Round the World, not with a boat, not with a plane, but with a zeppelin
Round the World, not with a boat, not with a plane, but with a zeppelin
The Graf Zeppelin was the first aircraft in human history that flew over a million miles, made +500 flights & 144 crossings over our oceans
Planes did not run around the world in the 1930s. People instead used ships for such undertakings, and, those who had bit more money in their pockets, also with the Graf Zeppelin, a record-breaker with its pioneering operations and flights. The craft had stayed over 17,000 hours aloft, which equals to almost two years.
Registered as LZ 127, Graf Zeppelin was built in Germany; hydrogen-filled, the rigid airship operated commercially in between 1928 and 1937. Then, World War Two happened, and commercial traveling around the world just for the sake of traveling was not an option. In 1940 the Graf Zeppelin was even scrapped for fighter plane parts.
It was Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German airships pioneer and wealthy man who gave the name to the Graf Zeppelin. As a technological achievement of its time, the Graf Zeppelin was considered one of the longest airships and carried out a total of 590 flights. Some of the photos below, truly caption the glory and grandeur this craft had attached to its name during the 1930s.
The Graf Zeppelin on its Middle East flight in 1931
Stereograph of Graf Zeppelin Over the Pyramids in Egypt
In the first four years of its operations, the Graf Zeppelin was largely used only for experiments. The team of Ferdinand von Zeppelin was preparing the massive aircraft for its ultimate purpose, to carry out commercial transatlantic passenger services. The world was fascinated when the Graf Zeppelin courageously crossed the Atlantic to reach the United States in 1928; this was only a demonstration flight.
Then, a Pan Europe-American flight in 1930 happened, and even a polar expedition in 1931. The craft further carried two round trips to the Middle East and was a regular to Rio de Janiero taking off from different cities from around Europe. Only once did it crossed the vastness of the Pacific, too.
All was well for almost a decade, enough time for the Graf Zeppelin to make history, however, things did not end up so well.
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin over Rio de Janeiro
By 1935, the Nazi party already started to influence all Zeppelin operations, but it would take the Hindenburg incident in 1937 that halted all zeppelin flights. The Hindenburg was the ill-fortunate zeppelin craft that notoriously crashed, and all people on board died. Then, the war came, and the world was soon to forget all those famous round-the-world trips with the pioneering Graf Zeppelin.
Zeppelin lapel pins 1928–37, Photo by Centpacrr, CC BY-SA 3.0
Today, we can only re-imagine the grandeur of these crafts floating in the air featherlight, or perhaps see the lapel pins, now memorabilia, and in the past disseminated among fortunate LZ 127 passengers on board.
Ulm, Germany, the birth city of the Graf Zeppelin in the 1920s
source: www.akpool.de – Postcard Ulm in Baden Württemberg, Minster of Eastern un Zeppelin
It was the city of Ulm that could brag itself about producing the pioneering Graf Zeppelin. Concerning the commercial flights, these were arranged for aristocrats only; a ticket from Germany to Rio de Janeiro would cost a person $590 US dollars, which for 1934 when the tickets hold this price, equated to around $10,600 US dollars as of 2016.
A postcard carried to Syria in a 1929 flight of the Graf Zeppelin
Last but not least, before the Graf Zeppelin positioned with its commercial flights and carried passengers, it was used as postal service and transferred goods between continents and cities. At some occasions, it would carry over 50,000 postcards per flight and additional 40,000 pounds of post mail load. It was able to reach destination such as Rio de Janerio faster than a ship.
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