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LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'' (ドイツ語:Deutsches Luftschiff Zeppelin #127; Registration: D-LZ 127) was a German-built and -operated, passenger-carrying, hydrogen-filled, rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a count (''Graf'') in the German nobility. During its operating life, the airship made 590 flights covering more than a million miles (1.6 million km). It was designed to be operated by a crew of 36 officers and men. It was scrapped for fighter plane parts in 1940. ==Design and development== Built at the Zeppelin Company works (''Luftschiffbau Zeppelin'') in Friedrichshafen am Bodensee (Lake Constance), Germany, between 1926 and 1928, the LZ-127 had a design patterned on that of the LZ-126, which the company had delivered as a war reparation to the U.S. Navy. The LZ-126 had been delivered at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, in October 1924, where it was commissioned as the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3).〔("Flight's End." ) ''Time Magazine,'' 27 October 1924.〕 With that project completed, the Zeppelin company's chairman Dr. Hugo Eckener promptly began a two-year campaign of lobbying the German Government for funds and permission to proceed with construction of a new airship for Germany.〔Archbold 1994, p. 102.〕 Construction began in 1926 with the aid of a government grant although the majority of the necessary 2 million Reichsmarks (RM) in funding would eventually be raised by public subscription. The LZ 127 was completed and launched in September 1928. At 236.6 m (776 ft) and a total gas volume of 105,000 m³ (3,707,550 ft³) of which 75,000 m³ (2,648,585 ft³) was hydrogen carried in 17 "lift gas" cells (''Traggaszelle'') and 30,000 m³ (1,059,435 ft³) was Blau gas in 12 "power gas" cells (''Kraftgaszelle''), the ''Graf'' was the largest airship in the world at the time. It was powered by five Maybach VL-2 12-cylinder 550 hp engines that could burn either Blau gas or gasoline.〔Scherz 2003〕 Although the ''Graf'' could achieve a top airspeed of 128 km/h (80 mph, 70 knots) at its maximum thrust of , its normal operational airspeed was 117 km/h (73 mph, 63 knots) at a thrust of .〔 Some flights were made using only Blau gas carried in the dozen power gas cells which enabled the airship to cruise for up to 100 hours. Using gasoline alone it was able to cruise for 67 hours, and up to 118 hours using both. The ''Graf Zeppelin'' had a total lift capacity of 87,000 kilograms (191,800 lbs) with a usable payload of 15,000 kg (33,000 lbs) on a flight.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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