Zeppelin Graf Zeppelin and other ridgid airships

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SaparotRob said:
I think it's the Hindenburg. That does have DLZ-129 on the side? Hard to see on my phone.
Click to expand...
Good catch Rob! You're right, not only that but it has the much smaller control gondola, the top photo is clearly the Graf with that big gondola. The bottom photo also has the Olympic rings on the side to celebrate the 1936 games held in Germany. I missed that before, so that's not a photo taken in 1929 like I thought... obviously.
 
SaparotRob said:
Did I mention Doctor Hugo Eckener was one of my aviation heroes?
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I hadn't noticed.. :D

From the same cloth came British airship maestro and Brit version of Eckener, Maj George Herbert Scott, who is one of my aviation heroes for similar reasons, I suspect, but Scotty was something of a tragic figure, which makes him all the more interesting in my view. He was the commander of Britain's first successful rigid, HMA No.9 and commanded a RNAS airship station during the war, then was chosen as captain of the R.34 on its historic Atlantic crossing to and from the USA.

He went to work for the Royal Airship Works at Cardington, and then his life and health began to deteriorate. He took to excessive consumption of alcohol as he saw his friends and colleagues die in airship accidents, Brig Gen Edward Maitland and Maj John Pritchard both went with Scotty aboard R.34 to the USA and both died aboard R.38 when it crashed in 1921. Another of Scotty's mates who perished was Lt Cdr Zachary Lansdown, USN, who was aboard R.34 and became commander of ZR-1 Shenandoah when it crashed in 1925. He crossed the Atlantic once more aboard an airship, as an advisor on R.100 on its flight to Montreal and took the reigns whilst in a storm, successfully navigating it out of the yuk. Scotty perished aboard R.101 on the night of 5 October 1930.


51963491699_f2583092c0_b.jpg
Scotty


SaparotRob said:
I had been quite a Zeppelinophile.
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Oh well, no one's perfect, close though ;)
 
Great post, nuuumannn. Thanks for the info. The R-34 was based on a captured Zeppelin (the Zep's number eludes me), correct? The R-100 was a pretty cool design too. Much better than the ill-fated R-101. It's all starting to come back. Was Tin-Tin somehow involved?
 
SaparotRob said:
Was Tin-Tin somehow involved?
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Probably, that little sucker gets around!

Thanks Rob. I met John Pritchard's niece once. She came to the museum I was working at and donated a whole lot of photographs from his personal collection. Pritchard, in case you are not aware was the first person to arrive in the USA by airship (aircraft fullstop) as when R.34 arrived overhead at Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, Long Island - now a shopping mall, there was no adequate ground handling team and so he was volunteered to parachute out of the airship to organise this. When he was asked by a reporter what his first impressions of America were, he naturally said "Hard..."

Yep, you're right, R.34 was designed by Admiralty designer C. I. R. Campbell and was based on the wreck of L 33, brought down on the night of 23/24 September 1916 almost intact after being shot at by New Zealander Alfred de Bathe Brandon of 39 Home Defence Sqn RFC. Dimesionally she was exactly the same size as L 33, down to the exact number of frames and gas cells. Her internal gas volume was also identical.

51793541045_0055853e50_b.jpg
L33 wreck

R.34's engine and control car layout was copied directly from that of L 49, which had separate cars for each of the engines, except the rear gondola, which in the R Class Zeppelins of which L 33 was, two of the three engines in the rear car drove props mounted on the hull sides via drive shafts, which was deemed inefficient, so the more streamlined fashion of connecting these to a single prop via an RGB was fitted to R.34.

51965410344_dfe33f8ed1_h.jpg
R.34ef b

Note the bow plate on the airship's nose.

50871954248_c9d5c4129f_b.jpg
MoF 79

I digress...
 
nuuumannn said:
Probably, that little sucker gets around!

Thanks Rob. I met John Pritchard's niece once. She came to the museum I was working at and donated a whole lot of photographs from his personal collection. Pritchard, in case you are not aware was the first person to arrive in the USA by airship (aircraft fullstop) as when R.34 arrived overhead at Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, Long Island - now a shopping mall, there was no adequate ground handling team and so he was volunteered to parachute out of the airship to organise this. When he was asked by a reporter what his first impressions of America were, he naturally said "Hard..."

Yep, you're right, R.34 was designed by Admiralty designer C. I. R. Campbell and was based on the wreck of L 33, brought down on the night of 23/24 September 1916 almost intact after being shot at by New Zealander Alfred de Bathe Brandon of 39 Home Defence Sqn RFC. Dimesionally she was exactly the same size as L 33, down to the exact number of frames and gas cells. Her internal gas volume was also identical.

View attachment 662800L33 wreck

R.34's engine and control car layout was copied directly from that of L 49, which had separate cars for each of the engines, except the rear gondola, which in the R Class Zeppelins of which L 33 was, two of the three engines in the rear car drove props mounted on the hull sides via drive shafts, which was deemed inefficient, so the more streamlined fashion of connecting these to a single prop via an RGB was fitted to R.34.

View attachment 662801R.34ef b

Note the bow plate on the airship's nose.

View attachment 662802MoF 79

I digress...
Click to expand...
Good stuff! There's a lot on dirges destroyed but I was more interested in the "successes". The R-34, R-100, U.S.S. Los Angeles (DLZ-127?), yeah, even U.S.S. Macon. There was something about an aircraft that could just stay aloft forever. Ain't how it worked out.
Up ship!
 
SaparotRob said:
There's a lot on dirges destroyed but I was more interested in the "successes".
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Yup, R.34 was categorised as a complete success because of the flight to the USA, despite the hopeless future for the rigid airship. It yielded much information, such as weather patterns mid Atlantic, as well as raised many issues that needed to be addressed for future airship travel. R.100 is also a favourite, being the success story of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a real beauty of a ship and the fastest rigid airship ever built!
 
nuuumannn said:
I really like that you are taking the time to look for the original site today, Snautzer, great effort. Keep it up, it adds real life to the original images.
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Thank you. For some unknown reason i am curious to the then and now in some pictures. If i get a lead like a name or place i have to search if i can find the modern scene.
 
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