LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
Role	Commercial passenger airship Type of aircraft
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Designer	Ludwig Dürr
First flight	18 September 1928
Introduction	11 October 1928
Retired	18 June 1937
Status	Scrapped March 1940
Career
Construction number	LZ 127
Registration	D-LZ 127
Radio code	DENNE[1]
Owners and operators	Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft; from 1935, Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei
Flights	590
Total hours	17,177
Total distance	1.7 million km (1.06 million miles)

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin 127) was a German passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight service. The ship was named after the German airship pioneer Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a count (Graf) in the German nobility. It was conceived and operated by Hugo Eckener, the chairman of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.

Graf Zeppelin made 590 flights totalling almost 1.7 million kilometres (over 1 million miles). It was operated by a crew of 36, and could carry 24 passengers. It was the longest and largest airship in the world when it was built. It made the first circumnavigation of the world by airship, and the first nonstop crossing of the Pacific Ocean by air; its range was enhanced by its use of Blau gas as a fuel. It was built using funds raised by public subscription and from the German government, and its operating costs were offset by the sale of special postage stamps to collectors, the support of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and cargo and passenger receipts.

After several long flights between 1928 and 1932, including one to the Arctic, Graf Zeppelin provided a commercial passenger and mail service between Germany and Brazil for five years. When the Nazi Party came to power, the Graf Zeppelin was used as a propaganda tool. The airship was withdrawn from service after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, and scrapped for military aircraft production in April, 1940.