Jetrader - July/August 2009 - 20

aviation history Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin The Airship Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s lasting contribution to aviation By Bill Bath anuary 19-20, 1915: Londoners lay sleeping, safe in the knowledge that in spite of Louis Bleriot’s demonstration of how the English Channel was no longer the centuries’ old barrier to foreign enemies, none had yet succeeded in attacking the city by air. They awoke that morning to news boys shouting “Extra! Extra! England Attacked!” and large-type headlines proclaiming raids by Zeppelins on southeast towns. Two Zeppelins, L.3 and L.4, had dropped 24 50 kg high-explosive bombs on Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, King’s Lynn and other villages. Four people had been killed and 16 injured. The ﬁrst attempted raids on London in February and March failed when L.8 crashed near Ghent and four Army airships got lost in fog; it was not until May 31 when Hauptmann Linnarz commanding L.38 succeeded in dropping incendiary canisters ﬁlled with thermite (metal canisters ﬁlled with powdered aluminum and iron oxide wrapped in tarred rope and a fuse). High-explosive bombs also hit a whiskey distillery and the Shoreditch Empire Music Hall. The Zeppelins could out climb the British ﬁghters, but, by late 1916, improved engine performance and searchlights enabled the ﬁrst downing of a Zeppelin over England. Having to now ﬂy higher, their crews suffered from the bitter cold and altitude sickness; the winter storms and prevailing westerly winds prevented many who departed Friedrichshafen from reaching land across the North Sea or English Channel to bomb a target of opportunity. The introduction of phosphorus and incendiary bullets in 1917 enabled the British BE2c’s Lewis machine guns to set the Zeppelins ablaze from end to end in seconds, with many of the crews preferring to jump than burn. By November 11, 1918, British casualties totaled 557, and 1,358 were injured from the 5,806 bombs, not to mention extensive property damage. Of the 84 Zeppelins built during the war, 60 were lost to accidents and air and ground defenses. The infamous Hindenburg Good Times, Bad Times Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was a military observer attached to the Union Army during the Civil War in 1863 and had seen its balloon corps deploy them as a demonstration. Later, he witnessed the French using them to deliver mail during the Franco-Prussian War of 187071. Retiring from the army at 52 years of age in 1891, he was awarded a patent on a design for a controllable rigid airship. Unable to get ofﬁcial ﬁnancing for his new company, he invested more than 400,000 marks—some 50 percent of the ﬁrm’s capital. Theodor Kober was the chief engineer responsible for design and construction of the airship in a ﬂoating hangar on Lake Constance at Friedrichshafen, his thinking being it could be rotated to align with the wind. The Luftschiff Zeppelin, or LZ.1 as it was known, had a length of 420 ft (128 meters) with its two Daimler engines of,14.2 hp (10.6 kW) located at each end of the envelope. To control 20 The ofﬁcial publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

Jetrader - July/August 2009

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