The Graf Zeppelin

[@divisioneight]

The Graf Zeppelin's engines were powered by what was called "Blau Gas", a gaseous fuel that was stored in huge cells within her hull directly below her hydrogen cells which provided lift. Her main hull was divided horizontally into an upper section and lower section. The lower section contained the blau gas cells. The Graf circumnavigated the globe once on a easterly heading, with landfalls at Tokyo, San Francisco, NY (Lakehurst) and Germany. She was the queen of the skies.

[@rdemeath]

Not only was this a beautiful and majestic machine, it lends itself perfectly to modernisation. All that is required is the installation of a computer guidence system, the use of non-flammable gas and fully insulated cabins. I, for one, would enjoy taking my annual holiday aboard this flying hotel.

[@RTD8481]

Wow! Incredible, the sounds of the Graf! At 1:56 thats Capt Ernst Lehmann you see narrating. Incredible to hear his voice, sadly he would perish in the Hindenburg disaster on 5/61937.

[@xiquiripat]

They need to bring back zeppelins on a large scale. Such an elegant way to travel.

[@rolko52]

I have been a zeppelin fan for years. Thanks for the new images!

[@MrLarryC11]

The best Zeppelin film I have seen. I don't know where you find this material but keep up the good work!

[@ccbwook]

She was & IS in Foreverness a lovely cetacean sort of sky ship!

[@Detoyato]

I heard "Get outta here". It could be directed to someone else other than the Ship.

[@leomann22]

What an incredibly beautiful machine, so powerful and graceful. The Graf Zeppelin is truly a legend. Great video Bomberguy, with amazing footage and editing. If this is representative of the quality of your videos, I'm subbed!

[@gordonmorrow]

Wow! Incredible archive footage of a magnificent flying machine from almost a century ago. Perhaps in another 100 years, advances in material technology will bring the return of colossal airships - filled with helium of course.

[@divisioneight]

Agreed; So did a lot of fixed wing aircraft too. Weather forecasting was still station-to-station and Doppler radar wasn't available. Hydrogen is only flammable if mixed with oxygen. Given the permeability of today's polymers, H-2 can be safely contained. But as with flying gas cans (jet liners) these aircraft are dangerous when the cells are ruptured and H-2 leaks out.

[@1276epr]

one of my father's friends, long since deceased, told me back in the '60s that he had ridden on the Graf here in the States during one of its trips here. he claimed that the Germans put some kind of odor into the hydrogen as a safety measure, just like we do with natural gas now. he said you could smell hydrogen in many parts of the interior and he couldn't wait to get off of the Graf.

[@chirpycrow2061]

Wow! That's interesting that they put an odor in the hydrogen gas to let people become aware of the odor just like with natural gas used today. Learn something new every day! Awesome post!

[@skipstalforce]

@@chirpycrow2061 Actually it was the blue gas which had the odor, Hydrogen was in the top cells, blue underneath. You would never had smelled a hydrogen leak, it rises.

[@cynthiacupler8005]

I want to tell you, Thank -you for the video,I just love Air-Ships.

[@Anarchemitis]

Magnificent craft. Monster of the great skies. Pray that she will return. -A Haiku by me for the Graf.

[@skil8]

Just imagin seeing a Zeppelin for the first time ever.

[@ssszar]

i for one would love to see these great ships fly once more and iwould certainly want to be a passenger

[@1337tactics]

To someone who’s life goal is to build an airship, this is inspiring, to say the least.

[@mayorgeneralramirez1997]

How did it go?

[@mayorgeneralramirez1997]

@@Wonka59 Quite possible, yes

[@kakadz89]

Great machine... How nice will be if there will be the replica of this Graff Zeppelin!!!

[@fordlandau]

amazing footage and thank you so much for this post...No planes of this era had any possibility of covering these huge distances!

[@AchimReinhardt1]

Wunderbares Video! Danke!

[@ollenhauer1]

ich ehre hugo eckner ,er ist der grösste zeppelinmanger denn es bis jetzt gegeben hat und er ist nebenstehend zu den normalen personen airbus konzern weitern das neue konkurenzunternemensgeist. ein neuer zeppelin wird kommen!!

[@agm7590]

Volverán, estas aeronaves volverán...

[@bigbenzon]

I have a really cool picture of the D-LZ 217 Graf zeppelin landing on the water during one of it's polar flights.

