| Artikelnummer:: | MKM720-04 |
Rigid airships were produced and relatively successfully employed in the period from the early 1900s to the end of the 1930s.
During WWI the Zeppelin company, of Imperial Germany, built nearly one hundred military airships both for army and naval service. Their type and construction was characterised by particular class (A to X). During The Great War they were used as a new type of attack weapon for bombing and also for reconnaisance and naval patrol.
Both the Zeppelin P-class airship and its lenghtened variant, the Q-class airship, consisted of structural metal framework covered in doped fabric containing cells filled with a highly flammable hydrogen lifting gas. They were fitted with vertical tailfins and horizontal tailplanes with control surfaces. The crew members were carried in two suspended gondolas (cars) mounting Daimler engines and pusher propellers, while bombs were contained in internal bomb bays. A defensive front gunner was stationed in the front upper part of the airship’s body. In total, 22 of the P-class and 12 Q-class airships were built.
Colour schemes included in the kit:
1) Zeppelin LZ43 (P-class), L12, Black L12, Naval Airship Division (Marine-Luftschiff-Abteilung), Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), Hage Airship Base, Germany, July 1915
2) Zeppelin LZ51 (P-class), LZ81, Black LZ81, Airship Troop (Luftschifftruppe), Imperial German Flying Corps (Fliegertruppe des deutschen Kaiserreiches), Yambol (Jamboli) Airship Base, Bulgaria, summer 1916
3) Zeppelin LZ59 (Q-class), L20, Black L20, Naval Airship Division (Marine-Luftschiff-Abteilung), Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), Tondern Airship Base, Germany, April 1916
4) Zeppelin LZ73 (Q-class), LZ103, Black LZ, Airship Troop (Luftschifftruppe), Imperial German Flying Corps (Fliegertruppe des deutschen Kaiserreiches), Königsberg Airship Base, East-Prussia, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia), August 1917
