7. On LZ-128 and the Americans’ disappointment, see J. Duggan, LZ-129 Hindenburg: The Complete Story (Ickenham, U.K.: Zeppelin Study Group, 2002), pp. 3–4, 9–10.
40. The Duelists
1. “His Majesty’s Ship R-100,” Flight, December 6, 1929, pp. 1275–80; “The Loss of H.M. Airship R-101,” Flight, October 10, 1930, pp. 1107–1114, 1126; “How the R-100 Is Realizing Britain’s Dreams,” Literary Digest, August 16, 1930, pp. 29–30; “Britain’s Dirigible Horror,” Literary Digest, October 18, 1930, pp. 10–11; F.L.M. Boothby, “The Loss of R-101,” The Airship 1 (1934), no. 2, pp. 24–27. For the fullest narrative, see P. Davison, “The R-101 Story: A Review Based on Primary Source Material and First-hand Accounts,” Journal of Aeronautical History 5 (2015), pp. 43–167.
2. Hartcup, Achievement of the Airship, pp. 189–90; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 297. Nevil Norway, of the R-100 team, describes the noxious atmosphere of the competition. Norway, Slide Rule: An Autobiography of an Engineer (New York: Vintage, 2010), chs. 2 and 3. See also Meyer, “Politics, Personality, and Technology: Airships in the Manipulations of Dr. Hugo Eckener and Lord Thomson, 1919–1930,” in Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, pp. 186–87.
3. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 303–4; Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, p. 203, n. 6; Hiam, Dirigible Dreams, p. 187; Hartcup, Achievement of the Airship, pp. 180, 197–98. Beaty notes that R-100 cost £411,113 and R-101 £717,165. Beaty, Water Jump, p. 104.
4. “Offer Bill to Back Merchant Airships,” The New York Times, December 5, 1930; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 197.
5. When airship enthusiasm was at its height in 1929, United’s net income had been $8,966,032, but in 1930 that figure had fallen to $3,302,206. That was bad, but the coming year was forecast to be still worse—as indeed it would be, when United’s 1931 numbers plummeted to $2,712,570. “Annual Reports,” Aviation, May 1931, p. 266; “Financial Reports,” Aviation, April 1932, p. 191; “Aeronautical Finance,” Aviation, June 21, 1930, p. 191.
6. Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 197; Duggan and Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, p. 262, n. 22, on his maneuverings and Hunsaker’s report on the affair, pp. 193–94. See also letters from J. R. Parnell, secretary of the PZT, to Trippe, May 19, 1931 (appointment to board) and April 12, 1932 (reappointment), as well as the very friendly letter from Trippe to Hunsaker, December 10, 1931, inviting him to lunch and thanking him for sending a copy of Charles Rosendahl’s new book on airships. That Trippe was in receipt of confidential information is beyond doubt: On July 1, 1931, he was sent the PZT Balance Sheet and Report of the Chairman of the Board of Directors (which detailed Litchfield’s plans for the coming years in Congress). He also used a variety of underhanded methods to discover more. George Rihl, his dirty-tricks specialist in South America, was detailed to elicit intelligence on Zeppelin operations in Brazil. On September 13, 1933, he sent Trippe a memorandum, “Zeppelin Contract,” in which he said that “I could only see this contract for a short time and as yet cannot secure a copy,” but he managed to jot down the salient points, including Eckener’s payment schedules, expenses, timetable for building an airport, and Zeppelin payments to the Brazilian government. Rihl also saw a letter from the German ambassador to the minister of foreign affairs in Brazil saying that Berlin was subsidizing Zeppelin with 900,000 marks. All of these documents are in Henry Cord Meyer Papers, Box 2, File 3. Hunsaker’s, Trippe’s, and Litchfield’s statements are printed in Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, S.5078, February 6, 1931, pp. 32–38, copy in Henry Cord Meyer Papers, Box 3, File 25. Pan American’s financials are in “Profits and Losses,” Aviation, May 1932, p. 233.
7. P. Lyth, “The Empire’s Airway: British Civil Aviation from 1919 to 1939,” Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 78 (2000), no. 3, pp. 865–72.
8. Beaty, Water Jump, p. 81; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 199.
9. Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 93.
10. On the complexities of the Bermuda/Azores negotiations, see Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 94; Daley, American Saga, p. 107; Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 479.
11. For instance, “All-Red Cape-Cairo Complete,” Aviation, March 1932, p. 144; “Trans-Atlantic Air Mail in Sight,” Aviation, October 1932, pp. 420–21.
