---------------------------+---------+-------+------------+-----------
| Number | | Total | Number of
Airships | of | Hours | Mileage in | Passengers
| Flights | | Kilometers | Carried
---------------------------+---------+-------+------------+-----------
“Deutschland” and the LZ-6 | 62 | 124 | 6546 | 1778
“Schwaben” | 218 | 480 | 27321 | 4354
“Victoria Louise” | 489 | 981 | 54312 | 9738
“Hansa” | 399 | 841 | 44437 | 8521
“Sachsen” | 419 | 741 | 39919 | 9837
+---------+-------+------------+-----------
Total | 1588 | 3167 | 172535 | 34228
---------------------------+---------+-------+------------+-----------
[PLATE 50: The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.”
Front and rear views of rear power gondola. Note radiator
temperature control and ladder.
The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.”
Interior view showing location of fuel tanks.]
Trained Germany’s Airship Forces
In the early days of the war the “=Victoria Louise=” made more than a
thousand training flights for more than 39,852 miles (64,152 kilometers)
in 1292 hours, flying time, all after she had been added to the military
training forces. Finally, her framework became so worn that she was
dismantled. The “=Sachsen=” and “=Hansa=” (Plate 33) performed similar
service.
From the Managing Director to the mechanics, all of the “DELAG”
personnel entered the service during the war, where they were
instructors, and it was due to them that the numbers of Zeppelins
launched for war service were manned by crews qualified to operate them.
Commercial Operations Resumed
The real work for which the “DELAG” was created, “to develop commercial
air transport” was of necessity put aside during the period of the war,
but these activities were resumed early in 1919 when it was decided to
start a regular daily passenger service, at first between Berlin and
Friedrichshafen, a distance of 373 miles (600 kilometers) and afterward
extend it to Switzerland, Italy, Spain in the south and to Sweden in the
north. The pre-war personnel of the “DELAG” was assembled at
Friedrichshafen and the route to Berlin started by the new Zeppelin
“=Bodensee=” on August 24th, 1919 (Plate 38).
The “Bodensee” an Improved Type
The “=Bodensee=” was designed and built in six months (January to July
1919), by Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin. She was the same size as the pre-war
Commercial Zeppelins, _but had twice the engine power, carried twice
their useful load and maintained a speed equal with the former ships
using only one-half of their engine power_.
[PLATE 51: 20-30,000 Cubic Meter Fast Passenger Zeppelin
“Bodensee” Type.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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