Best Zeppelin books

Kosh · 31 December 2006, 06:52 PM

What is the best technically oriented (in English) book on Zeppelins, from GW types to Hindenburg?

Rod_Filan · 31 December 2006, 08:51 PM

Here's one that fits your description.

At the website AIRSHIP, John Dziadecki recommends:

Peter W. Brooks: Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, 1893-1940
Washington, DC - Smithsonian Institution Press - 1992 - ISBN: 1560982284
Extremely well researched. Lists detail on EVERY Zeppelin built in its covered period.

among other books listed

VBR
Rod

Ira_Silverman · 1 January 2007, 09:57 PM

Kosh,

If you're looking for something really technical, this one's hard to beat.

Lewitt, E.H. The Rigid Airship. A Treatise on the Design and Performance. London (UK), Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1925. 283 pp., illus., figs.

This one will tell you how to design and build your own.

Is your garage big enough?

Where can you get gold-beaters skin nowadays?

Imagine showing up at Oshkosh in your very own Zeppelin!

VBR,

Ira

Barrett · 5 January 2007, 01:21 PM

Douglas Robinson's book is reviewed on this site. LOTS of good info but several peculiar omissions.

Aerowallah · 5 January 2007, 06:02 PM

Rimell just came out with this limited edition Datafile which is a great read.
Rgds

Kosh · 5 January 2007, 07:23 PM

Thanks folks! I have Robinson´s "Zeppelin in Combat". Ira, that Lewitt book sounds good but seems to be well over my budget!

Patrick · 6 January 2007, 10:43 AM

A good mix of technical data and historical narrative:

Giants In The Sky
A History of the Rigid Airship
Douglas H Robinson

1973
ISBN 0-295-95249-0

crankcase · 20 February 2007, 01:20 AM

In the book review section of current issue of "The Economist" (London), I came across a title "Tip&Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa" by Edward Paice. The review mentions a Zeppelin which, when attempting to resupply the German protectorate in East Africa in 1917, "got as far as Khartoum before turning back -- apparently having been tricked by a bogus radio message sent by the British". The review criticizes the author for cramming this "astonishing story" into only four pages.

Coincidentally I found and bought Rimell's 1984 book "Zeppelin A Battle for Air Supremacy in WW1" in a used bookshop in Switzerland. There is no mention of airship ops in Africa. Does anyone know more about the Africa mission? Could that have been the first intercontinental flight of a Zeppelin?
crankcase

karrart · 20 February 2007, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crankcase

In the book review section of current issue of "The Economist" (London), I came across a title "Tip&Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa" by Edward Paice. The review mentions a Zeppelin which, when attempting to resupply the German protectorate in East Africa in 1917, "got as far as Khartoum before turning back -- apparently having been tricked by a bogus radio message sent by the British". The review criticizes the author for cramming this "astonishing story" into only four pages.

Coincidentally I found and bought Rimell's 1984 book "Zeppelin A Battle for Air Supremacy in WW1" in a used bookshop in Switzerland. There is no mention of airship ops in Africa. Does anyone know more about the Africa mission? Could that have been the first intercontinental flight of a Zeppelin?
crankcase

I did a painting of one part of this amazing journey. See:

http://www.karrart.com/karrart/2dpre1/zep1a.php

One of the more adventrous WW I tales!

Robert Karr
www.karrart.com

crankcase · 20 February 2007, 10:46 AM

Thanks for the reference to your marvellous painting! Maybe for a time the Zeppelin crew forgot that there was a war on as they floated over the African countryside. Magic moments!
crankcase