Abstract
A NEW Zeppelin airship, LZ-129, is now nearing completion in Germany (Science Service, June 6), and if satisfactory will be put into service as a sister ship to the Graf Zeppelin, now operating for the sixth season between Europe and Brazil. The east-bound crossing of the new ship is expected to take less than two days, and the return against head winds a little less than three days. The calculated range without refuelling is 8,000 miles. Although only slightly longer than the American Macon, at present the largest airship extant, LZ-129 will be considerably larger, with a gas capacity of 7,070,000 cubic feet as compared with 6,500,000 of the Macon. On her trial flights this summer, she will be inflated with hydrogen gas. It is reported that the use of helium gas is being considered for normal passenger flights. The Diesel engines, totalling 4,400 horsepower, will be in gondolas attached outside the hull, with ladders permitting access to other parts of the ship as in previous Zeppelin designs. German aeronautical engineers have never accepted the recent American procedure of placing the engine compartments inside the ‘hull’ or skin. The accommodation includes two promenade decks, state-rooms for fifty passengers, running water and baths, and a special smoking room. Besides these appointments are quarters for a crew of 35 and space for a mail and freight load of ten tons.
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Zeppelin LZ–129. Nature 134, 19 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134019b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134019b0