The average commercial flight was from 37 to 62 miles (60 to 100 kilometers) from 1½ to 2½ hours. When the flights were from one airship harbor to another they often lasted four and sometimes eight hours. The fare was determined by the length of the flight, or the mileage. Round trip flights, which were comparatively short, cost from 25 to 50 dollars (one to two hundred marks.) The long distance trips ranged from 60 to 150 dollars (250 to 600 marks). Many single flights were made over the North Sea. The “=Victoria Louise=” often flew to Helgoland, Sylt and Norderney, the “=Hansa=” to Copenhagen and the “=Sachsen=” to Vienna. These flights were characterized as pleasure trips; and as such none was undertaken during the winter months. Instead, the Zeppelins underwent a thorough overhauling. Sometimes, however, a Zeppelin was kept in service all winter to train airship personnel of the army or navy. Naturally “DELAG” became noted for its successful operations; and its ships were repeatedly chartered by the military or naval personnel for training flights. Developed Airship Navigation The “DELAG” has been credited with the entire development of airship navigating technique. For one thing, it was the only organization of its kind, training airship personnel in practical operations. The “DELAG” airships and airship crews were used almost exclusively for training purposes when war was declared. At that time there were two other airship construction companies in Germany, Schütte-Lanz and Parseval. Both of these organizations procured their airship pilots from the trained personnel of the “DELAG.” [PLATE 49: The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Nordstern.” Rear view of rear power gondola containing two 260 horsepower Maybach motors.] Zeppelins Operated Safely All of the flights listed in the following table were made without a single injury to passengers or crew. The =Deutschland= had been repeatedly damaged while entering or leaving her shed and was rebuilt. The “=Schwaben=” was burned at her moorings during a severe storm. It is now known that all these accidents could have been avoided, in view of the progress that has been made in the science of lighter-than-air. Experience has materially increased the performance and qualities of safety in airships. Better motors, controls, gas bags and other parts of the Zeppelin have been so improved as to preclude possibility of accidents such as those which occasionally hindered the operations of “DELAG” before the war. Each of the flights listed here averaged two hours, 68 miles (109 kilometers), traversed with 22 passengers. All the flights aggregated 107,180 miles (172,535 kilometers), more than _four times the girth of the earth_ at the equator. Commercial Operations of the Zeppelin