Mit Graf Zepplin (1931) Rare Agfa Ozaphan, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin,
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (Deutsches Luftschiff
Zeppelin #
127;
Registration: D-LZ 127) was a German-built and -operated, passenger-carrying, hydrogen-filled, rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to
1937. It was named after the
German pioneer of airships,
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or
Count in the
German nobility. During its operating life, the airship made 590 flights covering more than a million miles (1.6 million km). It was designed to be operated by a crew of 36 officers and men.
The
Graf Zeppelin made another groundbreaking flight in July 1931 with a research trip to the Arctic (Polarfahrt 1931). This adventure had been a dream of
Count Zeppelin 20 years earlier but could not be realized at the time due to the outbreak of
World War I. The idea of using an airship to explore the Arctic was one reason used to justify both the building of Graf Zeppelin, and the restoration of
Germany's right to build airships for commercial purposes.
A year earlier Dr. Eckener had piloted the Graf on a three-day trip to
Norway and Spitsbergen in July
1930 in order to determine its performance in this region. This was followed shortly thereafter by a three-day flight to
Iceland. Both trips were completed without technical problems.
The initial idea was to rendezvous with the ill-fated
Nautilus, the submarine of polar researcher
George Hubert Wilkins, who was attempting a trip under the ice. This plan was abandoned when the submarine encountered recurring technical problems leading to its eventual scuttling in a
Bergen fjord.
Plans were then altered to make a rendezvous with a surface vessel to be funded by exchanging souvenir mails to the ship.
Around fifty thousand cards and letters were collected from around the world weighing a total of about
300 kg (661 lbs). The rendezvous vessel, the
Russian icebreaker
Malygin, on which the
Italian airshipman and polar explorer
Umberto Nobile was a guest, carried another
120 kg (265 lbs) of mails to exchange. The major costs of the expedition were met largely by sale of special postage stamps issued by both Germany (as overprints) and the
Soviet Union to frank the mails carried on the flight. The rest of the funding came from Aeroarctic and the Ullstein-Verlag in exchange for exclusive reporting rights.[citation needed]
The polar flight took one week from July 24--31, 1931. The Graf Zeppelin traveled about 10,600 km (6,600 mi) with the longest leg without refueling being 8,600 km (5,345 miles). The average speed was 88 km/h (
55 mph).
Route:
Friedrichshafen--Berlin -- 600 km (370 mi) in 8 hours (75 km/h; 47 mph)
Berlin--Leningrad -- 1,400 km (870 mi) in 16 hours (87 km/h; 54 mph)
Leningrad--Kanin -- 1,300 km (810 mi) in 12 hours (
108 km/h; 67 mph)
Kanin--Franz-Joseph-Land -- 1,
200 km (750 mi) in 18 hours (67 km/h; 42 mph)
Franz-Joseph-Land--Nordland--Taimyr--Novaya
Zemlya -- 2,400 km (1,
500 mi) in 32 hours (75 km/h; 47 mph)
Novaya Zemlya--Leningrad -- 2,300 km (1,400 mi) in 25 hours (92 km/h; 57 mph)
Leningrad--Berlin -- 1,400 km (870 mi) in 13 hours (108 km/h; 67 mph)
Berlin--Friedrichshafen -- 600 km (370 mi) in 8 hours (75 km/h; 47 mph)
Goals:
Test the Graf Zeppelin under Arctic conditions
scientific and geographic research of large areas of the Arctic
measurement of magnetic field changes
meteorological measurements (including weather balloon launches)
geo-photographic recording of large areas with a panoramic camera (that would take years if by ship or by land)
All participants were satisfied after the trip: the airship demonstrated its usefulness in the Arctic.
16mm film to digital transfer by
Gerald Santana