The German airship LZ 127, better known as the Graf Zeppelin, first took to the skies on September 18, 1928. Three years later, after breaking several records, it reached the North Pole, covering 10,600 kilometers in just one week. In addition to serving as political propaganda, this journey provided invaluable scientific data on Earth's magnetic field, Arctic weather conditions, and panoramic photographs of vast previously unknown areas.
What we commonly call an airship is nothing more than a large, rigid, and lightweight container that can fly thanks to the enormous amount of gas lighter than air stored inside. Many airships have been built, mostly in the first half of the last century, but one of the most famous and successful was undoubtedly the LZ 127, named Graf Zeppelin in honor of one of the pioneers of German aeronautics: Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
These types of aircraft tend to be huge, since the payload they can carry is directly related to the vertical thrust provided by the gas inside. If you want to lift a heavy load, you need a large airship. The Graf Zeppelin was no exception: it measured more than 235 meters long, over 30 meters in diameter, and could carry up to 60,000 kilograms of cargo.
It made its first flight on September 18, 1928. It carried about 105,000 cubic meters of hydrogen and was powered by five 12-cylinder Maybach engines, each capable of providing about 550 HP during takeoff and 450 HP continuously during flight. It offered accommodations for 20 passengers and reached a maximum speed of 128 kilometers per hour. All these features made the Graf Zeppelin the largest aircraft of its time.
Over its service life – it was retired on June 18, 1938 – it carried more than 34,000 people, made over 600 trips, 150 of which were Atlantic crossings, as it was part of the regular cargo and mail line between Europe and South America. One of its early achievements was the trip around the world, completed on August 29, 1929, which ended in Lakehurst, New Jersey, famous as the site where nine years later the LZ 129 Hindenburg would catch fire, killing 35 people.
This journey took three weeks and clearly demonstrated the airship's capabilities. Shortly afterward, it set a record for non-stop flight, remaining in the air for 128 hours. Its greatest challenge was reaching the North Pole, an old dream of Count Zeppelin himself, who had planned such a trip 20 years earlier but could not carry it out because of World War I.
Under the command of Hugo Eckener, the Zeppelin began its journey toward the North Pole. Previously, it had flown without problems between Norway and the Spitsbergen archipelago, demonstrating its ability to cope with the appalling weather conditions found in those latitudes. Such a trip had at least two important purposes. First, the German government would gain great political prestige by showing what its engineers could do. Second, it would provide scientific data about the Arctic that would otherwise be practically impossible to obtain.
To make the adventure even more impressive, it was planned that a submarine, the USS O-12 Nautilus (yes, the American submarine that eventually reached the North Pole was named the same), would meet the Graf Zeppelin at the Pole itself and exchange mail. Unfortunately, the Nautilus suffered a couple of setbacks that ended with the vessel sinking in the fjords of Bergen. Far from being discouraged, Eckener proposed meeting a surface ship to attempt the mail transfer. It should be noted that the recurring mail theme was not merely a whim but rather a means to finance the trip: the sale of postage stamps – which would later become valuable among collectors – would provide most of the money needed for the adventure.
Eventually, a meeting was arranged with a Russian icebreaker, the Malygin. The airship carried more than 300 kilograms of mail (about fifty thousand letters), and the ship about 120 kilograms. The Zeppelin began its journey on June 24, 1931, covering the route from Friedrichshafen to Berlin (about 600 kilometers) in just 8 hours. From there it flew to Leningrad (1,400 km) in 16 hours, and continued to the Kanin Peninsula (1,300 km), a distance it covered in about 12 hours, flying at an average of 108 kilometers per hour. The journey proceeded without problems, and Eckener guided the airship toward Franz Josef Land (1,200 km), then to the Taimyr Peninsula (2,400 km), and from there to the vicinity of the Pole. In just one week, they were back in Friedrichshafen.
The Graf Zeppelin flew a total of about 10,600 kilometers at an average speed of 88 kilometers per hour, 8,600 of them without refueling. The planned objectives were more than fulfilled: the government gained recognition for the operational capability of German airships, and scientists obtained a wealth of data. Measurements of Earth's magnetic field and its variations were taken, meteorological measurements were made, and the release of smaller balloons provided data at different altitudes. A great number of panoramic photographs of the Arctic were taken, useful for creating and updating maps.
Surely, if the terrible Hindenburg accident had not occurred, this type of aircraft would have become a cheap means of transport that we might still use today. But it was not easy to safely handle the thousands of cubic meters of gas they needed to fly, and the materials available at the time made them very fragile and unsafe. The “golden age of airships” had its heyday during the reign of the Graf Zeppelin, which was itself one of its greatest exponents.
For more on this remarkable airship, read about the Graf Zeppelin on Wikipedia.
