Zeppelin P-class LZ38/LZ40 ‘First Attackers’

Rigid airships (or dirigibles) 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 uniquely designed military airships both for army and naval service. Their type and construction was characterised by particular class (A to X). During the early stages of The Great War they were utilised as a new and progressive type of attack weapon, reconnaisance and patrol craft, mainly over the Western Front.

The Zeppelin P-class airship consisted of a structural metal framework covered in doped fabric containing cells filled with a highly flammable hydrogen lifting gas. It was fitted with vertical tailfins and horizontal tailplanes with control surfaces. The crew members were carried in two suspended gondolas 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.