Schütte-Lanz (SL) is the name of a series of rigid
airshipAn airship or dirigible is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust...
s designed and built by the Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz company from 1909 until the last LS22 delivered in 1917. One research and four passenger airships were planned for post-war use, but never built. The Schütte-Lanz company was an early strong competitor of the more famous
airships built by
Ferdinand von ZeppelinFerdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin was a German general and later aircraft manufacturer, the founder of the Zeppelin Airship company...
.
When the
ZeppelinFor the English rock group, please see Led Zeppelin. For other meanings please see Zeppelin .A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893...
LZ4 met with disaster at Echterdingen in 1908, Professor Johann Schütte started to consider the problems of airship design. He decided, with the co-operation of his students to develop his own scientifically designed, high performance airship. In partnership with Dr Karl Lanz, an industrialist and wood products manufacturer he started the
Schütte-Lanz Luftschiffbau on April 22, 1909. The ships were successful at first, and introduced a number of highly successful innovations.]].
Twenty-four Schütte-Lanz airships were designed before the end of the First World War, most of which the company was not paid for due to the collapse of the German Monarchy. By the time the last eight ships were ready, most of them could not be operated due to the losses of trained crews and also the serious problems that had developed with their wooden structures. In the words of
Führer der Luftschiffe Peter StrasserPeter Strasser Chief Commander of Germany's Luftschiffer airforce during World War I, operating bombing campaigns from 1915 to 1918.-Early career:...
:
- Most of the Schütte-Lanz ships are not usable under combat conditions, especially those operated by the Navy, because their wooden construction cannot cope with the damp conditions inseparable from maritime service...
The decision was made to compensate the company for the unusable wooden ships, and in response the company started work on a tubular aluminum framed ship which was probably not completed.
In the postwar period, Professor Lanz designed a series of very large advanced airships for transatlantic and transpacific passenger operations, as well as proposals for the US Navy’s rigid airships ZRS-4 and ZRS-5. However none of these were ever realized due to Allied objections.
If one studies this comprehensive list of Shutte-Lanz airships, one can get a very good idea of why the firm ultimately failed. Schutte-Lanz airships, until 1918, were composed of wood and plywood glued together. Moisture tended to degrade the integrity of the glued joints. Shutte-Lanz airships became structurally unstable when water entered the airship's imperfectly water-proofed envelope. This tended to happen during wet weather operations, but also, more insidiously, in defective or damaged hangers.
Another problem is related to the first. The German Navy had bases closer to the sea, and thus more humid. They were reluctant to accept wooden composite craft. As a result the primary customer for Shutte-Lanz airships was the Germany Army. The German Army decided well before the German Navy that airship operations were futile in the face of land-based heavier-than-air opposition. Anyone perusing the list of SL airships below will notice that suddenly the customer disappeared.
The third was technical. Wood composites had a theoretical superiority as the structural material in airships up to a certain size. After that the superiority of aluminum (and later
duraluminDuralumin is the trade name of one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The main alloying constituents are copper, manganese, and magnesium. A commonly used modern equivalent of this alloy type is AA2024, which contains 4.4% copper, 1.5% magnesium, 0.6% manganese and 93.5%...
) in tension was more important than the superiority of wood in compression.
There are also political-economic factors to the failure of the company, which have yet to be fully researched. There is certainly evidence for a pro-Zeppelin lobby in the German military and government that wanted to exclude all other airship manufacturers, regardless of what superior technical innovations they proposed.
SL1
The Schütte-Lanz airship SL1 was the first of 20 airships built by the company. Construction was carried out in a large hangar at
RheinauRheinau is a town in southwestern Baden-Württemberg, Germany and is part of the district of Ortenau.- Geography :Rheinau is located in the Upper Rhine River Plains directly on the Rhine and as such at the German-French border...
near
MannheimMannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
. The ship was powered by four 125 horsepower (93 kW)
Daimler-BenzDaimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and engines which was founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest—which was valid until year 2000—was signed on May 1 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie. and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had been founded by...
engines installed in two ventral gondolas. A distinctive feature of the Schütte-Lanz ships was that the frame was constructed from special plywood which was (supposedly) waterproofed and protected from frost. The SL1 was constructed with a diamond lattice frame and had a highly streamlined shape, allowing it to achieve a record speed of 38.3 km/h. The structure of the SL1 is very evocative of the later "
geodesicIn mathematics, a geodesic is a generalization of the notion of a "straight line" to "curved spaces".In the presence of a metric, geodesics are defined to be the shortest path between points on the space...
