Bleeding financially from competition over similar routes, Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt (HAPAG) and Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) elect to merge their airline operations on February 6, 1923. Deutscher Aero Union, A. G. and Lloyd Luftdienst, GmbH. each take half interest (amounting to capitalization of 100 million reichmarks) in the new Deutscher Aero Lloyd, A. G. They contribute all of their equipment, facilities, personnel, and airline shares, including the former carriers Deutsche Luft Reederei, GmbH., Lloyd Luftverkehr Sablatnig, GmbH., Deutscher Lloyd Luft, GmbH., and Lloyd Ostflug, GmbH.
The two carriers also agree to merge their Danzig affiliates; Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst, GmbH. and Danziger Luft Reederei, GmbH. become Danziger Aero Lloyd, A. G. Although HAPAG and NDL remain as backers, AEG now withdraws and is replaced by the Deutsche Bank, whose representative, Dr. Kurt Weigeit, is a major force behind the amalgamation.
Employing some 19 modified Fokker F-IIs (Fokker-Grulich F-II) and an uncertain number of Dornier Komet IIs and IIIs received from Deutsche Luft Reederei, GmbH., DAL resumes domestic flights over rationalized portions of the old routes, featuring operations to the Leipzig Trade Fair.
On April 23, the previously flown Rotterdam-Copenhagen service, pooled with KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines, N. V.) and DDL Danish Airlines, A. S., is restarted. Seven days later, a joint London-Berlin via Amsterdam, Bremen, and Hamburg, weekly service is launched in cooperation with The Daimler Airway, Ltd.; DAL begins flying the service on May 21.
In March 1924, Dornier Komet IIs inaugurate Berlin-Vienna service via Dresden and Prague. Later, Dornier C-II Dolphins are employed to initiate a trans-Baltic night service from Wernemunde-Stockholm via Karlshamn. Three Udet U-8s are received and two (D-417 and D-483) are christened Linde (Lime Tree) and Blindschleiche (Blind Worm) is introduced on the Bremen to Hanover route, as well as on flights from Munich to Berchtesgaden, Hanover to Hamburg, and Munich to Partenkirchen via Garmisch.
On May 24, the Condor Syndikat is formed at Berlin; created to support the sale of German civil aircraft overseas, it has DAL backing.
On April 15, 1925, DAL becomes the first German airline to open service to Italy as a Komet III arrives at Milan from Berlin following a
Munich stop; the event also marks the first time a commercial airliner has flown over the Alps.
Competition between DAL and the Junkers Luftverkehr, A. G. is ferocious during these years and the drain on state, municipal, and private funds for subsidies become burdensome. On May 7, Junkers proposes the creation of a super-consortia, the Europa-Union, to unite both its Trans-Europa and Ost-Europa groups.
Scheduled service between Berlin and Moscow is realized on June 15 when DAL inaugurates a scheduled service from the German capital to the East Prussian city of Konigsberg, where a connection is made with the Deutsche-Russische Luftverkehrs, A. G. (Deruluft) route into Russia.
A meeting of the 16 airlines to be involved in the Europa-Union takes place in Berlin on September 7. The aviation department of the German Transport Ministry disallows this move, viewing it as an attempt by the manufacturer to increase its power over the airline industry. This government bureau assumes 80% control of Junkers Luftverkehr, A. G. in October. At approximately the same time, Deutsche Bank/Deutsche Petroleum official Weigelt, who had assisted in the creation of DAL and with cooperation with Ernst Brandenburg, GTM aviation bureau chief, prepares a pamphlet entitled Fusion in the Field of Air Traffic, which recommends a Junkers/DAL merger.
Merger negotiations proceed and, on January 6, 1926, the two corporate carriers are merged into a new national airline, Deutsche Luft Hansa, A. G. (DLH).
DEUTSCHER ZEPPELIN-REEDEREI, A. G.: Germany (19351937). Following an around-the-world voyage aboard the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin during August 1929, the 5,996-mile, nonstop Japan to Los Angeles segment of which is flown in 79 hrs. 3 min., Dr. Hugo Eckener remains behind in September as Capt. Ernst Lehmann returns the giant airship from Lakehurst, New Jersey, to Friedrichshafen, Germany. In discussions with American financiers, Dr. Eckener lays plans for global Zeppelin services via the International Zeppelin Transport Company now established. His activities are greatly assisted by release of the government documentary film production Around the World via Graf Zeppelin, a compilation of newsreel footage.
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, GmbH. begins business in 1930. Commencing on May 17, the airship Graf Zeppelin, under the sponsorship of the company plus Deutsche Luft Hansa, A. G., Hamburg-Sudamerikanische Linie, A. G., and the Syndicato Condor, makes a roundtrip proving flight. The airship travels from Seville, Spain, to Recife, Brazil, and up to Lakehurst, New Jersey, and back to Friedrichshafen via Seville, arriving on June 6.
Similarly backed, three additional test flights are made during August, September, and October 1931.
Scheduled, revenue passenger service is inaugurated on March 20, 1932 Friedrichshafen to Rio de Janeiro via Seville and Recife and nine roundtrip flights are made between April and October.
Nine roundtrip voyages are made in 1933. The final visit of the Graf Zeppelin to the U. S. is concluded on October 28. Having arrived via Brazil and Opa Locka, Florida, the huge airship is temporarily based at Akron, Ohio, in order to make a visit to the Chicago World’s Fair. While flying over the Windy City, Eckener, who has been ordered to show the Nazi swastika on the airship’s tail, has it painted on the upper left-hand panel only and then circles in a clockwise rotation, which keeps it from view of those on the ground below. The maneuver infuriates many in the German government. From Akron, Capt. Lehmann, with two dozen passengers, departs for Friedrichshafen, via Seville, arriving on October 31.
