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Zeppelin LZ59 L 20
Zeppelin L20 stranded near Stavanger, Norway
First flight : 21 December 1915
Class : Q built in Friedrichshafen
The LZ 59 was a World War I German Navy Airship and was the first Q-Class zeppelin[4] with a then record length of 178.5 metres (585 ft 8 in). It was allocated the tactical numbering L 20
The LZ 59 conducted its first bombing raid on Britain on the night of 31 January and 1 February 1916. The ship took off together with L 19 from Tønder and joined 9 other naval airships whose objective was to destroy the docks in Liverpool, as well as other targets in the English midlands. The raid was personally led by airship fleet manager Peter Strasser who was on the L 11.
Following an unsuccessful raid on targets in Scotland, MarineLuftschiff Zeppelin L 20, running low on fuel, made a forced landing off the coast of Norway near Stavanger on 3 May 1916. The crew destroyed the airship. 16 were captured, 3 died.[34] Kapitänleutnant Franz Stabbert escaped six months later.
Constructed as LZ 59 at Friedrichshafen, and first flown on 21 Dec 1915, L 20 was based at Tønder until 21 Feb 1916 then moved to Seddin until 6 Apr, at which time it was re-deployed to Tønder. During its four months in service, the 35,800m³ L 20 made nineteen flights covering a total of 7,211 km; including six reconnaissance missions and two successful bombing raids over England dropping 2864 kg bombs.
Length : 178.5m diam : 18.7m gasvolume : 35800 m3 Max. speed : 95 km/u
Range : 4900 km ceiling : 3200m payload : 17804 kg empty weight (tonnage) : 23852 kg
Engines : 4x Maybach HSLu of 240 hp each crew : 18
Tonnage :
Literature :
Wikipedia – list of Zeppelins
Wikipedia – LZ59