Graf Zeppelin’s 1931 Arctic Flight was both a scientific expedition and a dramatic display of the airship’s ability under extreme conditions.
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Graf Zeppelin’s 1931 Arctic Flight was both a scientific expedition and a dramatic display of the airship’s ability under extreme conditions.
Read more
Graf Zeppelin’s 1931 Arctic Flight was both a scientific expedition and a theatrical display of the airship’s ability.
In July, 1931, the ship carried a team of scientists from Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Sweden on an exploration of the Arctic, making meteorological observations, measuring variations in the earth’s magnetic field in the latitudes near the North Pole, and making a photographic survey of unmapped regions using a panoramic camera that automatically took several pictures per minute. The size, payload, and stability of the zeppelin allowed heavy scientific instruments to be carried and used with an accuracy that would not have been possible with the airplanes of the day.
The five-stage flight covered 7,187 nautical miles in 136:26 flying hours between July 24th and July 31st, 1931, and literally changed the map of the Arctic region with the information obtained during the flight.