41. The Great Circle
1. “The ‘Zep’ Did Not Go ‘Around the World,’ ” Literary Digest, September 28, 1929, p. 28.
2. J. Duggan, Airships in the Arctic (Ickenham, U.K.: Zeppelin Study Group, 2006), pp. 186–92.
3. Vaeth, Graf Zeppelin, pp. 113, 118–20; Duggan, Airships in the Arctic, pp. 165–67.
4. A full narrative of the flight can be found in Duggan, Airships and the Arctic, pp. 212–30; and J. McCannon, “Sharing the Northern Skies: German-Soviet Scientific Cooperation and the 1931 Flight of the Graf Zeppelin to the Soviet Arctic,” Russian History 30 (2003), no. 4, pp. 403–31, which also investigates the Soviet purposes behind the expedition.
5. Eckener (trans. Robinson), My Zeppelins, p. 138.
6. Eckener (trans. Robinson), My Zeppelins, pp. 132–33, 139. L. Ellsworth and E. H. Smith note that “we were fortunate in being able to take advantage of favorable meteorological conditions” only because Eckener had delayed departure at one point for a few hours. See Ellsworth and Smith, “Report of the Preliminary Results of the Aeroarctic Expedition with Graf Zeppelin, 1931,” Geographical Review 22 (1932), no. 1, pp. 61–82.
7. Before the Arctic flight, Eckener was reported as “being very optimistic over the possibility of establishing an inter-continental air route via the northern regions, and looked to this flight to establish whether safe navigation was possible during the unfavorable Arctic summer, which was characterized by thick fog.” Quoted in Duggan, Airships in the Arctic, p. 198. Afterward, it was later reported, Eckener said he’d “given up the idea of trying to establish a northern air route to America by way of Greenland because of the fog disturbance.” See “Eckener Drops New Route Idea,” The New York Times, September 2, 1934.
8. Meyer, “Building Rigid Airships,” pp. 95–96; Topping, When Giants Roamed the Sky, p. 166.
9. Statistics for these flights can be found in J. Duggan and J. Graue, Commercial Zeppelin Flights to South America: The Commercial South America Flights and Airmails of the Zeppelin Airships (Valleyford, Wash.: JL Diversified, 1995), pp. 17, 161–62.
10. Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, p. 241.
11. Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, p. 124; B. Clarke, Atlantic Adventure: A Complete History of Transatlantic Flight (London: Allan Wingate, 1958), p. 91.
12. On Newfoundland affairs at this time, see R. A. MacKay, “Foreign Governments and Politics: Newfoundland Reverts to the Status of a Colony,” American Political Science Review 28 (1934), no. 5, pp. 895–900; J. Overton, “Economic Crisis and the End of Democracy: Politics in Newfoundland During the Great Depression,” Labour/Le Travail 26 (1990), pp. 85–124; H. B. Mayo, “Newfoundland’s Entry into the Dominion,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue Canadienne d’Economique et de Science Politique 15 (1949), no. 4, pp. 505–22; D. Mackenzie, “Ireland, Canada, and Atlantic Aviation, 1935–45: A Comparative Study,” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies 18 (1992), no. 2, pp. 31–47. Trippe’s agent’s cable is quoted in Daley, American Saga, pp. 134–35.
13. Beaty, Water Jump, pp. 88–89, 92; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 211–12; Josephson, Empire of the Air, pp. 95–97.
14. Lindbergh, Autobiography of Values, pp. 108–9, 113, 115. “Merchant Aerial,” Time, July 31, 1933; for Lindbergh’s report to Trippe, see Daley, American Saga, p. 129. Anne Morrow Lindbergh describes the flight in detail in her article “Flying Across the North Atlantic,” National Geographic 66 (1934), no. 3 (September), pp. 261–337, which is accompanied by spectacular
photographs.
42. Master of Ocean Aircraft
1. “The Sikorsky S-40 Amphibian,” Aviation, October 1931, pp. 594–98; “Putting Luxury in the Air,” Literary Digest, January 9, 1932, p. 34; “Hailing the American Clipper, Our Biggest Plane,” Literary Digest, October 24, 1931, pp. 36–37; Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, pp. 187–99; Holland, Architects of Aviation, p. 188; Daley, American Saga, p. 95.
2. Davies, Airlines of the United States Since 1914, p. 243; Daley, American Saga, p. 109; Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 95 (inaccurately dates the letter to August 15).
