It’s a bird! This is a aeroplane! NO! It’s an airship! 100 years have passed since the idea. Giant airship will pass through the Canary Islands and cross the Atlantic. The project consisted of establishing a regular two-week excursion line between Seville and Buenos Aires, with a stopover in the Archipelago. All the media repeated this good news, but the country’s economic problems and the beginning of the civil war in 1936 prevented the Spanish initiative from bearing fruit. However, the story of the Islands and the zeppelins did not end there. It was not possible to stop it, but the location of the Canary Islands on the route between Europe and America allowed it during the transition. In the 20s and 30s the Islands became a mandatory transit point It served as a reference to avoid losing our way. This allowed island citizens to see large airships passing through the skies of the Archipelago on many occasions.
Also 100 years ago, in October 1924, the LZ 126 model crossed the Atlantic from Friedrichshafen (Germany) to New York, a 30-hour journey. The plane was handed over to North American authorities, who renamed it angels. The airship passed through Tenerife and was recorded as such in the documentary I am Zeplin Über’s Atlantic III. Telil by Neumann Production. The film served to publicize aerial footage of the Canary Islands worldwide.
Although a weekly Seville-Buenos Aires line with stops in the Canary Islands had begun to be planned in the early 1920s, the Colón Transaérea Española company was authorized in January 1927. Monarch Alfonso XIII was very interested in this venture, but the crisis of 1929 prevented him from finding the necessary investments and Finally the Germans captured the route adapt it to your needs.
“No dizziness”
Known as Graf Zeppelin The proposed Spanish project had a volume of 135,000 cubic meters and nine engines, seven working and two spare. Its length was 250 meters, its diameter was 22 meters and its height was 30 meters. It had a capacity of around 60 passengers who could enjoy the cabins, bedrooms, lounges and even the kitchen. “No seasickness on these airshipsDangers are remote, as the risk of fire is eliminated by the absolute ban on smoking except in a small private room, and the electric shock of the storm does not affect them due to the arrangement of the balloons.” Advertisements of the period stated that the journey would take approximately four days, while a ship would need several weeks to cover the same distance. was given.
HE Graf Zeppelin It made its first flight in 1928. On 18 May 1930, the General Directorate of Communications ordered correspondence to be parachuted over Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and 92 letters and 131 postcards were sent from Seville to the Archipelago. Finally, its launch was discouraged because its passage through the capital would occur at 4:30 a.m. on May 21.
There is also evidence that the flying device passed over Tenerife and Gran Canaria on 30 May 1932, and again in August and September of the same year. A few years later, in 1935, the airship not only flew over Santa Cruz de Tenerife, but also I dropped the mail with a parachute. Newspapers of the period convey the anticipation created by the passage of the German airship, especially when it did so during the day, allowing the moment to be documented. The rooftops were full of curious people, and anyone with binoculars could see how the travelers took out their handkerchiefs to greet the islanders.
The success of these large aircraft did not last long, as they were destroyed after the LZ-129-Hindenburg crash on May 6, 1937. The airship caught fire at an airport near New York, killing 36 people. From that moment on, no one trusted the safety of giant flying devices. Adolf Hitler was the first to order the paralysis of the commercial airship fleet. HE Graff Airship scrapped and its sibling LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin IIIt was used for military purposes for a short time.