The Growth of the Zeppelins
Larger sheds ([Plates 8] and [9]) were completed at Friedrichshafen enabling Zeppelin to build bigger ships which could give the performances he felt was essential.
Zeppelin Airship Bldg. Co.’s Colossal Plant at Staaken (1919). Near Berlin. Consisting of two large sheds (at the left) between which is located the Traverse Ring Fabrication Shed. The Administration Bldg. is shown in the right foreground.
Zeppelin Airship Bldg. Co.’s Staaken Plant. (View taken from a Zeppelin). By far the largest and most complete airship building plant in the world.
The first of these, the LZ-38, left the shed in April, 1915, and joined the army. It had 1,130,000 cubic feet (32,000 cubic meters) of hydrogen capacity and was fuller, that is, its ratio of length to diameter was 9 to 1 where in the former ships it was 11 to 1. The wider girth afforded more freedom in design and the stern was drawn out much finer, resulting in more speed; on later ships reaching 58.1 miles per hour (26 meters per second). The LZ-38 could carry a useful load of 30,865 pounds (14,000 kilograms) besides her own weight, more than 37% of her total lift. The Zeppelins of this type ([Plate 10]—LZ-77) proved from the day they were first flown equal to all the demands made upon them.