" structure of the
Wellington bomberThe Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
, or
Buckminster FullerRichard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American architect, author, designer, inventor, and futurist.Fuller published more than thirty books, inventing and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics...
's
domesA geodesic dome is a spherical or partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell based on a network of great circles lying on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the entire...
. It was only matched at the time by the structure of the MacMeecham airship designed and partially built in England in the first years of WW I. Fifty-three experimental flights were made between October 1911 and December 1912. The longest flight was over 16 hours. The ship was handed over to the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
army on December 12 1912 but destroyed soon afterwards when it was swept free of its temporary mooring in a storm.
- First Flight: October 1 1911
- Length: 131 meters
- Diameter: 18.4 meters
- Gas Capacity: 19,000 cubic meters
- Performance: 38.3 km/h
- Payload: 4.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Daimler
Daimler may refer to:*Gottlieb Daimler, German automobile inventor...
500 hp/370 kW total
SL2
The Schütte-Lanz airship SL2 surpassed the contemporary Zeppelin airships in performance. It adopted the Zeppelin ring-girder construction method, but retained the streamlined shape and plywood construction of SL1. SL2 was also the most significant airship to date in that it laid down two vital design innovations that were copied in almost all subsequent rigid airships. The first was the cruciform tail plane, with a single pair of rudders and elevators. The second was the location of the engines in separate streamlined gondolas or cars. A third innovation, for war service, was the mounting of heavy machine guns for defense against attacking aircraft in each of the engine cars.
SL2 was built between January and May 1914 and transferred to Austrian military control. It carried out six missions in the first year of the war over
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. After being enlarged in summer 1915, several more missions were carried out before SL2 was stranded at
LuckenwaldeLuckenwalde is the capital of the Teltow-Fläming district in the German state of Brandenburg. It is situated on the Nuthe river north of the Fläming Heath, at the eastern rim of the Nuthe-Nieplitz Nature Park, about south of Berlin...
on January 10 1916 after running out of fuel and decommissioned. The SL2 was a perfect example why the advanced technology of Shutte-Lanz, and the advantages of wood in compression as opposed to tension allowed the Shutte-Lanz type of airship to be technically superior until a certain size had been reached.
- First Flight: February 28 1914
- Length: 144 meters (156 meters after rebuild)
- Diameter: 18.2 meters (18.2 meters after rebuild)
- Gas Capacity: 25,000 cubic meters (27,500 cubic meters after rebuild)
- Performance: 88.2 km/h (89.3 km/h after rebuild)
- Payload: 8 tonnes (10.4 tonnes after rebuild)
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
720 hp/537 kW total (840 hp/626 kW total after rebuild)
SL3
Naval airship based at Seddin which flew 30 reconnaissance missions and one bombing mission over
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The highlight of SL3's career was its attack on British
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
E4HMS E4 was a British E class submarine built by Vickers Barrow-in-Furness costing £101,900. E4 was laid down on 16 May 1911, launched on 5 February 1912 and commissioned on 28 January 1913....
on September 24, 1915. The structure of the ship degraded because of atmospheric exposure and the ship was stranded near
RigaRiga is the capital and largest city of Latvia, a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltics, and an important seaport, situated on the mouth of the Daugava...
on May 1, 1916.
- First Flight: February 4, 1915
- Length: 153.1 meters
- Diameter: 19.75 meters
- Gas Capacity: 32,390 cubic meters
- Performance: 84.6 km/h
- Payload: 13.2 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
840 hp/626 kW total
SL4
Naval airship based at Seddin. SL4 flew 21 reconnaissance missions and two bombing raids again enemy harbors on the Eastern front. It was destroyed on December 14 1915 after its hangar collapsed due to snow accumulation on the roof.
- First Flight: May 2 1915
- Length: 153.1 meters
- Diameter: 19.75 meters
- Gas Capacity: 32,470 cubic meters
- Performance: 85 km/h
- Payload: 13.4 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
840 hp/626 kW total
SL5
SL5 was an army airship, based at
DarmstadtDarmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The city of Darmstadt was founded by the Counts of Katzenelnbogen in 1330, though settlement in the area is known to have been present as early as the late 11th century...
. The structure was damaged during the first flight, but repaired after several months work. During its second flight the ship was forced down by bad weather at
GießenGießen is a town in the German federal state of Hessen, capital of both the district of Gießen and the administrative region of Gießen...
and stricken from service on July 5 1915
- First Flight: February 4 1915
- Length: 153.1 meters
- Diameter: 19.75 meters
- Gas Capacity: 32,470 cubic meters
- Performance: 83.2 km/h
- Payload: 14.3 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Daimler
Daimler may refer to:*Gottlieb Daimler, German automobile inventor...