Another dozen voyages are made in 1934. Without incident, 34 roundtrip summer crossings have been made in two years and convince the Nazi government that a state airship line should be formed, for propaganda value if nothing else.
On March 22, 1935, Hermann Goering, as head of the Reich Air Ministry, or Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM), joins the Zeppelin company with elements of Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. to form Deutscher
Zeppelin-Reederei, A. G. Critics, then and now, suggest that the new concern has been founded simply to fly the Swastika around the world for propaganda purposes, with commercial aspects of its operation forming a secondary purpose. In any event, airship pioneer Eckener, who had incurred Goering’s wrath over the Chicago incident two years earlier, is made chairman/CEO.
The Graf Zeppelin mounts 16 roundtrip South Atlantic crossings during the year, several of which terminate at the expensive new Santa Cruz terminal, near Rio de Janeiro. The airship’s 100th ocean crossing comes on September 15 and its 500th flight a week later. The 50th South Atlantic flight and one-millionth km. (631,370 miles) are completed in December.
On March 4, 1936, LZ-129 Hindenburg makes its first flight and is joined by Graf Zeppelin in making several North Atlantic proving flights from Rhein-Main. The last great passenger-carrying airship, the Hindenburg makes its maiden transatlantic crossing on May 6 in a record 64 hrs. 53 min.
During the summer flying season, Graf Zeppelin completes 11 roundtrip South Atlantic crossings and Hindenburg makes 4, plus 10 over the North Atlantic.
In an effort to increase the passenger payload, the latter airship is reconfigured during the winter of 1936 to permit a capacity of 72 passengers. It is hoped that this would pay off in a reduction of operational costs to those roughly incurred by Imperial Airways, Ltd. Empire flying boats. Unhappily, the balloon cells of the airships must still be filled with explosive hydrogen gas.
On May 4, 1937, the Hindenburg, with 61 crew and 36 passengers under the command of Capt. Max Pruss, departs Frankfurt on her first transatlantic crossing of the year. The dirigible passes over Manhattan’s Empire State Building at 3:30 p. m. on May 6. While attempting to moor to a mast at Lakehurst, New Jersey, at 7:23 p. m., it explodes and burns (35 dead) in a spectacular incident caught on newsreel film and narrated by newsman Herb Morrison of the Chicago radio station WLS. Among the dead is Capt. Ernst Lehmann.
Over the years, various theories will be put forward in an attempt to explain the disaster, including lightning, static electricity, and sabotage; although the latter is boldly given as the cause in the 1975 Universal motion picture The Hindenburg (starring George C. Scott), the actual cause is not known. It is reported in the November 1997 issue of Popular Science that former NASA engineer Addison Bain, after years of research, has speculated that an electrical discharge touched off a fire in the flammable skin at the top of the dirigible. It was this fire that expanded, eventually being joined by escaping hydrogen from the gas cells. This theory is, however, challenged.
Although the Graf Zeppelin remains, the RLM abruptly shuts down its unique commercial experiment, having carried some 16,000 passengers without incident before the Lakehurst disaster. The Graf Zeppelin, meanwhile, completes two roundtrip flights to South America during the year, the second on May 8 when it returns to Friedrichshafen for the last time.
In light of the Hindenburg disaster, the surviving Graf Zeppelin and the new Graf Zeppelin IIare taken out of service. The former completes its final service on June 19 when it is opened for display at Frankfurt Airport after having flown up from its Friedrichshafen base. In nine years of operation, the airship has made 144 ocean crossings and 590 flights over 1,053,395 miles, carrying a total of 13,100 passengers.
The Graf Zeppelin’s captain, Hans Von Schiller, publishes his memoirs in 1938, Kapitan Hans von Schiller’s Zeppelinbuch (Leipzig, Germany: Bibliographisches Institut, 1938). A crewman, Eugen Bentele, who has served on both the Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin, reveals his thoughts years later, in his The Story of a Zeppelin Mechanic: My Flights, 1931-1938 (Friedrichshafen, Germany: Wolfgang Meighorner Schardt, 1992).
After completing radar espionage missions in British airspace during May and August 1939, the Graf Zeppelin is ordered dismantled by the German government early in May 1940.
The company’s CEO, the great airshipman Hugo Eckener, publishes his reminiscences in Im Zeppelin uber Lander und Meere: Eriebnisse und Erinnerungen (Flensberg, Germany: Christian Wolff, 1949.). He will also be remembered by Rolf Italiaander in his Hugo Eckener, Ein Moderner Columbus (Konstanz, Germany: Stadler, 1979); a much expanded 562-page title by the same author, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener (A German Named Eckener), is published by the same firm in 1981.
DEVOE AIRLINES: United States (1981-1983). Devoe is founded by Jack DeVoe at Opa Locka, Florida, in the fall of 1981. Employing a fleet of 4 Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftains, 1 PA-31-310 Navajo, and 1 Cessna 402B, the small intrastate inaugurates daily roundtrip scheduled passenger flights on November 9 to Orlando, Jacksonville, Melbourne, and Tallahassee. Operations continue apace in 1982 as Fort Lauderdale and Key West join the route network. The company is renamed Gulf Central Airlines in 1983.
DHL AERO EXPRESS, S. A: P. O. Box 11491, Panama City 6, Panama; Phone (507) 238-4203; Fax (507) 238-4149; Code DS; Year Founded 1996. Felix Piardi establishes this small charter operation at Tocumen International Airport in the spring of 1996 to offer scheduled roundtrip all-cargo services to Miami on behalf of (49%) minority owner DHL Worldwide Express. Revenue flights commence in August employing a single Boeing 727-264F and except for the addition of two more Dash-264Fs, continues without change thereafter. Piardi’s three freighters are all hush-kitted.
World History
