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The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was the lead ship in a class of two carriers of the same name ordered by the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany.She was the only aircraft carrier launched by Germany and represented part of the Kriegsmarine ' s attempt to create a well-balanced oceangoing fleet, capable of projecting German naval power far beyond the narrow confines of the Baltic and North Seas.
The Graf Zeppelin (Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin #130; Registration: D-LZ 130) was the last of the German rigid airships built by Zeppelin Luftschiffbau during the period between the World Wars, the second and final ship of the Hindenburg class, and the second zeppelin to carry the name "Graf Zeppelin" (after the LZ 127) and thus often referred to as Graf Zeppelin II.
Graf Zeppelin's achievements showed that this was technically possible. [78] By the time the two Graf Zeppelins were recycled, they were the last rigid airships in the world, [199] and heavier-than-air long-distance passenger transport, using aircraft like the Focke-Wulf Condor and the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, was already in its ascendancy. [200]
Graf Zeppelin was too small and slow for the stormy North Atlantic route, [124] [125] but because of the Blau gas fuel, could carry out the longer South Atlantic service. [126] The Great Depression led to a reduction in its flights from almost 200 in 1930–31 to fewer than 60 in 1932. [ 127 ]
The Graf Zeppelin class's hull was divided into 19 watertight compartments, the standard division for all capital ships in the Kriegsmarine. [11] Their belt armor was to vary from 100 mm (3.9 in) over the machinery spaces and aft magazines, to 60 mm (2.4 in) over the forward magazines and tapered down to 30 mm (1.2 in) at the bows.
USS Los Angeles was a rigid airship, designated ZR-3, which was built in 1923–1924 by the Zeppelin company in Friedrichshafen, Germany, as war reparations.She was delivered to the United States Navy in October 1924 and after being used mainly for experimental work, particularly in the development of the American parasite fighter program, was decommissioned in 1932.
The centerpiece of the zeppelin displays is a full-scale, partial model of the airship LZ 129 Hindenburg. The exhibition also includes an original engine nacelle of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin airship and a Maybach Zeppelin car. A great number of airship models, not only from Germany, are also on display in the technology department. [3]
In August 1939, the Graf Zeppelin II conducted a reconnaissance flight along Great Britain's coastline in an attempt to determine whether the 100 metre towers erected from Portsmouth to Scapa Flow were used for aircraft radio location. [24] The frames of Graf Zeppelin and Graf Zeppelin II, along with scrap material from Hindenburg, were ...