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LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; Registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of its class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. [3]
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin (German pronunciation: [ˈt͡sɛpəliːn] ⓘ) who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874 [1] and developed in detail in 1893. [2]
The initials LZ, for Luftschiff Zeppelin (German for "Zeppelin airship"), usually prefixed their craft's serial identifiers. Streamlined rigid (or semi-rigid) [ 25 ] airships are often referred to as "Zeppelins", because of the fame that this company acquired due to the number of airships it produced, [ 26 ] [ 27 ] although its early rival was ...
The Germans had extensive experience with hydrogen as a lifting gas. Accidental hydrogen fires had never occurred on civilian Zeppelins, so the switch from helium to hydrogen did not cause much concern. Hydrogen also increased lift by about 8%. After the Hindenburg disaster Eckener vowed to never use hydrogen again in a passenger airship.
Graf Zeppelin's achievements showed that this was technically possible. [78] By the time the two Graf Zeppelins were recycled, they were the last rigid airships in the world, [199] and heavier-than-air long-distance passenger transport, using aircraft like the Focke-Wulf Condor and the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, was already in its ascendancy. [200]
The Hindenburg disaster was an airship accident that occurred on May 6, 1937, in Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.The LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; Registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. [1]
For comparison, the largest airships ever built, the Zeppelin company's Hindenburg, LZ-129, and the Graf Zeppelin II, LZ-130, were both 804 feet (245 meters) long and 135 feet (41 meters) in diameter. That is, over four times as long and over twice as wide as the current Goodyear blimps.
Barely able to control the ship on its one live engine, Eckener made an emergency landing. [34] Graf Zeppelin was kept in the hangar which had housed the Dixmude (LZ 114) and the Méditerranée (LZ 121). [35] [nb 3] The engines were replaced with working ones sent by rail from Friedrichshafen, [37] and the ship returned there on 24 May. [38]