| Airships | Number of Flights | Hours | Total Mileage in Kilometers | Number of Passengers Carried |
| “Deutschland” and the LZ-6 | 62 | 124 | 6546 | 1778 |
| “Schwaben” | 218 | 480 | 27321 | 4354 |
| “Victoria Louise” | 489 | 981 | 54312 | 9738 |
| “Hansa” | 399 | 841 | 44437 | 8521 |
| “Sachsen” | 419 | 741 | 39919 | 9837 |
| Total | 1588 | 3167 | 172535 | 34228 |
PLATE 50
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The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.” | |
The “DELAG” Passenger Zeppelin “Bodensee.”
Interior view showing location of fuel tanks.
Trained Germany’s Airship Forces
In the early days of the war the “Victoria Louise” made more than a thousand training flights for more than 39,852 miles (64,152 kilometers) in 1292 hours, flying time, all after she had been added to the military training forces. Finally, her framework became so worn that she was dismantled. The “Sachsen” and “Hansa” ([Plate 33]) performed similar service.
From the Managing Director to the mechanics, all of the “DELAG” personnel entered the service during the war, where they were instructors, and it was due to them that the numbers of Zeppelins launched for war service were manned by crews qualified to operate them.
Commercial Operations Resumed
The real work for which the “DELAG” was created, “to develop commercial air transport” was of necessity put aside during the period of the war, but these activities were resumed early in 1919 when it was decided to start a regular daily passenger service, at first between Berlin and Friedrichshafen, a distance of 373 miles (600 kilometers) and afterward extend it to Switzerland, Italy, Spain in the south and to Sweden in the north. The pre-war personnel of the “DELAG” was assembled at Friedrichshafen and the route to Berlin started by the new Zeppelin “Bodensee” on August 24th, 1919 ([Plate 38]).