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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 16, 2012 0:07:59 GMT 12
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Post by nuuumannn on Jul 16, 2012 23:26:50 GMT 12
Clip only goes for a minute  Hate to be pedantic, but the "first airliner round the world" honour goes to LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin in August 1929. |
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Post by flyjoe180 on Jul 17, 2012 10:06:47 GMT 12
You could say that Graf Zeppelin circumnavigated the world via the northern hemisphere only. Yankee Clipper flew around the world via both hemispheres. It 'touched down on 5 continents, crossed 3 oceans, made 18 stops under the flags of 12 nations, crossed the equator 6 times and spent 209H 30M in the air'. www.wingnet.org/rtw/RTW003B.HTMInteresting to note that the flight only ended up as a round the world effort because Pearl Harbor was attacked whilst the aircraft was on a flight from San Francisco to New Zealand. |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 17, 2012 13:09:20 GMT 12
Actually, I can be pedantic too. The title on that clip shows it as being the Yankee Clipper. Yet the aeroplane concerned was called the Pacific Clipper. But....the story gets even murkier. California Clipper (a 314) and Pacific Clipper (a 314a from the second batch) actually swapped identities (name & rego, although not construction number), so in reality it was California Clipper renamed Pacific Clipper which flew around the world. |
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Post by nuuumannn on Jul 17, 2012 13:41:03 GMT 12
Still did it first. Its also interesting to note that DELAG, the German airship airline had, until the Hindenburg disaster, the best safety record of any pre war airline - not one passenger lost in scheduled fare paying flights. DELAG was, in fact the very first international scheduled passenger line.
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Post by errolmartyn on Jul 17, 2012 16:40:00 GMT 12
Still did it first. Its also interesting to note that DELAG, the German airship airline had, until the Hindenburg disaster, the best safety record of any pre war airline - not one passenger lost in scheduled fare paying flights. DELAG was, in fact the very first international scheduled passenger line. Interestingly, a certain New Zealand Wimbledon tennis champion almost had a close encounter with the DELAG during its formative years, and but for fate may have become the first New Zealander to fly in one of its Zeppelins: "[Anthony] Wilding visited the Low Countries, Switzerland and Germany, later setting out from Brussels for Château Sapicourt, about 15 km west of Rheims (now Reims). Of greater interest to him than playing tennis there at the time was that just 50 km to the south-west lay the Camp de Châlons aerodrome, near Mourmelon-le-Grand. Adventurous Wilding was ‘frightfully anxious to fly’ and here was an ideal opportunity to take to the air. Before proceeding to Sapicourt, however, leading tennis promoter Charles A. Voigt had contacted Wilding to suggest that he and some fellow tennis players could first play some matches at Baden-Baden, an added incentive being an offer of an exciting airship flight over the Black Forest in Zeppelin’s new LZ 6. Deutsche Luftschiffahrts AG (DELAG) was formed on 16 November 1909 to run commercial airship services in Germany. The company's second Zeppelin (LZ 6) began operating from Baden-Baden on 21 August 1910. Wilding was enthusiastic, but before he could take advantage of the opportunity to become one of the first New Zealanders to travel in a rigid airship, LZ 6 was destroyed in an accidental fire in its hangar on 14 September – barely three weeks after entering service." [Excerpt from my draft for the forthcoming Vol Two of A Passion For Flight.] And another excerpt, this time about a New Zealander who did take a Zeppelin trip: "From 1912, as aeroplane passenger flights became more commonplace abroad they were deemed much less newsworthy. Even what was claimed to have been the first Zeppelin passenger flight by a New Zealander in mid-1913 attracted only the briefest of mentions: 'The distinction of being the first New Zealand passenger to travel by a Zeppelin airship belongs to Mr. A. Schlesinger, of Christchurch. He lately journeyed by the Zeppelin airship “Sachsen” from Leipzig to Halle and back.'
Adolph Schlesinger was a Christchurch tobacconist who had migrated from Europe or England to New Zealand in 1881. Given that from 1910 to 7 August 1914 Zeppelins had carried over 34,000 passenger (9837 of them by the Sachsen), it may well be that Schlesinger was preceded by one or more other New Zealand Zeppelin passengers."
Errol |
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Post by nuuumannn on Jul 18, 2012 3:06:19 GMT 12
Fascinating stuff Errol. Would he have been the only NZer to fly with DELAG? NZ had a tennis champion?
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Post by errolmartyn on Jul 18, 2012 11:07:56 GMT 12
Fascinating stuff Errol. Would he have been the only NZer to fly with DELAG? NZ had a tennis champion? "Anthony "Tony" Frederick Wilding (31 October 1883 – 9 May 1915) was a champion tennis player from Christchurch, New Zealand and a soldier killed in action during World War I near Neuve-Chapelle, Pas-de-Calais, France. He was a leading tennis player in the world during 1909-1914 and is considered to be a former World No. 1. Brookes in 1950 compiled a ranking list of greatest tennis players and put Wilding fourth behind Bill Tilden and the Dohertys, and ahead of Budge, Kramer, Lacoste and Perry. . . . he then won the Wimbledon singles title for four straight years between 1910 and 1913. . . ." From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_WildingErrol |
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Post by flyjoe180 on Jul 21, 2012 9:37:43 GMT 12
It never ceases to amaze me how we can bring up a topic and all the information and corrections just flow out as people contribute. Dave's site is an amazing site to learn from.
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