Friday, September 27, 2013

Around the World in 21 Days in a Blimp

In 1930, air travel was new and exciting.  New routes were being established first, for mail delivery, then for passengers.  We in 2013 are familiar with the "Goodyear Blimp," used for advertising in super-ball games but known to be unsafe and slow for commercial feasibility.

Dr. Hugo Eckener dared to circumnavigate the globe in 1929 in a blimp, called a 'dirigible' or 'Zeppelin."  "The First Airship Flight Around the World: Dr. Hugo Eckener Tells of an Epochal Geographic Achievement upon the Occasion of the Bestowal of the National Geographic Society's Special Gold Medal," National Geographic Magazine, June, 1930, is the story of his journey.

When bestowing the Gold Medal on Dr Eckener, Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, the President of the National Geographic Society, remarked, "The members of this Society appreciate that aviation has been of very special service to geography.  Aircraft are the instruments of exploration, of aerial mapping, of aerial photography" (p. 655).  Perhaps some of modern readers value the service of photography from space.  Aviation did it first!

Dr. Eckener's teacher was "Count Zeppelin . .who was a ballonist with General Grant's Army in Virginia.  The "Graf Zeppelin" was the name of Eckener's dirigible, lodged in a United States Navy hanger in New Jersey with a smaller Navy dirigible.

Preparations for the trip were massive. "Lifting cells of the Graf hold hydrogen, while the fuel cells take ethane (gas). . .3,500 gallons of gasoline (as auxiliary fuel) and 1,100 gallons of oil were pumped aboard" (p. 658).  Note: isn't a wonder the blimp could take off at all with that load!

The purpose of attempting an around-the-world trip was, "the desire, above all, to learn what the capabilities of an airship are; how to make the utmost use of them, so that regular air traffic may be possible in various zones and climates" (p. 660).  "Now in this proposed around-the-world flight, we saw a chance to answer the question whether the airship was really only a 'fine-weather airship' or whether it could fly also under most difficult air conditions" (p 661).

The trip started in Lakehurst, New Jersey, U.S.A., and sailed directly to Friedrichshafen, Germany, Dr. Eckener's home city, then headed west over Eastern Europe and the vast wasteland of Siberia to Tokyo, Japan, then on to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City and finally landing back in New Jersey. Stops had been made in Germany, Tokyo and Los Angeles.  The blimp flew 19,500 miles!

The dangers they encountered were many.  They had to change their planned route to avoid inclement weather yet were caught up in storms.  The charts they had underestimated the heights of mountains and, in Siberia, they barely cleared a mountain by only 300 feet.  Vast areas of Siberia were swamps; if they had to make an emergency landing, they never could have survived and help was out of the question.

The blimp team, of which Dr. Eckener's son was a member, proudly took many photos of lands never before seen from the air.  They were amazed by the scarcity of populated areas and the wide virgin forests. My conclusion is: no one would dare attempt to replicate this flight today!

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