Zeppelin "L 30" (factory number "LZ 62") was the first R-class "Super Zeppelin" of the German Empire. It was the most successful airship of the First World War with 31 reconnaissance flights and 10 bombing runs carrying a total of 23,305 kg of bombs, with the first ones targeting England, and the four final raids targeting Livonia and Ösel (Saaremaa). At the time of its construction, It was the world's largest Zeppelin, and with its 6 engines, "L 30" could reach speeds higher than 100 km/h, making it the fastest Zeppelin in the world as well.
It was constructed at Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen, the first with gondolas on the sides. It remained in the service of the Imperial German Navy from 1916 to its decommissioning in 1917. "L 30" was decommissioned in 1917, and survived World War I. It was handed over to Belgium as part of the war reparations laid on Germany. Its gondolas are on display today at the Royal Military Historical Museum in Brussels, the only remaining gondolas of a war Zeppelin in the world.
A famous photo of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin aboard the "L 30" with Hauptmann Macher exists, allegedly taken sometime in April 1916 in Friedrichshafen, before its completion.
Construction
Zeppelin LZ 62 was the prototype of the Zeppelin R Class, the so-called Grosskampftyps (dubbed "Super-Zeppelin" by the English). Unlike the P and Q Class of Zeppelins which had been in use at the outbreak of war, the R Class was an entirely new design, developed in April 1915 by Dr. Arnstein. Drawing on experiences from the early months of WWI and requests from the German Imperial Navy, Arnstein developed a new form of Zeppelin construction.
The Zeppelin R Class represented a considerable improvement over the previous 22 P Class and 12 Q Class Zeppelins. It was the largest development of the Zeppelin airship during the war. With a length of 198 m (cf. 178.5 m for the Q Class), a max. diameter of 24 m (cf. Q Class 18.7 m), and a gas volume of 55,000 m³ (later 55,200 m³; cf. Q Class 35,800 m³) spread over 19 gas cells, the performance increased from 96 km/h to 103 km/h, the range (at 80 km/h) from 5,000 to 7,500 km, max. altitude from 3,900 to 5,300 m, and the potential cargo weight from 15,900 to 28,000 (later also 32,500 kg). The R Class was also notable for being the first series with side gondolas, L 30 being the first to be constructed with them, an invention introduced by the Scütte-Lanz SL 2 airship in 1914.
The entire surface of the gondolas was painted gray, with no bare aluminium (silver color was introduced LZ 126).
The airship had 6 engines divided between 4 gondolas with 6 Lorenzen wood-air propellers with a diameter of 5.5 m and a pitch of 3.65 m. The propellers were located at the rear of the front driver nacelle gondola, at the side gondolas, at the rear of the rear 3 engine gondola and on the two booms. Fuels included 780 liters of oil and 15,828 liters of fuels, housed in 54 discharge gas cylinders, 14 of which were special case gasoline drums. The drop gas barrels were mounted so that gravity could supply fuel to the engines up to an inclination of 30°.
A radio station from Telefunken was on board to determine location by radio signaling, and to communicate with other airships during raids. The remaining station on display at Brussels is likely to have been installed later in 1917 as a modernization; it had an antenna power of 800 Watts, with a range of 1,500 km, and consisted of three independent wires with a length of 120 m. The entire radio station including generators and cables weighed a total of 485 kg.
For armaments to defend against enemy aircraft, 10 Type 08/15 machine guns with a shortened barrel and water cooling were installed. Three were installed on the bow platform, two each in the driver's gondola and rear gondola, and one in the two side gondolas and in the stern, behind the tailplane. The maximum bomb load was 7,600 kg, distributed over 8 x 300 kg explosive bombs, 40 x 100 kg explosive bombs, and 120 fire bombs weighing 10 kg each. This was also determined by range and gas lift due to the weather. One degree Celsius change in temperature changed the buoyancy by about 150 kg. Although a scouting system has been shown on the drawings of LZ 62 (L 30) and LZ 72 (L 31), this was no longer installed in the maritime airliners. Only on some photos of the military airship LZ 83 (LZ 113) is a fish-shaped scouting basket visible. Rescue facilities were scarce, and only a few airships had parachutes. On the first R Class Zeppelins inflatable boats can be seen on the ridge or under the keel.