Airship Voyage Around the World: Untold History
The First Round-the-World Flight in the Graf Zeppelin: A Summary
This document details the historic first round-the-world flight of the Graf Zeppelin airship in 1929, and a recent book project revisiting the event.
Key Facts:
* Airship: LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
* Doctor: Jerónimo Megías, personal physician to King Alfonso XIII, was a passenger on both the failed attempt and the successful round-the-world trip.
* First Attempt (May 1929): Friedrichshafen (Germany) to Lakehurst (New Jersey, USA) – turned back due to engine failure over the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
* Successful Flight (August-September 1929):
* Departure: Friedrichshafen,Germany (August 15,1929)
* Route: Friedrichshafen → Tokyo (via Soviet Union) → Los Angeles → Lakehurst (USA) → Germany
* Return: Returned to Germany on September 4,1929.
* Duration: 20 days, 4 hours, and 14 minutes.
* Book: ‘The first flight around the world in the Graf Zeppelin’ by Alejandro Polanco.
* Funded via a Kickstarter campaign.
* Features restored images from a cigarette-pack photo album.
* Includes excerpts from Jerónimo Megías’s travel diary.
* Contains over 200 restored scenes of zeppelins.
* Original album images were small but detailed, and were viewed with magnifying lenses.
Timeline of Events:
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| may 1929 | First attempt at transatlantic flight | Friedrichshafen – Lakehurst |
| August 15, 1929 | Start of the first round-the-world flight | Friedrichshafen |
| September 4, 1929 | Return to Germany, completing the round-the-world flight | Germany |
| Recent | Publication of ’The first flight around the world in the Graf Zeppelin’ | N/A |
Additional Details:
* In the 1920s, small photographs of zeppelins were sold in German cigarette packs for people to complete albums.
* The photographs in the album were well-preserved reproductions on silver bromide paper.
* The book project involved scanning photographs in high resolution, translating German text, and adapting it into a high-quality hardcover book.
* The original images were viewed with small lenses to create a three-dimensional effect.