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Zeppelin LZ17 Sachsen
First flight : 03 May 1913
Class : H
Transported 9837 passengers in 419 flights, travelling 39919 km
taken over by German military at the start of World War I in 1914; this was Captain Lehmann his first command; it had bomb racks and bombardier’s station fitted, together with an improved radio room, machine guns in the cars below and a gunners’ nest in the tail; In its first attack on Antwerp it carried 1800 lb (820 kg) of bombs and spent 12 hours in the air. Decommissioned in autumn of 1916.
Visit to Wermsdorf , east of Leipzig, 12 July 1914
Raid on Antwerp
From its introduction until the beginning of WWI , LZ 17 carried 9837 people in 419 flights, mainly on sightseeing flights in the service of DELAG , primarily between Dresdsen , Leipzig , Potsdam , Hamburg , Friedrichshafen , Baden-Oos, and Leignitz .
On 1 August 1914 LZ 17 was transferred to the Imperial German Army and equipped with bomb racks capable of carrying up to 3000 kg (6600 lb) of bombs as well as machine guns. Peter Strasser , leader of the Imperial German Navy airship service, received his training on board the airship in 1914 and shortly thereafter it took part in several raids against Antwerp . It quickly became clear that the airship was not suitable for warfare on the western front, and as a result was transferred to Allenstein in early 1915, continuing with smaller raids on Bialystok and Ciechanow throughout the year.
Damaged during a landing, LZ17 was shortened to 148 m (486 ft), and its carrying capacity reduced to 7400 kg (16300 lb) and the performance of the engines was also increased to 130 kW (180 hp) during repairs. As LZ 17A , the airship was transferred to the Imperial German navy at Konigsberg , where it was decommissioned 12 months later, in 1916, as one of Germany’s most successful small airships.
The Sachsen seen flying over Meissen , North-West of Dresden
Crew : 20 l ength : 158m diam : 14.6m volume : 19500 m3
Empty weight : 17900 kg useful lift : 26100 kg
Engines : 3x Maybach B-Y 6-cyl. Water cooled in-line of 165 hp each
Vmax : 76.3 km/u range : 2300 km bombload : 3600 kg
Sachsen flying over Niederlossnitz and Kotzschenbroda on the Elbe, on the outskirts of Dresden
Literature :
Piston-engined airliners page 6