Raise the ring frames
Forty-two polygonal hoops are jigged upright, each trued to the datum wire within 2.5 millimetres.
- Material
- 17S duralumin
- Rivets
- 6,712 flush
WERFTBUCH · FRIEDRICHSHAFEN
ISSUED 17 · VI · 1934
ISSUED 17 · VI · 1934
Experimental passenger airship · Works no. 42
LZ—42
Werft
A machine the length of a city block, drafted in white light and assembled one ring at a time.
PLATE 01
General arrangement / starboard elevation
PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS / APPROVED ISSUE
236.4 moverall length
41.2 mmaximum beam
198,400 m³gas volume
8 × 840 hpMaybach VL-2
The Forty-Two was conceived as a north-Atlantic weather ship: patient in a crosswind, capable of carrying thirty-six observers and eleven tonnes of instruments above the cloud deck for ninety-six hours.
PLATE 07 / ERECTION SEQUENCE
Build the envelope.
Four operations. 19,804 pieces. Tolerances measured against a line of light.
Toggle the inspection lens. When active, point over the drawing or use arrow keys while this button is focused to examine hidden hull bracing.
Float the gas cells
Eighteen cotton bladders, lined in goldbeater membrane, are persuaded between the rings without a crease.
- Lift gas
- Hydrogen, 99.6%
- Cell pressure
- 52 mm H₂O
Tension the outer skin
Silver-doped linen is laced at the keel and shrunk drum-tight. Its aluminized surface rejects the high sun.
- Cloth area
- 31,840 m²
- Dope coats
- Five
Hang the control car
The bridge is lowered fourteen metres from the keel to clear the bow’s boundary layer. Eight engine cars follow.
- Empty mass
- 18.7 tonnes
- Drop test
- 1.8 g passed
PLATE 11 / FRAME 17
Inside the cathedral.
The hull is not a balloon. It is a flying lattice: a web of triangles transferring every gust through the length of the ship.
“One hears the weather first in the wires, a low and very orderly singing.”— Marta Eisele, stress office
- Radial load
- 38.4 kN
- Bay pitch
- 5 480 mm
- Proof factor
- 1.72
SPECIMEN 17-S
DURALUMIN
t = 1.8 mm
DURALUMIN
t = 1.8 mm
AERODYNAMIC LABORATORY / TEST 118
The wind makes
its own drawing.
Move across the test field—or use the arrow keys. Streamlines bend around the 1:80 wax model; the probe alters incidence and reveals the wake.
FLOW 24.0 M/Sα +0.0°RE 4.18 × 10⁶
VERIFIED
WINDKANAL III19 JUN 34
WINDKANAL III19 JUN 34
WERFT ARCHIVE / RELEASE DOSSIER
Every line
leaves a trace.
MEMORANDUM · 42/117
To the night shift
Do not force longitudinal 7-C at frame 31. Warm the member, bring it home on the port tackle, and let the metal remember the curve.
H. Schütte
Chief constructor · 03:40| Rev. | Date | Alteration | Init. |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 02.03.34 | Bow mooring cone +220 | KS |
| B | 18.04.34 | Cell 14 relief trunk | ME |
| C | 07.06.34 | Lower fin spar doubled | HW |
| D | 21.06.34 | Release for flight | KS |
BAUPRÜFUNG
FREIGEGEBEN
21 JUN 1934
FREIGEGEBEN
21 JUN 1934
FLIGHT ACCEPTANCE / 27 JUN
05:12
Cast off from Mast Süd. Lake calm; 12°C.
06:04
Full power climb. Frame song normal.
08:31
Turn over Säntis at 2,940 metres.
11:48
Home. Blue chalk still on the keel.