Zeppelinheim

Next year marks the 90th anniversary of the Shenandoah's all too short career. Christening of the ZR-1 U.S.S. Shenandoah CHEERS, HENDRICK STOOPS

Christmas at Lakehurst Ca. 1935 Cheers, HENDRICK STOOPS

This is a notice on the format of Zeppelinheim.Blogspot. As I try to coalesce Zeppelinheim into a cohesive resource (virtually impossible for me!) I've settled on a format that I think'll be easy for me to write & you to read. Each month I will have an "Airship of the Month" as previously stated the blog will be focused on one airship (in Decembers case the R-100) with the occasional post on another part of the Airship Era. During each month I'll be working on research for the selected airship, modelling various parts of said airship, and posting essay(s), photographs, links, and vignettes of the airship. To facilitate work on my current model (the Hindenburg) the "Airship of the Month" for January will be the LZ-129. As always I'm open to suggestions as to the "Airship of the Month" and "Photo of the week" simply email the suggestion to "hlostoops@gmail.com" and include the word "Zeppelinheim in the main E-

Large passenger airships, despite their ignomius fall from favor, had started promisingly. Despite the common image of the Hindenburg single handedly causing the demise of big rigids, their type of transportation had been delicately balanced between failure and success ever since the British R101 first flew in 1929. Going back several years to 1925, Lord Thomson, the British Minister of Air, proposed the Imperial Airship Scheme, a plan to connect the far flung colonies of the “empire on which the sun never set”, with regular, reliable, and expedient airship service. Accordingly, facilities were built in St. Hubert’s Canada, and Karachi, India, with a planned site in Australia being considered. The plan was both farsighted and brilliant, perhaps too much for its own good. Two experimental ships were ordered to serve as a large test as to whether the Scheme was feasible. The first ship, the R-100, was to be built by private companies and was quickly named “The Capitalist Ship

Just a few photos of the upcoming Airship of the Month. Airship Hindenburg over Manhattan hours before disaster. 7:25:15 P.M. The end of the giant airships. Hendrick Stoops

Quick note: The essay will be posted in 9-10 parts about every other day.  One by one the windows were opened and the people arose from softly upholstered orange chairs. A man showed his three children how far they had come from Frankfurt to New York on the skillfully painted pastel mural of the world on the far side of the lounge. Then, the dirty tops of skyscrapers, one rising above the rest, appeared from out of the clouds. The passengers waved to the visitors of the great building, then pointed towards the parks, the tall statue jutting out of the glimmering harbor, and, below them to the sleek Queen Mary, her three red and black funnels sparkling, pulling into her Cunard pier, before returning to their seats. 

Apologies for not posting photos of the Hindenburg model. I've been under the weather for the past few days. I'll hopefully have photos up by Monday.

Here's the photo of the week! The always spectacular "Hindenburg" making a grand entrance into the  United States  over the skyscrapers of New York City. Circa 1936?     More photos [finally] of my 3D Hindenburg model tomorrow!   Hendrick Stoops

Yes indeed, the iconic Empire State Building was designed to act as a mooring mast for dirigibles: Illustration from the ESB Dedication Booklet Hendrick Stoops

    The R-100... faired much better [than the R-101] even though it was further from the public eye. The ship was designed to fly on the Transat route and, on July the 29 th,  1930; it departed for the mooring mast in St. Hubert with a full contingent of reporters. The flight was as well received as it was stunning: Before departing back to Cardington, the passengers had breakfast in an ornate and distinctly British atmosphere over Niagara Falls, lunch was served over Toronto, and dinner above the white caps of the Atlantic. The ship arrived safely at Cardington twenty-two days later. It would never fly again. ~ excerpt from my essay "A Fallen Dream: The end of commercial airships". The full essay will be up on the blog within a few days to a week. R-100 Main Lounge publicity photo (Courtesy of A.H.T.) R-100 promenade windows (Courtesy of A.H.T.) Hendrick Stoops

I Had to post this full-size

 Did you know: The R-100 was very likely earmarked for the name "Pollux". More commonly known as Hercules, Pollux was one of the two Aurgonauts to travel with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece; The other, Castor or Apollo, would have been the name of the R-101. R-101 over Toronto Hendrick Stoops

  And my featured airship for the month of December is: the H.M.A. R-100. The featured airship for the month will be (obviously) the airship I will be featuring for one month. Over the course of a month I will include photographs, Mini-essays, facts, and links featuring the chosen airship. To start off here are a few photo's of the lesser known "sister ship" to the ill-fated R-101: the "Capitalist Ship" His Majesties Airship R(igid)-100.  The old and the new.      An extremely rare colorphoto of the R-101 in St. Hubert, Canada Hendrick Stoops

                        Sneak preview of the Lounge, Promenade, & Reading & Writing room   Here it is! this is the lounge area of my model of the Hindenburg ( the most current version can be found on the Sketchup 3d Warehouse under the title: Hindenburg A deck. by hlostoops.)   I had been posting photographs of the model on the now crashed website "AirshipModeler" & the move to Zeppelinheim will take some time. In the time after the crash I was able to update the railing (seen here) and the Dining Room tables.   As well as posting photographs & updates on my models, I hope to include before/after photos of the models, as well as comparison photographs with the actual specimen.   I hope you will enjoy reading Zeppelinheim as much as I will enjoy writing it. Hendrick Stoops

My blog Zeppelinheim is named after the planned German town of the 1930's designed to house employees of the Zeppelin Co. The blog will encompass my efforts at Sketchup modelling the exteriors and interiors of various ships starting with the iconic D-LZ 129 Hindenburg, writing on the great airships of the 1920's & 30's, planned ships that were never realized, & selections of book titles and photographs from the golden age of Airships.