[@kolbpilot]

What a sight that must of been over Wemblley Stadium. Very cool to be able to hear how it sounded. Quite loud.

[@junkduma]

Wonderful video, superb archives brought to us, thank you.

[@261madmike]

OUTSTANDING VID! Well Done Bomberguy.

[@stuartthegrant]

What an outstanding Utube site!!Bomberguy has some A! film. Thanks Bomberguy

[@Hendo56]

They are fascinating... and creepy at the same time. My father lived in New Jersey, and both German and American dirigibles passed over his house en route to Lakehurst. My grandfather even snapped a photo of one. Very well done videos!

[@hotspur666]

The dirigibles lighter than air are only fair weather crafts. Any adverse weather see them flounder. In their early history, they were incredibly lucky, however in the inter wars, they met with disaster after disaster. Especially that most were using hydrogen at a time when everybody was smoking like chimneys. Even with helium, any slight coating of ice saw them crashing and in the tropics, any encounter with thunderstorms, before the radar was invented, met with instant death.

[@professorshermanpeabody1237]

Negative. the Graf withstood the Atlantic and South Atlantic wx for her round the world cruise. You know nothing.

[@UncleNathan]

Beautiful video! Thank you for posting this!!

[@P4573]

Excellent video.

[@Partok81]

Amazing footage BomberGuy. Yes the airships were faster than the great cruise ships, but they had their safety issues. And I'm not just talking about the hydrogen burning issue. Weather effects like microbursts could wreak havoc on something longer than two football fields. This happened on a number of occasions. Twisting the ships in two in mid-air.

[@Domdeone1]

A great film where it travelled the globe with representatives from every nation;describing the escalating tensions on the ground-over europe..

[@intoXtheXsunrise]

I love the Graf Zeppelin with all my heart, but just imagine how much more amazing it would have been had it been silent.

[@cynthiacupler8005]

How Awesome.

[@AgentJayZ]

Amazing footage. What might have been... It would be fantastic to be able to take a "cruise" on an airship rather than a neutered 'liner. I wonder if today's airships would have titanium frames and great screaming turbofans hustling them along at 200mph. There are no dead ends; only closed minds. Keep 'em coming, Bomberguy!

[@danieljmabry]

Great old clip of the Graf Zeppelin. 1930s.

[@gaz11h]

have to agree it would be great if the giant ridgid airships were around today

[@nosikeem]

Wonderful film clip. Really cool. I loved every second. I loved it so much that I've compiled a shot list of my favorite moments. 00:00 - until the sad ending; enchanting. 3:54 - The Side Car, what a feeling it must have been to be soaring inside that! 7:35 - As the carriage is hitting the ground a dude just dodges under it, risking his life. Probably for a girl. 8:30 - The entrance of the grand-daddy of all Zeppelins. Note the commentators jab as it lands.

[@Spacekriek]

7:55 .. It is interesting to see this particular happening from the opposite end when they released water ballast whilst ascending ! There are other videos going around where we see it from the front of the airship.

[@videotowatch2000]

Hopefully, people will understand that this is airship travel in it's infancy. In due time, airship travel will be revisited.

[@GriefTourist]

it's been a long time since they rock and rolled

[@RileyGoss]

you know how awesome it would be to fly a zeppelin whilst listening to ride of the valkyries? As awesome as flying a biplane with goggles and a scarf.

[@Anarchemitis]

That thang must've been loud. But I imagine that the engines were incredibly efficent. The Graf is neutrally buoyent in the atmostphere, so if you grabbed onto it and pushed it up (Granted if you could overcome the incredibly amount of air that would need to be displaced) you could claim that you could benchpress over 200 tons!

[@Engelbird]

00:27 - "Get outta here!!"

[@RiDER-RHYTHM]

e m I heard that too!

[@themariscal]

In this age of ecology, the zeppelins are the answer for a transport with low polution. The solar technology can give the energy necesary.

[@Mark.Parent]

The ending was sad. I really wanted to see the airship in person.

[@WilliamSlaght]

Led Zeppelin is the best zeppelin!!!!!

[@trexx63]

Unpredictable weather remains the only obstacle for a successful Zeppelin service. The bigger they are the more economical to operate they become. The efficiency of lifting power is expotentially more efficient with every added cubic measure of lighter than air gas. ie: (example) 1 cubic yard of helium can lift one pound. 2 cubic yards of helium can lift 2.5 lbs) so on and so forth.

