1909 balloon or airship?

[charles]

I recently acquired a small log book for a balloon which records the date, times, heights, crew and ballast for several flights in 1909 of an aircraft called "Zeppelin" and another called "Graf v. Wedel." For each flight there is a barograph, a height recording tape. Apparently the whole thing was kept by a Dr. Rapok who flew as crew for a captain Riesenfeld, then capt. Arbogast and eventually on the last recorded flight Rapok was the Captain. Perhaps he was in training.

I am trying to discover what type of craft this was. Was it powered for directional flight and, therefore, an airship, or was it a balloon. Any
help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

The flights originate in Alsace, taking off from Strassbourg and then landing elsewhere. I have mapped the flight of 9 May 1909. The craft flies an almost direct line from Strassbourg south-southwest to Breisach. It does not turn around and return. Such a straight flight suggests it had some directional power, thereby making it an airship. But then why does it not fly a return trip, or is it that Rapok does not record those. The fact that one of the balloons is called "Zeppelin" does not mean it IS a Zeppelin; 1909 was a very big year for lighter-than-air directed flight, it was the year that Zeppelin fionally gained funds along with notoriety in ordert to pursue his ideas. It is possible that Zepplein sponsored a balloon or simply a balloonatic named his balloon after this emminent figure of the time.

A number of people whom I have consulted have responded that they can find no listing for a balloon or airship named Graf v. Wedel or Zeppelin.

Three images from the log book can be seen at these URLs. I haven't attached them here as they are too large:

http://www.aeroconservancy.com/one.jpghttp...ncy.com/two.jpg
http://www.aeroconservancy.com/three.jpg

I am also in contact with various people in Europe - Herr Blieber at the Zeppelin Museum, for instance - but nothing has turned up yet.

Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated. Help from those reading German would also be greatly appreciated. If you think you can add to this and would like to see more pages, let me know.

Charles Gosse
ps: please resist the urge to write back that it is a Zeppelin merely because it is called Zeppelin!

[Rod_Filan]

Charles,
I'm hardly an expert of the German language or of early airships- but in reading the scanned pages my feeling is that these were balloons, not airships.
Of course I can find no reference of a Prallluftschiff or Lenkballon with these names either; however, the governor of Alsace (Reichsland) after 1907 was Graf Karl von Wedel (1842-1919) and was probably the namesake of the one.

Two points.
1.) Across the barograph could it not say: 'Freifahrt des ballons "Zeppelin" am 27 Febuar 1909'. Written to imply a non-captive flight?
2.) As for the 9 May flight: I would expect a free-balloon flight to indeed be a straight line in the direction of the wind; whereas a dirigible would make navigational corrections ('tack' if you will) and eventually return home to its shed.

Nevertheless, a great addition to your wonderful aeronautical collection.

VBR
Rod

[jempie]

Sorry, but had problems as being disconnected from Interent for some time (since 25th August! until three days ago!)
But as Rod F. told it goes indeed about the FREE GAS BALLOON baptised "ZEPPELIN"!
Maidenflight on 17.02.1909!

As Starsbourg was at those days so to see German territory, only people from the German Aéro-Club could eventually tell you more! At Gerstenhofen is a German museum on ancient German ballooning history housed into a former watertower.
Maybe they could find a way to tell you more about? Perhaps a photo to get too?

Jempie.

[jempie]

Gersthofen (not Gerstenhofen!)

Used coogle search engine...
website is:

http://www.landkreis-augsburg.de/museen/mu...gertshofen.html

Interesting site!
As you will notice from the address it's Augsburg region, there you had the Augsburg Riedinger Balloon Fabrik.

Jempie.

[jempie]

sorry, made type writing error again!

its:

http://www.landkreis-augsburg.de/museen/mu...gersthofen.html

Jempie.

[Rod_Filan]

Thanks for posting Jempie !
Really glad to hear you're back online. Drop me a message with your new email addy.

VBR
Rod