Graf Zeppelin 1929
In this portion of Wilkins' film of the first round-the-world flight of the Graf Zeppelin, we see it before heading off from New York to some of the views that could be enjoyed on board - still when few had ever seen such things. Film - Courtesy of Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center.
The LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin at base in Friedrichshafen, Germany, before the round the world attempt.
The fascination with all things aviation perhaps entered its peak period in the late 1920s. Technology had also advanced sufficiently so that the company that had brought the bombing Zeppelins of the Great War was now looking at how to deliver commercial flights, not just from country to country but to also around the world.
Dr Hugo Eckener, the protégé of the founder of the Zeppelins, centre, in the main cockpit.
Dr Hugo Eckener was the German mastermind behind this idea and his publicity attracting stunt was to set a new world record for a flight around the world in August 1929. For his media, he joined with William Randolph Hearst and in turn Hearst sent his two most prominent journalists of the time – his European social editor, Lady Fay Drummond Hay, and from New York, our Bert Wilkins. The Hearst deal also included the flight beginning and ending in New York.
Mucking around on the Jacob ladder before the flight.
The LZ 127 was a massive structure, measuring 200 yards long, three times the size of blimps, as we known them today, that hover over US sporting events and Wilkins captured the beast both before it started its voyage, from its home base, at Friedrichshafen, Germany through the 5th Avenue rally that celebrated its new world record triumph.
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All images courtesy of the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Centre.
