Zeppelin LZ121 Hull 1:350 scale

This is the HULL ONLY. The Engine Cars and Gondola set in Fine Detail plastic available separately, is required to complete the model.

My professionally produced water-slide decals are available on eBay...
Sheet CA022 for Nordstern markings and CA023 for Méditerranée.

LZ121     NORDSTERN/MÉDITERRANÉE
length : 131 metres
maximum diameter : 19 metres
volume : 22,500 cubic metres
No of engines : 4   three propellers
total power : 750 kW

ALSO AVAILABLE in the shop:   LZ120 Bodensee  and Esperia.

The decision to build LZ121 was taken early in 1919 even before construction  of its sister ship LZ120 had begun. It was already clear that the  Zeppelin company's plans for regular commercial air services would place a very heavy demand on a single 'ship and a second one would be required to maintain  reliable services. Construction of LZ121 started in November 1919 and was finished in January 1920 ready for starting passenger operations in the spring. It had  been given the name "Nordstern"  [North or Pole Star] reflecting the plan to use it principally on routes to Scandinavia.

There were such high hopes for the elegant new 'ship which was 10 meters longer than the  LZ120 "Bodensee" (although LZ120 was subsequently lengthened as well) and with a larger and more luxurious passenger cabin.  During 1919 Bodensee had established the first truly regular and reliable air service within Germany and had also been used to demonstrate the viability of a passenger and mail service to Sweden. With the two airships operating  passenger services from early 1920, Zeppelin hoped to underline their credentials as intrinsic parts of the rebuilding of a peaceful, post-war Germany. After all, the idea of the Zeppelin as an effective weapons system essentially died with the introduction of incendiary and explosive machine gun ammunition around 1916.  The Zeppelin Company knew that equipment and materials that had been part of the war effort would be sanctioned under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles but when the treaty finally came into effect in January 1920 they despaired to find that both civilian 'ships were to be grounded immediately and prepared for handover as part of war reparations.

The Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control, tasked with interpreting and applying the Peace Treaty , allocated  LZ121 'Nordstern'  to France whilst the Bodensee went to Italy . It was not until May 1921 that France announced that a shed at St. Cyr near Versaille was ready to take the 'Nordstern' and only then were its gas cells filled for the first time. On 8 June 1921 , a year and a half after completion, 'Nordstern' took off from Friedrichshafen for its one and only flight in Germany, a factory test flight. On 13  June a choir raised the roof before an audience at least 10,000 strong and at 11.30 a.m. "the beautiful little rigid" as Douglas Robinson later referred to her,  to the immense sadness of the German people left home for the final time. That  delivery flight to France was against constant headwinds and it took almost ten hours to cover the 683km route, finally landing at St. Cyr at 21.12

Soon after its arrival in France, LZ121 was renamed 'Méditerranée' reflecting the initial intention to set up a regular, scheduled commercial air service between southern France and Algeria. But on 5 April 1922 the airship was handed over to the French Navy for use in a maritime reconnaissance role. A new hanger was built at Cuers just to the northeast of the naval base at Toulon in the South of France and  on 28 July 1922 LZ121 landed there to join LZ114, the former German naval aieship L72 which had been renamed 'Dixmude' and which had also been handed to France as part of the war reparations.

In service, LZ121 'Méditerranée accumulated a total flight time of 417 hours in 56 flights.  Its final flight was on 24-25 August 1926.

Highly recommended further reading : all of the data above has been taken from  "Bodensee and Nordstern" by Peter Kleinheins and translated into English by Alastair Reid (www.lulu.com)