3. Daley, American Saga, pp. 101–4; Josephson, Empire of the Air, p. 81. W. B. Courtney, “Europe—On the Nose!” Collier’s, December 1, 1934, pp. 10–11, 40–43, has a picturesque narrative of his flight on the route aboard the Caribbean Clipper, which includes his “lunch in South America” line and the description of the run as “Prep School.” On Sikorsky’s flying skills, see Bender and Altschul, Chosen Instrument, p. 187.
4. On cost comparisons, see Davies, Pan Am, p. 39.
5. On the sale to United, see Cochrane, Hardesty, and Lee, Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky, p. 99.
6. R. Burlingame, “From Barnstorming to Bombers,” Popular Science, September 1941, pp. 51–58; “Giants and Near-Giants,” Literary Digest, October 19, 1935, pp. 28–29; obituary, “Glenn L. Martin Dies of Stroke,” The New York Times, December 5, 1955; “Tomorrow’s Airplane,” Fortune, July 1938, p. 88.
7. Beaty, Water Jump, pp. 113–14; Mayo’s report is quoted in R. K. Smith, “The Intercontinental Airliner and the Essence of Airplane Performance, 1929–1939,” Technology and Culture 24 (1983), no. 3, p. 437.
8. Statistics for these flights are catalogued in Duggan and Graue, Commercial Zeppelin Flights to South America, pp. 24–25.
9. Stamp income is discussed by Henry Cord Meyer, “How Philatelists Kept the Zeppelin Flying,” printed in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, pp. 302–5. See also K. B. Stiles, “Hindenburg on Stamps,” May 16, 1937, The New York Times, which covers the history of issues.
10. Wordsmith (pseud.), “Notes on the International Zeppelin Transport Co. and Pacific Zeppelin Transport Co.,” part 1, p. 5. Eckener was particularly cagey when he addressed the Federal Aviation Commission on the subject of his financials in October 1934. Of the South American flights, he claimed that “the Graf Zeppelin, when fully booked, already now nearly covers its operating cost.” Note that he did not use the phrase “makes a profit” and omitted to clarify that he was referring only to the latest year’s flights; also worth noting is that the Graf Zeppelin was never “fully booked.” See Eckener, “The Rigid Airship and Its Possibilities,” The Airship 2 (1935), no. 5, p. 8 (for the “safety and regularity” argument, p. 5).
11. Wordsmith (pseud.), “Notes on the International Zeppelin Transport Co. and Pacific Zeppelin Transport Co.,” part 1, p. 5; Topping, When Giants Roamed the Sky, pp. 179–80.
12. Robinson and Keller, “Up Ship!” pp. 185–86; W. A. Armstrong, “William A. Moffett and the Development of Naval Aviation,” in Leary (ed.), Aviation’s Golden Age, pp. 60–73. Topping, When Giants Roamed the Sky, pp. 181–85, examines the question of human error in the Akron’s destruction.
43. The Hooked Cross
1. This section based on I. Kershaw, Hitler: 1899–1936: Hubris (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000), pp. 493–678; D. Siemens, Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler’s Brownshirts (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2017); R. J. Evans, “Men He Could Trust,” London Review of Books, February 22, 2018, pp. 37–39. Eckener’s January 1932 radio address is covered in “Bruening Attacks Hitler’s Motives,” The New York Times, January 24, 1932, and reprinted in full (with associated correspondence) in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, pp. 282–88; for other relevant material (Paul Löbe’s quote on fusileered Marxists and heads rolling in sand, for instance), “Germans Uniting Behind Hindenburg,” The New York Times, January 28, 1932; for Eckener’s activities in 1932–33, see Duggan and Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, pp. 180–82; German middle-class politics and the German National Association are analyzed in L. E. Jones, “Sammlung Oder Zersplitterung? Die Bestrebungen zur Bildung Einer Neuen Mittelpartei in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik 1930–1933,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 25 (1977), no. 3, pp. 265–304, as well as Italiaander, pp. 289–91. Eckener’s bizarre horoscope in the Neues Deutschland is reprinted in Italiaander, pp. 295–98. De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 261, n. 11, notes Eckener’s absence for much of January.
2. De Syon, Zeppelin!, pp. 174–77.
3. For Wittemann and Pruss’s Party membership, see De Syon, Zeppelin!, pp. 182, 265, n. 66. Owing to numerous shorter flights, Lehmann had actually captained the Graf Zeppelin more often than Eckener. Between September 18, 1928, and December 10, 1935: Lehmann had flown 272 times; Eckener, 133 times; Flemming, 34 times; Schiller, 27 times, Wittemann, 23 times; and Pruss, 16 times. Lehmann, Zeppelin, p. 311.
