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The Ghost of Dr. Hugo Eckenar

Dr. Hugo Eckener – Director of the Zeppelin Airship Company, from the window of the Airship LZ127 – The Graf Zeppelin.

In 1929 Dr. Eckener needed to raise money to keep his company in business. His company, the Zeppelin Airship Company was having all the difficulties of a new technology in post war Germany could have. Rapant inflation, political strife unemployment and a web of various trade restrictions that were slowly strangling his company.

He hit on the idea of an “around the world” flight to show off the capabilties of his companies work.. Dr. Eckener was more than just the leader of a company; he was a true believer in the product. The product was the Airship, or as it was also known, the Zeppelin, after its inventor, Count (or in German - “Graf “) Zeppelin.

In 1929, not too many people in the world were arguing with him about the usefulness of airships by comparison to aircraft. While aircraft had clearly shown their value, airships still held much of the public imagination and the conversations in many places would always turn towards what this country or that was doing in the way of the use of Airships.

With the help of Newspaper Tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Dr. Eckener and the Graf Zeppelin made a triumphant flight across the globe. Crossing the Pacific by air for the first time and crossing the globe in the lighting speed of 21 days. While aircraft had also managed to fly around the world, none of them had done it with anywhere the speed an economy of the flight of the Graf Zeppelin.

You have to remember that when the airship Graf Zeppelin crossed the Pacific in 1929, saying that you were going to the “South Pacific” was like someone saying they were “going to mars” today. It was a far off place; there was little contact from the outside world, no radio navigation aids, few real time commincation methods at all. This trip was taken in a world few of us can understand. There was no navigation aids to work with, no weather forceasting that approaches anything like what we have today. When Dr. Eckener and the crew of the Graf Zeppelin crossed the Pacific for the first time by air, it was closer to the accomplishment of Francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hinde than that of any modern comparative achievement.

When the Graf Zeppelin made landfall in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge was not yet built, nor the Bay Bridge. Treasure Island, the artificial island at the tip of Yerba Buena Island in the bay was yet to be created.

Yes, there were still cows in Berkeley.

San Francisco was a small village by comparison the metropolis we know today. The Graf Zeppelin then turned south to fly along the California Coastal Range, overflying the home of his benefactor, Mr. Hearst in San Simeon.

The Graf Zeppelin arrived in a Los Angeles that was much different to that world than the place we see today. There was a Los Angeles, There was a Santa Barbara, and there was a Long Beach, but inbetween all of them, it was largely populated by small farms and very small towns. The freeways, for which the area would eventually become noted for, didn’t exist. The cars, which not everyone was yet driving, used hand cranks on the engine to start. Los Angeles International didn’t exist. International Airports, if they existed at all, were in Europe, not on the outer fringe of the western part of the United States.

Where Los Angeles International is today was a cow pasture. In 1928, the city fathers decided to create a new airport in the area where the current airport now sits. “Mines Field” was its name, and the entire airport sat between where Sepulveda Blvd and the 405 Freeway are today. Hangar #1, which is now a Fedex hangar, was built the same year that Dr. Eckenar came to call on Los Angeles. It is all that remains of that time.

If you wanted to go anywhere by air in 1929 Los Angeles, you went to Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale. You will have to look hard to find it today, because it’s a strip mall. The terminal building has been preserved, but the rest of it is long gone.

In 1929, Dr. Eckener was demonstrating the superiority of European technology to the world by crossing the Pacific and landing in a sleepy California coastal town, far from the bright center of the world. The world rightly sat awestruck at his accomplishment. This was a staggering acheivement in any age but in 1929, it was positively heroic.

In August 1929, it was all chamapagne and celebration for the crew of Graf Zeppelin. The future looked very bright indeed for the makers of Airships. Sitting below the Graf Zeppelin on its arrival to Los Angeles, I can’t help but think that the smart set of the day would have been betting their money on the big, big future for the use of Airships.

It just goes to show you what a waste of time it is to try to predict the future. Stand in the shoes of the people living in LA in the summer of 1929, and see how far it gets you.

While the flight of the Graf Zeppelin is still one of the most successful flights of Airships, the future of airships was far less certain. (Interestingly enough, the only other airship not to meet a less than glorious end due to weather or accident, was the U.S.S. Los Angeles.) No one at the time would predict accurately what would happen to Los Angeles and the world in just the next 20 years.

The Stock market crashed in October 1929, marking the beginning of what came to be known as the “great depression”.

The Hindenburg crashed in 1937, marking the end of the Airship for transportation purposes.

In 1939; War.

The sound barrier was broken in 1947.

Los Angeles International Airport opened in 1949. (And yet, absolutely no Airships were seen at the opening ceremony – go figure…)

Tommorow I will stand on a ramp at Los Angeles International Airport mindful of its past and listen to lots of supposedly smart people with deep and varied backgrounds in business and aviation who will willingly opine loudly and proudly about the future of Airbus and the A380.

And we will all be just as full of crap as a Christmas goose.

If deep within the soundbites that will be made tommorow you hear what sounds to be an elderly German gentleman laughing at us under his breath, you’ll know that the ghost of Dr. Eckener has made his feelings known about the value of our prognosticating the future.

Posted @ March 18, 2007 10:38 PM | Aviation

Posted by: Greybeard at March 20, 2007 06:23 AM

Posted by: frank martin at March 20, 2007 07:14 AM

Posted by: Uncle Mikey at April 2, 2007 05:25 PM