840 hp/626 kW total
SL6
Naval airship based at Seddin. Flew six reconnaissance missions, but exploded due to unknown causes with the loss of all hands while taking off on November 10 1915.
- First Flight: October 9 1915
- Length: 162.1 meters
- Diameter: 19.75 meters
- Gas Capacity: 35,130 cubic meters
- Performance: 92.9 km/h
- Payload: 15.8 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
840 hp/626 kW total
SL7
Army airship based at
KönigsbergKönigsberg was the capital of eastern Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945. It was founded by the Teutonic Knights just south of the Sambian peninsula in the year 1255 AD during the Northern Crusades and named for King Ottokar II of Bohemia...
. Carried out three reconnaissance missions and three bombing raids before suffering structural failure. Repaired and possibly enlarged before being decommissioned March 6 1917 when the army terminated airship operations.
- First Flight: September 3 1915
- Length: 162.1 meters
- Diameter: 19.75 meters
- Gas Capacity: 35,130 cubic meters
- Performance: 92.9 km/h
- Payload: 15.6 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
840 hp/626 kW total
SL8
Naval airship based at Seddin. Carried out 34 reconnaissance missions and three bombing raids, carrying 4,000 kg of bombs each mission. Held the record for the greatest number of combat missions of any Schütte-Lanz airship. Decommissioned due to age November 20 1917.
- First Flight: March 30 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 96.8 km/h
- Payload: 18.7 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL9
Naval airship based at Seddin. Carried out 13 reconnaissance missions and four bombing raids carrying 4,230 kg of bombs each mission. Crashed in
BalticThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
, possibly after lightning strike on March 30 1917.
- First Flight: March 30 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 92.9 km/h
- Payload: 19.8 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL10
Army airship based at
YambolYambol is a city in southeastern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Yambol Province. It lies on both banks of the Tundzha in the historical region of Thrace. Today, the town has 85,966 inhabitants...
,
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
. Carried out a 16 hour reconnaissance mission. Disappeared during a subsequent attack on
SevastopolSevastopol is a port city in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451...
, possibly due to bad weather July 28 1916.
- First Flight: March 30 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,800 cubic meters
- Performance: 90 km/h
- Payload: 21.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL11
Army airship based at Spich. Shot down over Hertfordshire by Lt. W.L. Robinson in a
BE 2CThe Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 was a British single-engine two-seat biplane in service with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I...
with incendiary ammunition September 3 1916.
- First Flight: August 1, 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 91.8 km/h
- Payload: 21 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL12
Navy airship based at Alhorn. Obsolete in design before completion, this ship only flew reconnaissance missions. Badly damaged after hitting gasometer near hangar and deleted December 28 1916
- First Flight: November 9, 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 86.4 km/h
- Payload: 21 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL13
Army airship based at
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
. Considered unfit for combat duty and used for training only. Badly damaged when hangar collapsed because of heavy snow and stricken February 8, 1917.
- First Flight: October 29, 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 90 km/h
- Payload: 20.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL14
Navy airship based at Seerapen and Wainoden. Carried out two reconnaissance missions and two bombing raids. A later attack on
RigaRiga is the capital and largest city of Latvia, a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltics, and an important seaport, situated on the mouth of the Daugava...
was abandoned because of engine failure. Rebuilt February 1917 but later damaged before finally being scrapped on May 18, 1917.
- First Flight: May 16, 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,800 cubic meters
- Performance: 93.6 km/h
- Payload: 20.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL15
Army airship based at
MannheimMannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
. No active service. Decommissioned August 1917.
- First Flight: November 4, 1916
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 95.4 km/h
- Payload: 21.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL16
Intended for the Army, this ship was never officially commissioned and was laid up at Spich. Scrapped August 1917.
- First Flight: January 18, 1917
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,800 cubic meters
- Performance: 95.4 km/h
- Payload: 21.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL17
Intended for the Army, this ship was never officially commissioned and was laid up at Allenstein. Scrapped August 1917.
- First Flight: April 19, 1917
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,780 cubic meters
- Performance: 95.4 km/h
- Payload: 21.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL18
Construction completed at
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
base, but ship destroyed by hangar collapse on February 8, 1917.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,800 cubic meters
- Performance: N/A
- Payload: 21.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL19
Never built due to lack of space at
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
base, due to hangar collapse on February 8, 1917.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 174 meters
- Diameter: 20.1 meters
- Gas Capacity: 38,800 cubic meters
- Performance: N/A
- Payload: 21.5 tonnes
- Engines: 4 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
960 hp/716 kW total
SL20
Navy ship based at Alhorn. Burnt in huge hangar explosion and fire with four zeppelin airships on January 5, 1918 after only two missions.
