ZEPPELIN: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE OF COUNT VON ZEPPELIN

Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin (1838-1917)

The name of Zeppelin focuses most people's thoughts on the airships that bore it, and yet Count Zeppelin had given what to many would have been the work of a lifetime in the service of his country in high military and administrative offices before he turned seriously to the design, construction and operation of airships.

The guiding principle of his life from his first youth until his death was one of service to the community: its chronicle is a succession of events rarely uncoloured by acts of courage and bravery, be it in war as in the American Civil War and the war with France in 1870, in the field of exploration, or in facing the catastrophic blows that so often attended the development of his airships when everything fell short of what he had planned and which he accepted with a calm dignity that never failed to assuage the hurt and disappointment his helpers shared.

Although he did not survive to see his work consummated, its result and the fulfilment of his dreams found expression in the performance of the Graf Zeppelin which, in the 1920s gave nine years of successful service by flying more than a million miles, including one flight of over 20,000 miles in circumnavigating the world.

Now that the fire hazard can be avoided by the use of helium, serious thought is being given to the reintroduction of airships and there is little doubt that the experience gained from Zeppelin's pioneer efforts will contribute to their design.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

T. Ewart Guttery MBE, CEng, AFRAeS is a retired Wing Commander of the Royal Air Force. Engaged in aviation since his schooldays, he entered the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 and with them went to France on the outbreak of war in 1914. During his service he filled posts in squadrons, training schools, repair depots, mechanical transport, marine craft and examination units. In the administrative and directive fields he held senior staff appointments in the Air Ministry, Ministry of Aircraft Production, Flying Training, Transport and Bomber Commands and RAF Technical College.

This entailed active collaboration with aircraft and aero-engine manufacturers, experimental establishments and air forces of other countries. His experience covered a period of nearly half a century during which aircraft advanced from primitive types to the Vee bombers and supersonic fighters of the 1960s.

He now does a voluntary job with the Shuttleworth Collection as archivist, researcher and author of their publications.

ABOUT THE SERIE « SHIRE LIFELINES »

This is a series of illustrated biographies, each describing the career of a man who stamped his mark on his own age and on subsequent generations. The authoritative text of each book is fully illustrated with engravings, photographs and reproductions of contemporary material.

Titles in the series are:

1. Isambard Kingdom Brunel

2. General Gordon

3. William Morris

4. Josiah Wedgwood

5. Cecil Rhodes

6. Richard Trevithick

7. Henry Morton Stanley

8. Robert Stephenson

9. Bulwer-Lytton 10. Thomas Telford

11. Joseph Chamberlain

12. Burne-Jones

13. Gillray and Cruikshank

14. James Brindley

15. John Ruskin

16. Will Adams

18. Ebenezer Howard

19. Mungo Park

20. Landseer

23. Zeppelin