New-York tribune., 1910-06-23
AN EPOCH IN AVIATION
The Deutschland Lands PaSSen-
gers at Dusseldorf.
NINE-HOUR TRIP IN AIR
Count Zeppelin Guides Great
Airship on First Regular Voy-
age from Friedrichshafen.

| Dusseldorf, Germany. June 22.-The
! first regular airship passenger service
was opened to-day, when Count Yep
! pelin's great craft, the Deutschland,
CARRYING twenty passengers, successfully
made the first scheduled trip from
| Friedrichshafen to this city, a distance
of three hundred miles, in nine hours.
The weather was perfect and the
motors worked faultlessly. The average
! time maintained for the complete course
was approximately thirty-three miles an
hour, but between Friedrichshafen and
! Stuttgart the 124 miles were covered at
an average rate of forty-One miles an
hour The best speed for single hour
was forty-three and one-half miles
Count Zeppelin was at the helm when
the Deutschland arose at Friedrichs-
hafen at 3 o'clock this morning and
sailed away on the trip that was to
mark an epoch in aviation. The pas
sengers included directors of the Ham,
| burg American Steamship Company and
| the German Airship Stock Company,
| Joint owners of the dirigible, and guests
They occupied the mahogany walled and
and from the windows viewed the
scenery as the aerial car swept along
Count Zeppelin. steered for the greater
part of the distance.
| The route was by way of Stuttgart.
Mannheim and Cologne to Dusseldorf. 1t
had been carefully marked out in ad-
vance for the guidance of the pilot, and
was followed exactly. There was no air
| stirring, and the Deutschland made her
way unhampered through bright sun
shine.
| The hour and minute of the probable
passing of the various points had been
! bulletined ahead, so that not only the
people of the cities on the line. who
| filed the streets. but the inhabitants
of all the intermediate villages turned
out and cheered enthusiastically as the
| immense torpedolike structure. with
| it's whistling screws, drove over their
heads at a height from the surface OF
between 200 and 800 feet.
| The Deutschland swung gently into
| her landing here at loon, and the null
titude surrounding the landing yard
shouted a welcome. The city had been
gayly decorated. The promoters OF the
enterprise and their guests were enter
| tanned at public dinner.
| Regular trips will be made and many
tickets have already been sold for the
! first few days at from SD TO $50 each.
| The airship is equipped with restau-
rant, which will supply the passengers
with a buffet service such as is afforded
on parlor ear railroad trains.
Count Zeppelin demonstrated the ad-
| vantage OF an air route in the section
| of the country. traversed. The Deutsch-
| land cut the railroad time one-third be-
tween Mannheim and Dusseldorf COW
ering the distance in four hours. the
/ railway express time being six hours.
The shortest distance between Mannheim
and Dusseldorf Is approximately 136 miles
but the Deutschland deviated slightly from
the straight line in order 10 pass over Cob
| lenz and Cologne. Thus the speed of the
| airship would appear TO have averaged
about thirty-flve miles an hour on this les
OF the Journey.
| The railway line takes a circuitous route