With the Graf Zeppelin to South America
Subtitle: Diary of the Round Trip 1931
By: Bruer, Carl, author
Contributors: editor
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: Frost Publishing
Published: March, 2002
Place of publication: USA
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9780971498211
Copyright date: 2002
Subjects: airship flights
Genres: aviation, flight diary
First sentence: "Over The Mediterranean Sea and Spain: --...The night was bitter cold, but now it begins to warm up. The coffee and warm breakfast rolls are delicious. Captain Schiller, whose shift will begin at 8:00a.m., sits next to me. Other passengers hurry into the dinning room. The first is our senior Mr. Brix, with whom I had a conversation yesterday. He was born in Luechow and was in Paris in 1870/71 (German/French War). At the time I was only one year old. The eighty-one years old Mr. Brix could be my father. He has traveled to almost every country in the world, but has never seen South America. He wants to buy butterflies for his collection. His neighbor in Palm Beach, Florida is nobody less than John D. Rockefeller, whom he knows well. Since Rockefeller is 93 years old, Mr. Brix always likes to say: "I am a young man compared to him."...

..Professor Dr. Diekmann, University of Munich, had already made over three hundred flights with the airship Graf Zeppelin. He is conducting research on electrical currents in the atmosphere, using special devices to take measurements. He tells me that better devices are being developed. The instruments also play an important role in the growing safety of air travel and this progress never ops....I see the same familiar faces among the crew members on board the airship: Captain Lehmann, Captain von Schiller, Captain Flemming, Captain Wittemann, Engineer Beuerle, the officers, engineers and radio operators, including Eckener's son. Dr. Eckener is not on board; at this moment, he is in North America. It is interesting to note that Captain Lehmann was the commander of the second South American flight. Of course, the chief steward, Mr. Kubis, the cook, Ernest (our guardian angel), and Karl, the ship's photographer, are also on board...

..Here are some interesting facts about our trip and the enormous achievements of the Zeppelin. The distance from Friedrichshafen amounts to 8000km, which was covered within 72 hours...Our Zeppelin will stay in Pernambuco for 4 days, make a two-day roundtrip along the Brazilian coast, and then return to Friedrichshafen, covering a total flight distance of 20,200km. This calculates out to an average speed of 120km/hr, not as a sport race but a normal commercial passenger flight with all the pleasures and comforts on board. All together, the roundtrip will take eleven to twelve days, including the four-day stay in Brazil...

...One of the passenger told me that his air cushion had turned stone hard during the night due to the altitude change from 1000 feet to 600 feet. Another passenger demonstrates his ink pen, which was losing its ink, "also due to the loss of air pressure", I explained to him...."
Description: Bruer's book is based on his diary entries and photographs made during the flight. The manuscript was finished in November 1931 but has never been published until now. This wonderful rare flight adventure book was written by a man, who was in fact on board the Graf Zeppelin. Publisher included both, English and German text, illustrated mostly by the author's photographs and drawings. Furthermore all postmarks used on the mail, delivered via airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, to South America in 1930 - 1937 are listed in this book.
Notes: In August 2002, the book was recognized with the bronze medal during the APS Literature Exhibition in Atlantic City, NJ.
Table of contents: title: To Friedrichshafen
pagenum: 5; title: Take-off & Departure
pagenum: 7; title: Over the Mediterranean Sea and Spain
pagenum: 9; title: Over West Africa and the Atlantic
pagenum: 16; title: Over the Cape Verde Islands and Atlantic
pagenum: 20; title: Over Brazil, Fernando de Noronha, & Arrival in Pernambuco
pagenum: 28; title: Landing
pagenum: 31; title: Pernambuco
pagenum: 33; title: Trips to Olinda & Area
pagenum: 39; title: Further Trips to the Inner Country & the Beach
pagenum: 44; title: Departure from Pernambuco
pagenum: 55; title: Over the Atlantic Ocean
pagenum: 56; title: Over the Clouds
pagenum: 58; title: Madeira
pagenum: 62; title: Portugal-Spain
pagenum: 67; title: Over the Bay of Biscay
pagenum: 70; title: France & Arrival
pagenum: 71