Zeppelin LZ49 LZ79
LZ79 attacked by French Farman MF.11 biplanes
First flight : 2 August 1915
Class : P
Dropped 4,440 kg (9,790 lb) of bombs in two attacks on Brest-Litovsk and Kovel and one attack on Paris on 30 January 1916; hit by French fire and damaged beyond repair in forced landing near Ath , Belgium.
On 29 January 1916 , Hauptmann Victor Gaissert takes off from Namur with the zeppelin LZ79 for a raid on Paris . From Soissons , the zeppelin is spotted and 26 French planes take off to intercept the airship. Without success because the zeppelin flies much too high and also anti-aircraft guns can not stop it. Gaissert drops bombs over the Parisian districts of Belleville and Ménilmontant , causing twenty-six casualties.
On the way back to Germany, the zeppelin flies over Le Bourget and again the alarm is raised. Corporal Louis Vallin and Sergeant Denebonde attack the zeppelin. Vallin and Denebonde lose sight of the zeppelin. It is Lieutenant Galliot and Second Lieutenant Jacques de Lesseps (son of the engineer who built the Suez Canal) who chase the zeppelin for an hour. During that chase, they shoot several times at the airship that loses more and more gas. On the morning of January 30, 1916 , the zeppelin descends and an emergency landing can no longer be stopped. At Mainvault , near Ath , the 170-metre-long airship ends up on the roof of a farm in rue du Chêne . All eighteen crew members can still leave the wreck alive, but the ship is lost.
Length : 163m diameter : 18.7m volume : 31900 m3
Engines : 4 x 240 hp Max. speed : 97 km/hr ceiling : 3200m
Range : 4300 km useful load : 16.200 kg
Literature :
Incident Zeppelin LZ.49 LZ-79, 30 Jan 1916 (aviation-safety.net)