Airships - Germany: Books - History, Types and Construction

Zeppelin : The Story of Lighter-Than-Air Craft

The author of this book, Ernst A. Lehmann, was close to the Zeppelin story from its early days and had great faith in the ever increasing success of the Zeppelin on international routes.
It is sadly ironic that this talented man and strong advocate of the Zeppelin should die in the Hindenburg disaster shortly after he had produced the draft for this book. He died following the fire that destroyed the Hindenburg on 6 May 1937; he survived the fire itself but was badly burned and died the following day.

Lehmann was a Zeppelin commander during the First World War bombing England on numerous occasions, and even met some of the supreme German commanders such as General Erich Ludendorff. He was well acquainted with Count Zeppelin and all of the designers and management of the Zeppelin Company.

After the war he worked for the Zeppelin Company under Hugo Eckener, who took over the management following Count Zeppelin's death in 1917. Lehmann was closely involved in the voyages of the Graf Zeppelin, including the famous round the world voyage, and pioneered services to the Unites States and the regular service to South America.

Lehmann makes his Nazi sympathies quite clear, but tactfully does not touch upon his differences with Hugo Eckener regarding the use of the airships for Nazi electioneering - for Eckener was strongly against it.
Nor does he touch upon Göring's manoeuvring which broke up the Zeppelin Company, thereby leaving Eckener as an outsider. He believes in the superiority of German engineering and beyond that the superiority of everything German.

Lehmann served as commanding officer on more than 100 of the flights of the Graf Zeppelin between 1928 and 1936. In 1935, when Hermann Göring created the Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei to increase Nazi influence over Zeppelin operations, Captain Lehmann was named director of the new airline. In 1936, he commanded 10 round-trip flights to Lakehurst on the new Hindenburg.

The text is well-written, approachable, and provides a comprehensive account of the Zeppelin story until the 1937 disaster which cost the author his life.

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German Airships - Parseval, Schutte, Lanz, Zeppelin

The development of non-rigid, semi-rigid and rigid airships in Germany. Designs from Parseval, Schutte, Lanz and Zeppelin, from pre-WWI to WWII.

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Zeppelin: the Story of the Zeppelin Airships

On July 2, 1900, Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin made the first ascent in an airship of his own design. The flight was initially viewed with skepticism, however public opinion changed after the destruction of his fourth airship at Echterdingen.
Zeppelin received so many donations that not only was he able to found his own companies for the purpose of building airships, but also production facilities for the development and manufacture of engines, transmissions, shells, gas cells, airship hangars and even the construction of aircraft.

All of these companies enjoyed a tremendous upswing during the First World War. After the war the Zeppelin airship company took some time to get back on its feet, but then produced its crowning achievements - the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and the LZ 129 Hindenburg - memories of which still remain alive and influence the present.

Author Hans Knäusel describes the Zeppelin story with a critical look at the economic and political effects of the period, from the beginning until the destruction of the Hindenburg in 1937. He also discusses airships built in other countries using the Zeppelin system, as well as the hangars and landing masts vital to operation of the big airships.

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Zeppelins - German Airships 1900-40 (Osprey)

On 2 July 1900 the people of Friedrichshafen, Germany, witnessed a momentous occasion - the first flight of LZ 1, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's first airship. Although deemed a failure, a succession of better craft (LZ2 to 10) enabled the Zeppelin to expand into the consumer market of airship travel, whilst also providing military craft for the German Army and Navy. The years of the Great War saw the Zeppelins undertake strategic bombing missions against Great Britain.

This title also covers the post-war fate of the Zeppelins, including the crash of the Hindenburg, and their use by the Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II.

Contents: Introduction - Forging the weapon: 1900-14 - Army and Navy Zeppelins at war: 1914-18 - Progress and failure: 1918-40 - Conclusion - Colour plate commentary.

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Maybach-Motoren und Automobile im Rhein-Neckar-Dreieck und der Pfalz

This title includes, beyond the common denominator of Maybach engines, all vehicles powered by them on land, at sea or in the air in or above the designated region. The book itself is designed as a chronological documentation, expanded to include a comprehensive bibliography with additional literature and photo references as well as a detailed index of subjects, places and people.

The trigger for this documentation was that on August 4th/5th 1908 an airship, the Zeppelin airship LZ 4, passed through the region for the first time and thereafter up until 1940 numerous crossings were made by legendary airships. In this respect, there are numerous 100-year anniversaries coming up in the next few years, for which this documentation can serve as a reference work and provide information, including the people involved and the history in the form of balloon flights.

It is also highlighted that the Mannheim-Rheinau-based airship company Schüttte-Lanz delivered numerous military airships, the so-called SL airships, during the First World War, including for operations from the Mannheim-Sandhofen Army Airship Hangar.
Other chapters report on the distribution of high-quality but expensive Maybach automobiles and their owners in the Rhine-Neckar triangle and the Palatinate between the two world wars, as well as on exhibits of the Maybach brand in museums.

A detailed chapter is devoted to rail traction and Franz Kruckenberg, who has chosen to live in Heidelberg, as the key designer of the legendary rail zeppelin and other rail vehicles.
Finally, an appendix on engines manufactured by Maybach in early 1920 for the equally exclusive MARS motorcycles confirms the wide range of production options available to the Maybach company, including their distribution in the Rhine-Neckar triangle and the Palatinate at the time.

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