[@trexx63]

The Graf was retired with a spotless career of SIX MILLION MILES TRAVELED!

[@Spacekriek]

I believe it was closer to a million miles or equivalent to 40 times around the equator, to put it into perspective.

[@trexx63]

@@Spacekriek Ah. Thanks for the correction! You are correct. The Graf Zeppelin logged a tad over a million miles!

[@atariz28]

You should go look at pictures of a goodyear blimp in the hanger next to the uss acron. Blimps are tiny compared to zepps. I wish i could have seen one.

[@madercic3aolcom]

Hello. Wikipedia has the rundown that will answer your question. Conduct your search using the term "duraluminum". An extra "a", but it is undoubtedly the same thing as Zep's are mentioned prominently.

[@LtdBoomer]

A good idea old look with modern technology, which meets current safety regulations. It would be very expensive, but doable.

[@bitterrick]

Got it later. Thanks :)

[@teomanercan]

zeppelins are just so great I wish they continue to make those but much more bigger ones can carry over 100 people

[@dimitristsekeris1821]

Teoman Ercan They don't necessarily have to make them bigger. The use of composite materials instead of aluminum and air bags instead of ballast tank could leave more lifting capacity for passengers and accomodations. Such an airship could possibly even be equipped with a small swimming pool. Take an airship like the USS Akron, which could lift 100 tons, and give it a swimming pool of dimensions 4×6×2 m. It is large enough to be enjoyed every day by a few hundred passengers and it takes up only half of the lifting capacity.

[@videotowatch2000]

Remember the HINDENBURG, MAY 6, 1937-MAY 6, 2012. 75th Anniversary. Please support the Lakehurst Historical Society. Thank you!

[@sovietunionish]

Damn you, Herman Goring!

[@zmoonn]

An amazing giant! Only if I could taste flight in one of them :D

[@caley956]

This is wonderful stuff. At primary school in 1958, a friend brought in a fantastic large format German picture book about the Graf. Towards the end it moved on to Hindenburg and descended into Nazi propaganda. Funny really as the book was obviously looted by some British squaddie in 1944-5! One other thought - wonder if Stanley Kubrick saw footage of the Graf over Wembley and remembered it for 2001?

[@CassioVA]

00:37 - 00:56 Feel the power!!!

[@waukesha398]

Was the reporter in the footage of the 1931 Arctic expedition Arthur Koestler?

[@paqman67]

@aka99 Very True!! The big Zeps were very delicate. The reason the US lost nearly all of their big rigids (ie: the Shenandoah,Akron & Macon) btw the USS Los Angeles doesn' t count as Dr. Eckener built her (it was the Graf Zeppelins little sister) The USA airship accidents were mainly due to (10 Human error (the Akron smashed it's tail into the water while caugt in 300 moh down winds) (2) The Macon's tail was damaged and not strengthned in time, The Shennandoah was flown in storm.

[@paqman67]

Bomberguy I was wondering where did you get all of thsi wonderful vintage newsreel of the Graf Zeppelin from? Are they from various sources, or are they available for purchase separately through the internet? Thanks for you response!

[@divisioneight]

The day of the great passenger airship is a possibility. Flying has become a routine event, much like riding a commuter train, cramped, uncomfortable and largely annoying. There may be folks out there who want a more leisurely way to see the Earth from 2000 feet at 70 knots, sipping wine while the coastline slips by. The future might again be able to see one of these big giants again floating in the sky as the romance and adventure of flight returns.

[@bitterrick]

Don't really understand your comment. The Graf flew succesfully well over a million miles until Hermann Goering decided he did ot like the competition with his luftwaffe and the Graf was dismanteled, and the duraluminum used for the war effort.

[@deutschland08fn]

3:56 I would piss my pants

[@mechdebaser]

You've only come to see the Arsenal!

[@johnkilo3]

Wow, you sound like a genius.

[@nosikeem]

I also wondered if those Zeppelins were taking reconnaissance photographs while they were flying all over the world. Their Zeppelinish journeys included many cities the Germans later bombed. Hm?

[@unambitious]

It's so weird how the nacelles are just sort of dangling off the side. I wonder why they never put little wings on these to augment the lift and hang the engines from...

