Accommodations for Many Passengers
Each Zeppelin accommodated twenty-four passengers besides the crew. Warm meals were served from the up to date electrical kitchen. There was wireless aboard, also.
The ships gave complete satisfaction during hundreds of flights made over constantly increasing distances. They won the confidence of the traveling public; and equally important, had supplied much valuable experience and information, for they operated in all kinds of weather at all seasons of the year.
In 1913, the new Zeppelin, “Sachsen”, ([Plate 33]) was added to the “DELAG” fleet. She had a length of 459.2 feet (140 meters) and a diameter of 49.2 feet (15 meters) which increased the lift because she carried 670,890 cubic feet (19,000 cubic meters) of hydrogen which gave her a useful lift of more than 13,227.6 pounds (6,000 kilograms). Her speed was better than 48 miles an hour and she carried twenty-four passengers.
PLATE 47
The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.”
Interior view gas bags not inflated.
New and larger sheds were built for the “DELAG” as the fleet increased in size. When they first commenced flying there were only two airship sheds in addition to the one at Friedrichshafen. These were at Baden-Baden and at Dusseldorf. They owned the shed at Baden-Baden and leased from the municipality the one at Dusseldorf. Toward the end of 1911 others were available, one at Johannisthal near Berlin and one at Gotha. In 1912 two more were ready, one at Frankfort on the Main, owned by the “DELAG,” and one at Potsdam, owned by Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin. In 1913 the municipalities of Hamburg, Leipzig and Dresden erected sheds. ([Plates 34]-[35]-[36].) In the beginning the sheds were single but the ones built after the “DELAG” had started regular schedules, accommodated two ships side by side. Some of the sheds were huge, often 196.8 feet (60 meters) wide.