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Zeppelin Museum April 2007

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Joe Pic Posted: Thu, Sep 13 2007 10:44 AM
On the way back from meetings at Aero-Friedrichshafen 07, which is another entry altogether, Flight International’s European Sales Manager, Shawn Buck and I made time to pop into the brand new Zeppelin Museum at Friedrichshafen.  With typical German efficiency and functionality the museum could not be easier to find as it is located in the former Harbour Railway Station, adjacent to the ferry, bus and train station in Friedrichshafen, overlooking Lake Constance. The museum and gallery are spread over several levels throughout the museum, with the biggest exhibit being a full-size replica section of the Hindenburg’s passenger quarters. This 33m long section, as far as I could tell, represented less than 1/8 of a complete vertical slice through the real airship and even this “fraction” was a massive exhibit!  You can enter the airship via passenger’s gangway (see picture of yours truly attached) and can walk through the lounge and passengers quarters. You then enter the rest of the museum and can look behind the exhibit, to examine all of the hidden structure that supported the passenger section and internal equipment. It has been done very well indeed and the efforts to reproduce the original aluminium support structure are very well done indeed. The sheer difficulty of producing all of the built-up multi-section frames is a story in its self, with numerous steeps need to form and shape each and every piece of aluminium. A practical display of this manufacturing process is also shown in the museum. The museum also houses remnants of the original Hindenburg, the largest sections being the nose section (mooring cone”) and an engine nacelle (engine car). Several photos of each have been included for airship aficionados, together with photos of the other original components and airship engines. A small cinema shows an original film about the construction of the Hindenburg and two further galleries complete the international history of the Airship, complete with engines exhibits and photos. Finally there is a gallery devoted to history of the "Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH" and its succeeding companies and products. If your schoolboy German is not up to scratch English and French audio tours are available and for the more dedicated “air-heads” amongst you there is a Zeppelin archive and library within the museum, but you will need to pre-book appointments. There is also a restaurant and amply supplied Zeppelin gift shop within the museum. In all we spent a good two hours at the museum, but this that could easily have become a four hour stopover, but my ferry across the lake, could not be missed. Museum details can be found at: http://zeppelin-museum.de 

Joe Picarella
 
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