JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I’ve seen other straight-on cross sections of lighter-than-air aircraft before, though seldom have they been at night, and seldom in color, making this one fairly unusual to my experience.  

Under discussion in the article were the current great lighter-than-air ships and their future. Mentioned prominently were the Graf Zeppelin (which flew it first intercontinental flight just months earlier in October 1928 (and which flew until 1937)), and the British R-101, which was under construction at press time of this article, and which would crash and burn in its maiden voyage in October 1930. But in 1929, with these great new developments, and with airplane service across the ocean still seemingly in the relatively-distant future, the future of the dirigible looked pretty goo.  But even by 1932 the great Graf Zeppelin’s service would be extremely curtailed by the new airplane services, and by that point the days of the dirigible were numbered–especially come May 1937 when the Hindenburg crashed (and burned) so spectacularly.

Again, January, 1929, was a good time for the dirigible–but hundreds of days later, the situation would be reversing.