There are various departments including the planning and supervising divisions, two designing divisions (one for scientific and general design, the other for workship and drawings), the manufacturing and erecting divisions, calculating and accounting, testing and controlling, and general maintenance divisions. The research department is a separate organization.
The Airship Factories
In the airship factories the framework is made and erected. The envelope is prepared, passenger and engine gondolas completed and assembled along with other apparatus and instruments. The power plant is built, excepting the motors and parts of the gear work. Research work along the lines of airship development is conducted there.
The original plant built at Friedrichshafen in 1910 included a double shed, workshops, offices and laboratory buildings. The shed would not accommodate ships of greater diameter than 52½ feet (16 meters), so in 1914 new workshops and another shed was built, to be followed the next year by a still larger shed.
The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Schwaben”, 1912.
The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Schwaben”, 1910.
Count Zeppelin and Doctor Eckener in the pilot car.
During 1915 and 1916 better workshops ([Plate 16]), offices and a larger laboratory, together with the largest wind tunnel on earth were completed, along with a low pressure chamber for testing motors, a new development as unique as it was important to the automotive science.