[@divisioneight]

@aternovacula: Not so sure about the inertia of the people. The Zeppelin NT is obviously the first step beyond the long and clean record of the Goodyear blimp fleet. The folks out in Long Beach love the Zeppelin NT and enjoy the more relaxed excursions on her. She's strangely reminiscent of the great Count's airships taking passengers for afternoon jaunts around Lake Constance around a 100 years ago. I believe that the public will embrace the large rigid airship.

[@PlaywithJunk]

And if you fill it with helium instead of hydrogen, it's also a safe transport. Imagine an airplane where you can open the window to look out! I would like to see these zeppelins again.

[@lumbago12]

Do you think they were casing the joint at Wembley!

[@1805movie]

I agree 100%

[@LF0]

Weird how the all wave to the zeppelin in the stadium, it's gonna cause problems soon boys!

[@mbt008]

Check out the book "Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine" for a good read with more detail about these trips.

[@bravoncho]

Cocina, cubiculos individuales, sala para el personal? mierda, es toda una nave! porque ya no se usan?

[@treejoe4]

how long did theese take to make?

[@sd31263]

It only traveled one million miles over 590 flights.

[@pballer72]

don't worry. I have some very strong connections with the air force, and I am working on getting a Shenandoah type program back into commission.

[@killerkiller665]

command and conquer !!!!!! red alert

[@cynthiacupler8005]

I love to draw Air-Ships.

[@aka99]

@paqman67 if this is true then it's amazing. if you think of how many people died in plane crash. but on the other hand there werenn't never as much zeppelins as airplaines!

[@sixfootbear]

The lifting medium was hydrogen.A better lift ratio than helium but far more dangerous.I dont think that America,who controlled the gas, would release helium to the germans.Another note is that maps captured in ww2 from german bombers had reconnaissance photos clearly taken from the Graf...

[@samsalabim123]

in holland, there are a few...

[@divisioneight]

And why not can these airships once again grace the skies in this size and use? They're "green" thanks to their spartan use of fuel. They are slow and pollute very little in terms of noise and sonic disturbances. And what a way to enjoy a gourmet meal than at 2500 feet above a landscape that glides by in the late evening sun.

[@IainMcClatchie]

Done. Well, not to the origin Graf Zeppelin specs... Amazingly, the new Zeppelins are built by the same company that built the GZ. watch?v=Sz9UoUgwq0k The Zeppelin NT's are a lot smaller: 75 m long versus 236 m for the GZ.

[@dimitristsekeris1821]

Iain McClatchie Zeppelin NT was simply funded with the money left behind by LZ. As long as they do not make gigantic rigid airships capable of circumnavigating the world and travelling to the poles, they should not call themselves the new Zeppelin company.

[@darkalligator]

Fue un colombiano quien invento el dirigible moderno como lo constata una patente del ano 1887 en la ciudad de Bogota, por Carlos Albán quien nació en Popayán Colombia el 9 de marzo de 1844, no fue el dirigible su unico invento. Es lamentable ver como a otros se les adjudica lo que no les pertenece, al igual que a Tesla muchas invenciones que Alba Edison de manera descarada patento como suyas

[@pizzamovies]

What a tragedy that this giant was scrapped for war metal.

[@eritsukukun]

It is one of the great losses of our generation.

[@johnlumic1392]

es war nicht ein hindenburg aber 2 ^^

[@WS199911]

スゲー！ 命綱つけずに作業してる

[@Gruntol5]

Can't you think of any other comment to make?!

luftschiff hoch!

[@Bomberguy]

Not even close. The Graf flew over a million miles, the LA only 172,000 miles

[@Lypno]

Nanotechnology could make hydrogen

[@zhihao1]

hehehe, imagine they did a bombing run at the stadium?

[@astrospacerich]

What an elegant way to travel but I would hope they were using helium instead of hydrogen.

[@dimitristsekeris1821]

astrospacerich They couldn't get helium. Only the Americans could. And guess who refused to supply them with helium fearing that they would somehow use it for hostilities. 'Muricaaaaa!!!

[@Lypno]

airships much safer...

[@VersusARCH]

Very untrue - they use fuel as well, are slow, with small carrying capacity and unsafe even with helium - USAF helium-filled airship Macon was lost in a storm, for instance. The real thing is to develop easily replacable batteries for electric cars - so that you can instantly swap your exausted one for a recharged one at a "gas" station - and the price of fuel will normalise