4. Vaeth, Graf Zeppelin, p. 164; Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 294. Diels, slippery as an eel, later submitted two affidavits for the prosecution at Nuremberg, one undated and the other October 31, 1945, printed as Documents 2472-PS and 2544-PS in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (ed.), Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946), volume 5, pp. 224–26, 288–90. His self-exculpations should be treated with caution. For the development of the Gestapo and Diels, see F. McDonough, The Gestapo: The Myth and Reality of Hitler’s Secret Police (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017), pp. 14, 20–25.
5. On the Diels meeting and Eckener’s incautious remarks, see Vaeth, Graf Zeppelin, pp. 158–59, which is based on later conversations with Eckener. For Eckener’s phrase about “evil qualities,” see note by Rosendahl, May 17, 1945, in Rosendahl Papers, Box 107, Folder 36. Nielsen (trans. Chambers), The Zeppelin Story, pp. 208–9, contains some additional details of the meeting but is by no means an authoritative source. Diels’s behavior, menacing yet willing to give Eckener a chance to make amends, was certainly curious, but it becomes more explicable when one considers that he had a habit of doing so. At around the same time, for instance, he summoned to his office the Hearst journalist Karl von Wiegand, Eckener’s friend and a longtime Zeppelin-watcher, for a little warning chat about a scoop he’d had concerning Hindenburg’s will. See W. E. Dodd, Jr., and M. Dodd (eds.), Ambassador Dodd’s Diary, 1933–1938 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1945), entry of August 29, 1933, p. 43. It is said that Dodd’s daughter, Martha, was one of Diels’s paramours.
6. On the Graf Zeppelin’s trips that year, see Duggan, Commercial Zeppelin Flights to South America, pp. 31, 35.
7. Quoted in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 301; Duggan, LZ-129 Hindenburg, p. 127.
8. Quoted in W. Dornberger (trans. J. Cleugh and G. Halliday), V-2: The Inside Story of Hitler’s “Secret Weapon” and the Men and Events Behind It That Almost Changed the Course of History (New York: Viking Press, 1954), p. 66. Once, when Eckener took Dr. Fritz Todt, Hitler’s highway builder, for an aerial survey by Zeppelin of the new road system, he asked Todt whether the Führer would ever consider doing the same; Todt replied that he’d already discussed the matter with him and been told he “didn’t want to have anything to do” with airships. Eckener (trans. Robinson), My Zeppelins, p. 149.
9. Quoted in De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 179.
10. Quoted in Vaeth, Graf Zeppelin, p. 163.
11. The most thorough discussion of the Chicago visit is C. Ganz’s chapter “Aviation, Nationalism, and Progress,” in her The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair: A Century of Progress (Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 137–50; see also Meister’s recollections in Meyer, “F. W. (Willy) von Meister,” pp. 202–3. Luther’s letter to Hull warning of Communist threats, October 13, 1933, is in the Henry Cord Meyer Papers,
Box 2, File 21, as are various related correspondence and the State Department Division of Protocol’s “Memorandum Concerning the Visit of the Graf Zeppelin and the German Ambassador to Chicago,” October 26, 1933.
44. The Ledgers
1. Figures are based on the data in Duggan, Commercial Zeppelin Flights to South America, pp. 31–37, 46–50. I have omitted the ninth flight of the Graf Zeppelin in 1933, which was a special extended tour for the Chicago World’s Fair. On the government subsidy, Meyer, “Problems of Helium and Spy Flights: The Brief Career of LZ-130,” in Meyer, Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, p. 211.
2. On Arnstein’s visit, Topping, When Giants Roamed the Sky, pp. 188–89.
3. Memorandum, “The United States of America, Airship Construction, and Airship Service,” March 30, 1934, quoted in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, pp. 319–22. De Syon, Zeppelin!, pp. 266–67 and 267, n. 95, calls this document a “historiographic puzzle.” Who composed it is unknown. It may have been the work of the SS or the Gestapo, though the Air Ministry might have been the source. Its scarcity (five copies) implies it was heavily restricted. For the recipients, see Henry Cord Meyer’s notes, in Meyer Papers, Box 6, File 20, p. 7 (of partial manuscript), n. 20.
4. Eckener (trans. Robinson), My Zeppelins, pp. 147–48.
5. See Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 309.
6. R. J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), pp. 82–85.
7. Eckener’s own thinking on the speech is covered in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, pp. 307–8, and p. 440, where in a note dated February 15, 1947, Eckener clarified that the speech was “extorted” from him and that the Propaganda people had subtly altered the concluding sentences.
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