"Gentlemen, a new world's record: 5,060 miles continuous flight!"
Big, bearded Dr. Hugo Eckener barked that proud announcement on Oct. 15, 1924 as he stepped from the gondola of the LZ-126 in the Navy's airship dock at Lakehurst, N. J. Neither his drill-sergeant bearing nor his snapping eyes gave hint of the ignominy in his mission: he was delivering the ship to the U. S. Navy from Friedrichshafen where his Zeppelin Co. had built it as a Reparations payment. Within the silvered hulk was a crew of stolid Germans, a mail cargo, a...
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