Airship Number ZIV (LZ16)

The airships of the Zeppelin Company were cigar-shaped, with the maximum diameter being reached at one-eighth of the overall length. The diameter stays constant to about the last one-eighth of the ship’s length, where it reduces to the tail.  The ship is a “rigid airship” in that it has an aluminum, or duralumin, skeleton and a keel along the bottom, from which all of the ship’s weight was carried – crew, gondolas, ordnance, ballast, fuel, radio, etc.