Part 9 (1/2)

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 airs.h.i.+p personnel of the army or navy.

Naturally ”DELAG” became noted for its successful operations; and its s.h.i.+ps were repeatedly chartered by the military or naval personnel for training flights.

Developed Airs.h.i.+p Navigation

The ”DELAG” has been credited with the entire development of airs.h.i.+p navigating technique. For one thing, it was the only organization of its kind, training airs.h.i.+p personnel in practical operations. The ”DELAG”

airs.h.i.+ps and airs.h.i.+p crews were used almost exclusively for training purposes when war was declared. At that time there were two other airs.h.i.+p construction companies in Germany, Schutte-Lanz and Pa.r.s.eval.

Both of these organizations procured their airs.h.i.+p 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 airs.h.i.+ps. 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 Airs.h.i.+ps | 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 Airs.h.i.+p 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