Graf Zeppelin

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kittyhawk

Established Member
Joined
30 Apr 2021
Messages
645
Reaction score
1,358
Location
New Zealand
Not the usual sort of thing that comes out of the aircraftery.
It's a 'for me' build that been going for a while and often relegated to the back burner as aeroplane commissions came along. Its construction was not driven by any great interest in airships but more from stumbling across photos online and, from a modeller's perspective, wondering how on earth would you build such a thing, especially the mounting which would need to give the impression of the airship floating in air, tethered to its mooring mast. So, an irresistable challenge.
I wanted to build the Graf Zeppelin, LZ127, and the first problem was that just about every online photo was different. This was finally resolved when the penny dropped - just about every airship of the Graf Zeppelin era was referred to as a Zeppelin which tended to complicate things a lot. There is also a big variation in mooring towers and the one depicted is the Recife Tower in Brazil, sort of. The Zeppelin is cantilevered off the top of the tower so the stays are a lot higher up the mast than in reality, along with a few other modifications to provide the neccessary strength.
zep2.png

20240730_105808.jpg

20240730_113207.jpg

Calculations by a friend with an engineering background, mucking around with bit of wire and weights deduced that the airship weight for a length of 54cm should not exceed, from memory, 250g if it should be attached to the top of the tower by a wire of around 2.5mm diameter.
The cross section of the Zeppelin is circular but comprised of 28 flat sections around the circumference which suggested a boat type construction which further appealed as a former boatbuilder. So the model has a central keel from a piece of 16mm dowel, a turned nose and tail cap and 9 equally spaced circular frames of 3mm MDF. The 28 planks were cut to 2.5mm thick, probably now 2mm after sanding. Planking was straightforward but forward ends had to be steamed to get the bend. A steamer was fabricated out of scrap pipe and welded to a base. When hot and bendy the end was poked into a curved slot in a bit of MDF to set the shape. Its all a bit budget but it did the job ok.
20240801_144324.jpg

In the end, the Zeppelin came out at 207g. The connection between the tower and the airship is via a length of 13 gauge bicycle spoke bent at right angles.
The attachments to the hull were a bit difficult as I didn't fully appreciate the scale which at a 54cm length is around 400 : 1. Consequently the windows around the front of the gondola are 2mm square, the propellers - one two bladed and four 4 bladed are 11mm in diameter, the engine nacelles 6mm x 9mm and attached to the airship by 0.5mm wires. All doable but tricky for a man with stumpy fingers.
But I'm happy with how it turned out in the end.
 
A few months ago I read the story of the R101. It was really the whole airship saga using the British efforts as framework.
Airships are now just a footnote in aviation history, a lesson in the need to think through the fundermentals at the start and the folly of national prestige projects.
Brian
 
That's amazing! My brain looked at it and assumed/decided the connecting rod must be about 5mm, once I read it was a bicycle spoke and realised the tiny scale of the window, nacelles, props etc I was even more amazed.

Top work

Fitz

PS: Love the little photo-shop in the first image :)
 
That's amazing! My brain looked at it and assumed/decided the connecting rod must be about 5mm, once I read it was a bicycle spoke and realised the tiny scale of the window, nacelles, props etc I was even more amazed.

Top work

Fitz

PS: Love the little photo-shop in the first image :)
I assumed it hadn’t docked yet
 
Wasn't the empire state building supposed to be a mooring tower for a zeppelin? You could go the whole hog and make a model of that.
 
A few months ago I read the story of the R101. It was really the whole airship saga using the British efforts as framework.
Airships are now just a footnote in aviation history, a lesson in the need to think through the fundermentals at the start and the folly of national prestige projects.
Brian


Afraid not Brian. I'm not really an airship fan but I do lead tours around the Zeppelin Museum in Germany and had to learn a lot. Let's start with some facts:

1. The LZ 127 ("Graf Zeppelin") IS, up to and including today, definitely THE most successful airship ever built. She started building in 1925 and first entered service in 1928. Before both the British R100 (the "capitalist ship") and the R101 (the "Socialist ship"). They started building a little later but didn't enter service until the early 1930's (if you can consider R101 "entering service" as crashing on her maiden non-test flight - which was after far too few test flights).