- First Flight: September 9, 1917
- Length: 198.3 meters
- Diameter: 22.96 meters
- Gas Capacity: 56,000 cubic meters
- Performance: 102.6 km/h
- Payload: 35.5 tonnes
- Engines: 5 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
1,200 hp/895 kW total
SL21
Intended for Army but never officially commissioned. Based at
ZeesenZeesen is a village south of Königs Wusterhausen in Germany, known for Deutschlandsender Zeesen which was built in 1927 and the Zeesen short-wave transmitter ....
and used for static testing. Decommissioned February 1918.
- First Flight: November 26, 1917
- Length: 198.3 meters
- Diameter: 22.96 meters
- Gas Capacity: 56,350 cubic meters
- Performance: 102.6 km/h
- Payload: 36 tonnes
- Engines: 5 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
1,200 hp/895 kW total
SL22
Intended for Navy but refused acceptance on grounds of insufficient payload. Based at Gegen and scrapped June 1920.
- First Flight: June 5, 1918
- Length: 198.3 meters
- Diameter: 22.96 meters
- Gas Capacity: 56,350 cubic meters
- Performance: 95.4 km/h
- Payload: 37.5 tonnes
- Engines: 5 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
1,200 hp/895 kW total
SL23
Never commissioned. First Schütte-Lanz ship with tubular aluminum frame. May have been complete at war's end but no further details are known.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 202 meters
- Diameter: 25.4 meters
- Gas Capacity: 68,800 cubic meters
- Performance: 122.4 km/h
- Payload: 46 tonnes
- Engines: 8 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
2,240 hp/1,670 kW total
SL24
Never commissioned. Second Schütte-Lanz ship with tubular aluminum frame. May have been completed after war, but no further details.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 232 meters
- Diameter: 25.4 meters
- Gas Capacity: 78,800 cubic meters
- Performance: 116.6 km/h
- Payload: 59.5 tonnes
- Engines: 8 Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach with his son Karl Maybach as director. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as "Luftfahrzeug-Motoreinbau GmbH" until 1918...
2,240 hp/1,670 kW total
SL101
After the war, Schütte-Lanz came up with several peacetime airship projects which were never realized. Based on the metal framed SL23 and SL24, the first was the SL101. This was intended for a regular transatlantic service to New York or South America.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 228.5 meters
- Diameter: 28.75 meters
- Gas Capacity: 101,700 cubic meters
- Performance: 130 km/h
- Payload: N/A
- Engines: N/A
SL102 Panamerica
This was intended for a regular transatlantic service to New York or South America.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 298 meters
- Diameter: 38.54 meters
- Gas Capacity: 220,000 cubic meters
- Performance: 130 km/h
- Payload: N/A
- Engines: N/A
SL103 Pacific
This was intended for a regular transatlantic service to New York or South America, although the name indicates different aspirations.
- First Flight: N/A
- Length: 274.5 meters
- Diameter: 34.77 meters
- Gas Capacity: 150,000 cubic meters
- Performance: 130 km/h
- Payload: N/A
- Engines: N/A
American Airship Tender
Schütte-Lanz submitted an unsuccessful design to the U.S. Navy in 1926 in competition to the successful
GoodyearThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Today it is the third largest tire company in the world after Bridgestone and Michelin...
designs,
USS Akron (ZRS-4)USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the United States Navy that was lost in a weather related accident off the New Jersey coast early on April 4, 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crew and passengers on board...
and
USS Macon (ZRS-5)USS Macon was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting. It served as a flying aircraft carrier, launching Sparrowhawk biplanes. In service for less than two years, in 1935 Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast, though most of her crew...
.
See also
- R31 (airship)
- R32 (airship)
- Aviation in World War I
About ten years after the Wright brothers made the first powered flight, there was still much to be improved upon. Because of limitations of the engine power of the time, the effective payload of aircraft was extremely limited. They were made mostly of hardwood and linen fabric doped with...
- Zeppelin
For the English rock group, please see Led Zeppelin. For other meanings please see Zeppelin .A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893...
External links
- Uni-Bibliothek Oldenburg. Das Johann Schütte-Projekt - archive of 1700 photographs of Schütte-Lanz construction, plans and related material