From The Archives: 100 Years Ago In Aviation Week - ZR3 Reaches Lakehurst From Germany

On a Sunday morning in October 1924, the airship ZR3 departed from Friedrichshafen, Germany, beginning the first transatlantic flight from continental Europe to the Americas. 

Built for the U.S. Navy by the Zeppelin Co. as a payment for war reparations imposed on Germany at the end of World War I, the ZR3 arrived at the U.S. naval air station in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the following Wednesday morning, completing the 5,000-mi. flight in 81 hr. 17 min. 

A photo on the cover of our Oct. 27, 1924, edition pictured the airship after its landing at Lakehurst. Inside the magazine, a four-page story gave a detailed account of the flight, which was commanded by Hugo Eckener, one of the Zeppelin Co.’s veteran pilots, and carried a military crew of 35, including four American observers. 

The ZR3 crew was feted at a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, where Eckener pleaded successfully for the preservation of the Zeppelin plant in Friedrichshafen, which was scheduled for destruction under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The airship was rechristened the USS Los Angeles and operated by the Navy until 1939.

Read the full issue dated October 27, 1924