Imperial Valley press., 1929-08-10

LANDS IN.
GERMANY
Record Time Made Cross
ing Atlantic From Lake.
hurst Station.
ECKENER PLEASED
Commander of Dirigible
Celebrates 61st Birth
day On Arrival.
BY MAURITZ HALLGREN
United Press Staff Correspondent


FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany,
Aug. l0W.P-Germany's mighty
mistress Of the air, the dirigible Graf
Zeppelin, returned triumphantly to
its home base at Friedrichshafen at
1:02 p. m. today, (7:02 a. m. EST
after a record breaking transAtlan-
tic flight from the United States.
The giant ship, carrying % passen-
gers and crew of 40 men landed
at the airport just 50 hours and 20
minutes after it had taken off from
Lakehurst, n. Y, at Hap P. m. last
Wednesday night, thus lowering her
own record for the flight by Ii
hours and 26 minutes. 1t was re-
garded by many experts as the most
sensational flight ever accomplish
ed by lighter than air craft.
The previous record was estab-
lished by the same dirigible last
year, between Oct. 30 and Nov. l,
when it flew from Lakehurst to
Friedrichshafen in 6S hours and 46
minutes.
The Graf approached Friedrich
shafen from the southwest. 1t was
raining when the ship was sighted.
Great crowds lined the fields in
spite of the weather. The Graf
headed into the field very slowly
and the ground crew, by this time
reinforced by 80 German sailors, be-
gan TO maneuver the ship into posi-
tion for landing.
The huge dirigible threw out
ballast and descended tail first.
Passengers were at the windows
waving The landing ropes were
dropped and seized by the ground
crew and Immediately with great
surge the thousands of spectators
broke through the Gordon holding
them back and overran the field.
The motors of the Graf Zeppelin
which had been halted slowly re-
started to rise again but police
managed to hold back the crowd and
the great bag finally was complete
ly halted at Los p, m.
Eckener's Birthday
Two minutes later the crew
started hauling the Graf to the
hangar.
Immediately after the Zeppelin
was placed in the hangar the pas
sengers began descending from the
gondola.
The dirigible appeared to be in
excellent condition.
DIR. Eckener hung out of the con-
troll cabin window receiving con-
gratulations on his 61st birthday
today.
The Graf Zeppelin was inside the
hangar at lis p. m.
Only 1900 persons were admitt-
ed to the field, but many thousands
packed into the streets outside to
get n closeup view of the Zeppelin.
From early morning there was u
steady stream of people filing out
to the airport here in the hope of
finding a spot from which they
could watch the airship make its
landing and to cheer the command
er who for the second time within
a year managed to cross to the Uni
ted States and back over the hazar-
dous Atlantic.
The flight from Lakehurst to
Friedrichshafen was the first part
of a commercial tour of the world
which the Zeppelin will make.
1t was triumph for the Zeppelin
type of dirigible and a triumph for
the skill of DR.. Hugo Eckener, com
mandar of the Graf, whose faith in
his ship did not waver when it met
with failure on a previous attempt
to fly to the United States.
AT that time, in May, when the
zeppelin was forced down in France
because of motor trouble, DR.. Eek
ener stood staunchly by and stated
that Notwithstanding the failure the
zeppelin was still the logical type
of ship for air navigation. This
round-trip voyage to the United
States bore him out, in the opinion
of experts.
The mammoth dirigible took less
than A hours to cross the Atlantic
from Lakehurst to the southern
most point of the British Isles.