Shift Magazine - May 2021 - 26

Luftschiffbau
Zeppelin airships,
left, were built until
1938. Sibling company
Zeppelin NT rekindled the
airship business in 1997. Five of its
zeppelins remain in operation.

last mile
Zeppelin pioneer helped forge early
example of aviation and automotive symbiosis

BY PETE BIGELOW

ong before airships became novelties
associated with sightseeing tours and
sporting events, they were vaunted
marvels of the sky.
As military assets, they were used as
aerial scouts in search of submarines and
as ferries for small airplanes. Following
World War I, the Treaty of Versailles
required Germany to give an airship to the
U.S. as war reparations. As commercial
vessels, zeppelins pioneered intercontinental air travel, plied transatlantic routes
and once circumnavigated the globe.
" Airships were the private jets of
their day, " said Eckhard Breuer, CEO of
Zeppelin NT. " It was like crossing on the
Queen Mary. Zeppelins really offered
super-exclusive transportation. "
Less appreciated in their legacy is
their role as groundbreaking transportation-technology platforms - and their
ties to one of the world's leading auto
suppliers.
Airships designed by Count Ferdinand von
Zeppelin in the late 1800s and early 1900s
contained lightweight aluminum frames
and harnessed hydrogen. When noise
from early transmissions became unbearable, engineers at his burgeoning company,
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, replaced
the propeller transmissions and long steel
shafts with more precise drivetrains.
By August 1915, the transmissions
proved so novel that the company spun

off its own automotive-minded subsidiary,
a company now known as global supplier
ZF Friedrichshafen. The convergence is
among the first known between the auto
and aviation industries, coming a year
before BMW's founding as a manufacturer of aircraft engines.
Zeppelins were, of course, slower than
fledgling aircraft of the era. But speed was
not the lone determinant in the battle for
commercial air supremacy that followed
over the next three decades. Cargo and
passenger capacity, range, operation
costs, comfort and safety all mattered.
" Incredible as it sounds now, many
experts believed that airplanes wouldn't
catch up until the 1980s, " said Alexander
Rose, historian and author of Empires of the
Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's
Epic Duel to Rule the World. " It took the
interwar aeronautical revolution to change
their minds, and even then, zeppelins gave
them a good run for their money. "
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin built 119 airships, completing its last in 1938.
Modern-day ZF employs 150,000
people around the globe. The team at sibling company Zeppelin NT, the descendant
of its namesake's company, is considerably smaller. It rekindled the airship business in 1997. Approximately 100 people
work at its headquarters on the shores
of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen,
Germany.
Five of the company's airships produced
since 1997 are still in operation. Goodyear

Tire and Rubber Co. owns three of them
and keeps them in the U.S. Two remain
in the city of their birth for tourist and
sightseeing purposes. A restaurant near
the hangar serves as a viewing terrace
for departures and arrivals, and it's owned
and operated by Zeppelin NT.
" We make everything from airships to
porterhouse steaks, " Breuer jokes.
But that belies the complexity of the
ongoing operation. Beyond its culinary
endeavor, the company designs airships,
maintains a supply chain, manages operations and maintenance across the globe
and trains pilots.
It is the global center for airship expertise, conducting R&D into a hybrid propulsion system and working on confidential
projects.
Zeppelin NT and others believe airships have a future. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has developed the
P-791 technology demonstrator that can
access remote worldwide locations.
LTA Research and Exploration, a startup
funded by Google's Sergey Brin, positions
itself as a 21st-century airship company
that intends to build at least 15 airships for
humanitarian-aid use.
" The primary purpose of airships -
helium-filled, new light materials, better
aerodynamics - would probably be verylong-range, high-capacity cargo transport
at very low cost, " Rose said. " I don't think
anyone's catching a transatlantic zep any
time soon, though one can hope. " n

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https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Sky-Zeppelins-Airplanes-World/dp/081298997X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3R86BVWFDWFBR&dchild=1&keywords=empires+of+the+sky&qid=1620407355&sprefix=empires%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Sky-Zeppelins-Airplanes-World/dp/081298997X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3R86BVWFDWFBR&dchild=1&keywords=empires+of+the+sky&qid=1620407355&sprefix=empires%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Sky-Zeppelins-Airplanes-World/dp/081298997X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3R86BVWFDWFBR&dchild=1&keywords=empires+of+the+sky&qid=1620407355&sprefix=empires%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-1

Shift Magazine - May 2021

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