Zeppelin: The Story of a Great Achievement

by Harry Vissering

The First Air Transport Company

PLATE 44

The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.”
On an excursion over lake district near Potsdam.

The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.”
Passengers at Friedrichshafen embarking for Berlin.

During the latter part of 1910, minor accidents occurred which sometimes damaged the airships and disrupted the service, but in 1911 a comparatively regular service was established and maintained. The principal ship was the “Schwaben,” ([Plates 5] and [30]) which was far superior to her predecessors and which had the advantage of new and larger sheds at the Zeppelin-“DELAG” airports. The schedule maintained by the “Schwaben” justifies the assertion that the “DELAG” operated the first commercial aerial transport company on earth. Her success encouraged expansion, and in 1912, two additional ships, the “Victoria Louise” ([Plates 31]-[32]) and the “Hansa” ([Plate 33]) were built and entered the “DELAG” service, to be followed the next year by the “Sachsen”, ([Plate 33]).