I have talked in these articles before about the troubles Graf von Zeppelin had getting his airships airborne, but there was a moment, between the World Wars, when it looked like the future of intercontinental travel might be lighter than air.
The aircraft which held out this possibility was the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. It is not a craft we hear about much today, although it nearly changed the shape of travel.
In 1925, with the relaxation of post-war limits on German aviation, Dr Hugo Eckener, chairman of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, wasted little time in calling in Ludwig Dürr, an engineer who had worked on LZ 1, to build the largest airship that could fit in the old Zeppelin hangar on Lake Constance.
The LZ127 was to be a demonstration platform for a new era of flight, where passengers, freight and mails could be taken around the globe non-stop. Unable to purchase helium from the USA, Germans used hydrogen to provide lift, but went to great lengths to ensure...