2. You might well say that R101 was (as we used to say in aviation) "overweight (definitely), over budget, and late! The loss of life when R101 crashed on her maiden flight in Beauvais, France (on her way to "India" - today's Pakistan actually) was MUCH higher than the much more well-known fatal crash of of LZ 129 "Hindenburg" in 1936. At least the competing R100 did make one successful flight - to and from Montreal, though reliable sources say it was, by today's standard, "marginal" in some safety respects.

3. LZ 127 entered service in 1928 and continued in regular service until 1937. Then scrapped (by order of Herman Goering) in 1940. She had ZERO accidents, nor any deaths and flew over 1, 750,000 Kilometers in a total of 590 flights. After test flights she entered revenue service in 1928 with a round the world publicity flight (Friedrichshafen-Tokio-Los Angeles-New York-Freidrichshafen) then ran regular services between Europe and New York plus, later on, regular service between Europe and Rio De Janeiro. She crossed the Atlantic a total of 140 times, and carried over 250,000 passengers. As well as circling the world she also flew to N. Pole (scientific/rescue search).

4. LZ 127 was completely different in structure; in powerplants; in gearboxes; in both horizontal and vertical controls; in gas and water ballast control; and in ground manoeuvring/mooring when compared with R101.

For sources try:

1. "Slide Rule" - Nevil Shute

2. "Barnes Wallis" - Peter Pugh

3. "Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine" - Douglas Botting

The above off the top of my head. I have several more but must consult my list - will update here when I find it again!

I do NOT mean to be rude with the above Brian.

It is all a LONG time ago, and unless you grew up as an aircraft nut like me I can well understand you - AND many others - being more than a little hazy about this stuff. As said above, although I knew a fair bit of the above history, it was only when taking on the Zeppelin tour guide job as an after-retirement hobby that I realised how much I had to learn.

BTW, I am now in the throws of moving house (mainly due to ill-health) but if you Brian - or any other UKW member - finds yourself in Germany next year (near Munich) then give me a shout. I'll be pleased to organise a tour for you - in English!

And FINALLY: @Kittyhawk. What a BRILLIANT model. You have absolutely surpassed yourself this time Sir. (Wanna make one fer me)? :)

A P.S. for Brian: Re your "national prestige projects" point.
There ARE some that spring to mind, though I must confess, for me anyway, the number of "major misses" far outweigh the successes. The reason for me hesitating with posting this point was that it seems to me that if we're looking for "major misses" we need to look more often at those of a "socialist persuasion" than "private enterprise". BUT I am DEFINITELY NOT willing to even start - and certainly NOT participate in - any sort of political discussion/argument.
"I just like aeroplanes"!

Edit:

Book list:

1. "The golden age of the great passenger airships" - Harold Dick & Douglas H. Robinson

2. "Empires of the Sky" - Alexander Rose

3. "LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin" - Dr. John Provan,

4). "The Millionth Chance" - James Leasor

5. "Fatal Flight" - Bill Hammack,

6. "Airship on a Shoestring" - John Anderson

7. "Zeppelin - Germany and the Airship" - Guillaume de Syon

8. "Airship Men, Business & Politics, 1890 to 1940" - Henry Cord Meyer

9. "Everything you think you know about airships is probably wrong!" - (I forget the author, sorry)

10. AND: (then Mr., later Sir) Peter Masefield wrote a book, now apparently out of print, which debunks a lot of the negative points about R101 as raised by Nevil Shute (Norway) in "Slide Rule. I have only managed to find extracts of his book book on line, but suffice it to say that he debunks Shute as "a minor functionary" (!) and later went to on lead such wonderful examples of British "commercial success" as BEA! So personally I think his opinion aren't worth all that much. A typical "establishment goon" IMO!

ALSO: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Zeppelin, by Harry Vissering

IF anyone is particularly interested I can probably dig up the relevant Library numbers, publishers, dates, etc. PM me.
 
Last edited:
AES mentions a book by Neville Shute. For those of us who grew up reading his novels - On the Beach having a memorably bleak post nuclear bomb story and ending if I recall - his full name was Neville Shute Norway, and he was an airship designer based at the "sheds" at Cardington, Bedfordshire. The sheds, more properly the hangars, are listed buildings and remain but most of the site is housing. There was a fairly recent revival attempt, airship industries, but I think that was a financial disaster.

