1928

Following its July 8th christening, the Graf Zeppelin undertook a number of test flights across southern Germany. Its first mail carrying flight occurred on September 20th, when it visited Basel, Switzerland and the German cities of Freiburg, Offenburg, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, and Stuttgart, dropping mail at each location in small mail bags with parachute streamers.

In October, after several more test flights, the LZ 127 embarked on an ambitious journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey, whose airship hangar housed the LZ 126, now known as the USS Los Angeles. The transatlantic journey proved to be a difficult one when a violent storm front tore a large piece of fabric from the airship’s tail fin, necessitating in-flight repairs amid a gusty slipstream. The resulting drama became a huge worldwide news story as the ship made its way to its landing at Lakehurst. The return trip, although less eventful, was marked by the discovery on board of the world’s first aerial stowaway – a development that likewise received wide attention from the press.