DELAG

DELAG was founded at the suggestion of Alfred Colsman, the business manager of Zeppelin Luftschiffbau. The company was having difficulty in obtaining orders from the German Army, so Colsman suggested exploiting the German public's enthusiastic interest by establishing a commercial passenger-carrying company. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin himself distanced himself from this commercialisation of the airship: as an aristocrat and ex-officer, he regarded the concept as being a vulgar tradesman's enterprise. Despite this, Colsman, who became the airline's first general director, managed to secure the cooperation of Albert Ballin, the head of the Hamburg America Line who offered 100,000 Marks per year to promote the enterprise on the condition that his offices had exclusive rights to sell tickets, and Colsman had little difficulty in raising the necessary three million marks capital. Much of the initial capital came from the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Düsseldorf, while a number of other cities constructed their own airship sheds at their own expense.

The first zeppelin to be constructed for the company was LZ 7, which was named Deutschland. First flown on 19 June 1910, it had a useful lift of 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) and had accommodation for 24 passengers. Cruising speed was 51 km/h (32 mph). Given this performance, it was realised that scheduled inter-city services would not be feasible, and that the company would be limited to offering pleasure cruises in the vicinity of their bases. However, the Deutschland was destroyed on 28 June 1910 while taking a consignment of journalists on a trip intended to generate publicity. The airship was first prevented from returning to its base in Düsseldorf and then, caught by a thunderstorm, was first carried up to a height of 1,100 m (3,500 ft) and then, heavy from loss of hydrogen caused by the rapid ascent and from rainwater on the envelope, forced down into the Teutoburger forest. Despite the zeppelin's loss, the incident only resulted in a single injury.

The destruction of the Deutschland left DELAG with only a single operational airship, LZ 6, which had been constructed during the previous year with the hope of its being bought by the army; it was subsequently enlarged and modified for passenger-carrying purpose. Operating from Baden-Baden, successful flights were made almost daily between late August and mid-September but, on 14 September, it was destroyed in a fire while in its hangar. It was insured, and DELAG could complete its next ship, LZ 8 Deutschland II.

For the new season, flights lasting between 90 minutes and two hours were offered for a price of 200 Dm. Deutschland II was completed on 30 March 1911, and arrived at Düsseldorf on 11 April. However, its service life would be very brief as, little more than a month of service, it was caught by a gust while being walked out of its hangar on 16 May: it was driven onto a 15 m (50 ft) high windbreak and broke its back. The passengers had to be rescued using fire ladders. Hugo Eckener, the captain, attributed the accident to his "weak-kneed" decision to let the eagerness of the passengers to fly overcome his reluctance to take the ship out in the existing conditions.

The company's fortunes changed with its next airship, the LZ 10 Schwaben. Completed on 26 June and delivered to DELAG on 15 July, it carried 1,553 paying passengers during its career. Initially based at Baden Baden, in addition to the pleasure cruises a number of long-distance flights were made, carrying passengers to Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and eventually to Berlin. LZ 11 Viktoria Luise, named after the Kaiser's daughter, entered service on 4 March 1912. On 28 June 1912 Schwaben was destroyed in a hangar fire attributed to static electricity produced by its rubberised cotton gasbags, but was soon replaced by LZ 13 Hansa, which was completed on 30 July. These airships were also used by the Imperial German Navy for crew training, with the Navy crews operating passenger flights. In 1913, LZ 17 Sachsen was added to the fleet.

By July 1914, one month prior to the start of the First World War, DELAG's Zeppelins had transported a total of 34,028 passengers on 1,588 commercial flights; over these trips, the fleet had accumulated 172,535 kilometres across 3,176 hours of flight.

On 18 September 1928, the completed LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin flew for the first time. Shortly thereafter, DELAG began operating the airship, which enabled the company to launch regular, nonstop, transatlantic flights several years before airplanes would be capable of sufficient range to cross the ocean in either direction without stopping. For DELAG's first transatlantic trip, Dr. Eckener personally commanded the Graf Zeppelin on its departure from Friedrichshafen, Germany, at 07:54 on 11 October 1928; it arrived at Lakehurst Field, New Jersey, on 15 October. During 1931, the Graf Zeppelin began offering regular scheduled passenger service between Germany and South America which continued until 1937. During its career, Graf Zeppelin crossed the South Atlantic 136 times. The airship also performed numerous record-breaking flights, including a successful circumnavigation of the globe.