Had it succeeded we might all have looked up occasionally and said "hey, an airship".

Nice model :)
 


Sorry Sachakins, I do NOT want to start a fight. But "blimps", airships, and today's "Zeppelin NT" (New Technology) are all as different as chalk and cheese.

As per my post to Brian you should come and look at Freidrichshafen one day. Not only for the museum tour, but also, if the weather's better than "marginal", you'll see a current Zeppelin NT flying around (the forerunner of the Goodyear ships currently in build that you linked to).

I can tell you, they look absolutely GIGANTIC from the ground (or from the Bodensee ferry). But then, the latest version of the Zepp NT carries 22 pax and 2 crew while the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin carried 28 pax plus 30 crew and 4 tonnes of freight; and LZ 129 Hindenburg carried up to 90 pax and about 60 crew + freight. In other words, "today's Zepp NT efforts" are like minnows compared to whales!
 
Last edited:
AES mentions a book by Neville Shute. For those of us who grew up reading his novels - On the Beach having a memorably bleak post nuclear bomb story and ending if I recall - his full name was Neville Shute Norway, and he was an airship designer based at the "sheds" at Cardington, Bedfordshire. The sheds, more properly the hangars, are listed buildings and remain but most of the site is housing. There was a fairly recent revival attempt, airship industries, but I think that was a financial disaster.

Had it succeeded we might all have looked up occasionally and said "hey, an airship".

Nice model :)


Correct, Nevil Shute Norway (when writing novels he used his middle name as a surname as he didn't think "serious aircraft engineers" wrote novels in their spare time)!

The R100 did end up at Cardington, but initial design work was done at the Vickers works in Crayford, Kent, and the actual structural work was done in a disused ex WWI RN airship shed in Yorkshire.

R101 was always at Cardington.

Are those "airship sheds" still there? It's where I did my initial RAF entry selection tests and interview in 1960? (NOT in the sheds though)!

"On the Beach" was one of I think about 20 or so novels he had published from the early 1930's to his death, in Australia in I think 1960.
 
I know its correct or I would have postulated rather than stated it as fact, but you are entirely correct to say it is correct.

Yes, one is a film studio now, nice pictures:

https://www.cardingtonstudios.com/

Thanks. Nice to know there's still a bit left from my earlier years! And thanks for the pix/web link. It all looks quite "clean and tidy".
 
Last edited:
Sorry for a thread drift, but the references to Cardington brings back foggy childhood memories for me from the 1960's, my family were from round those parts, so the "Sheds" were a familiar sight, I vaguely recall being completely overwhelmed by their size when we went there, I do remember seeing Barrage balloons at Cardington, moored on posts, at least that's we were told they were.
 
Sorry Sachakins, I do NOT want to start a fight. But "blimps", airships, and today's "Zeppelin NT" (New Technology) are all as different as chalk and cheese.

As per my post to Brian you should come and look at Freidrichshafen one day. Not only for the museum tour, but also, if the weather's better than "marginal", you'll see a current Zeppelin NT flying around (the forerunner of the Goodyear ships currently in build that you linked to).

I can tell you, they look absolutely GIGANTIC from the ground (or from the Bodensee ferry). But then, the latest version of the Zepp NT carries 22 pax and 2 crew while the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin carried 28 pax plus 30 crew and 4 tonnes of freight; and LZ 129 Hindenburg carried up to 90 pax and about 60 crew + freight. In other words, "today's Zepp NT efforts" are like minnows compared to whales!
Apologies if my post caused any constination, I only intended to show that some form of airship still existed, not that it was meant as any direct comparison.
Sorry folks.
 
Thank you for your comments. I am pleased with the way the Zeppelin turned out but regrettably it has come with a down side.
The child bride has always been ambivalent towards the aircraftery, regarding the production of aircraft models as some sort of weird male aberration which is best not looked into too closely.
That changed with the airship in that she quite likes the shape of the thing and appreciates the work that went into it, and in the convoluted realms of female logic decided that since I could build that, I must also be capable of a complete kitchen remodel that she has been contemplating for some time. I new she had these ideas of course but naievely didn't think they would have anything to do with me. And it gets worse - she want the bathroom done as well. No more modeling for the forseeable future😣
 

Latest posts

Back
Top