1919), by Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin. She was the same size as the pre-war Commercial Zeppelins, _but had twice the engine power, carried twice their useful load and maintained a speed equal with the former ships using only one-half of their engine power_.
[PLATE 51: 20-30,000 Cubic Meter Fast Pa.s.senger Zeppelin "Bodensee" Type.]
The "=Bodensee=" was 426.4 feet (130 meters) long, after she had been lengthened by 32.8 feet (10 meters). Her diameter was 61.3 feet (18.7 meters) and she carried 794,475 cubic feet (22,500 cubic meters) of hydrogen. Her useful load normally was 25,353 pounds (11,500 kilograms).
Her four motors were of 260 horsepower each. They turned three direct-driven propellers, one in each of the port and starboard motor gondolas which hung from the sides of the ship. The third propeller was driven by two engines in the rear motor gondola. The propellers averaged from 1,300 to 1,400 revolutions a minute. The "=Bodensee=" was capable of making 80 miles an hour. Her cruising speed was 75 miles an hour.
Carried Thirty Pa.s.sengers
At this pace she could carry thirty pa.s.sengers comfortably. They were seated in a luxurious salon (Plate 41) built in the pilot car under the forward part of the Zeppelin. Nearby in the same car were a kitchen and lavatory.
The "=Bodensee=" was maintained on the Friedrichshafen-Berlin route to experiment further in commercial air transport. While the "DELAG" did not attempt to make a profit, expenses were kept as low as possible and the prospects of monetary returns were generally favorable.
One Hundred and Three Flights in Ninety-Eight Days
From August 24th until December 1st, 1919, the "=Bodensee=" made 103 flights in 98 days; on several days making two flights, one a short sightseeing trip over Berlin in addition to her regular run.
Seventy-eight flights were made between Lake Constance and Berlin and two between Berlin and Stockholm, eighty trips on schedule in ninety-eight days. There was no flying for ten days owing to general overhaul and repairs. On three occasions the regular flights were postponed because of heavy cross winds which made it difficult and dangerous to start the Zeppelin from the fixed shed of the airdrome at Staaken. This meant the loss of six trips. Two of the regular trips were omitted because of the flights to Sweden.
[PLATE 52: 50,000 Cubic Meter Pa.s.senger Zeppelin.
For medium distances and training purposes.]
Nevertheless, in that period 2,380 pa.s.sengers were carried, exclusive of crews, about 11,000 pounds (5,000 kilograms) of mail and 6,600 (300 kilograms) of express, freight and baggage. The "=Bodensee=" was in the air 533 hours, flying in all 32,300 miles (52,000 kilometers) an average of 62 miles an hour. Notwithstanding the many unforeseen difficulties due to uncertain political and economic conditions in Germany during the last quarter of 1919, the technical results of the "=Bodensee=" operations were excellent.
The "Nordstern" a Sister Ship
A sister ship of the "=Bodensee=" was built during the last quarter of 1919, and named the "=Nordstern=" but in December, that year, the Inter-Allied Air-Control Commission ordered the airship operations stopped. The "=Bodensee=" was delivered to Italy and the "=Nordstern=" to France in 1921.
Once more the aeronautical world became interested in Zeppelins. The last cruise of the "=Bodensee=" under German management took her from Friedrichshafen to Rome. She cruised over Zurich, Bern, Geneva and Avignon, often making 160 kilometers an hour, to the Mediterranean, near St. Rafael. Visitors at Cannes, Nice and Monaco saw a rigid airship for the first time as the "=Bodensee=" held to her route pa.s.sing directly over Corsica and Elba, and finally to the airdrome in Ciampino, between Rome and the Albanian mountains. She had made more than 825 miles (1,329 kilometers) in 12 hours and 49 minutes, at an average speed of 64.6 miles (104 kilometers) an hour for the entire distance.
[PLATE 53: 60,000 Cubic Meter Fast Pa.s.senger Zeppelin.
For medium distances. Accommodations for eighty pa.s.sengers besides the necessary crew.
100,000 Cubic Meter Fast Commercial Zeppelin.
Trans-Atlantic mail and express service.]
CHAPTER IV
The Zeppelin Organization and Facilities Today
The Zeppelin organization today is prepared to build, deliver and operate rigid airships for any purpose. It has under contract virtually all the competent airship personnel in Germany. Practically all the engineering staffs and workmen employed in developing Zeppelins have been retained, one way or another, that they may be prepared to guarantee satisfactory performance of any Zeppelin turned out.