# Layout of a passenger Zeppelin **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2007, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696 "2007-03-20T10:15:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/1 "2007-03-20T10:15:14Z")
Part of my next role-playing scenario (each one I write seems to involve at least one question asked here) takes place on board a passenger Zeppelin. I’ve searched the web for some kind of map showing the typical layout of such a vessel but come up short (“zeppelin” is a surprisingly popular nickname). I need to get a general idea of what it looked like on board a luxurious passenger zeppelin during their golden age. Size, cabins, restaurants, control room and so forth. Any tips? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/2 "2007-03-20T10:49:03Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] Part of my next role-playing scenario … takes place on board a passenger Zeppelin. … [/QUOTE] Funny that the only thing I could find was [this!](http://rpgobjects.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?cPath=&products_id=6120&) CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/3 "2007-03-20T11:46:29Z")
This page, [here](http://www.airships.net/), includes some interior cabin shots… or you might get lucky at [this](http://www.ciderpresspottery.com/ZLA.html) site, although I’m not that familiar with it. **Max Allan Collins** wrote a detective thriller set on it’s fatal last flight called _The Hindenburg Murders_, which was fun and had a fair amount of detail. IIRC, it had Leslie Charteris (real life author of the Saint detective novels) as the protagonist! It might even had had a plan of the passenger areas… I’ve got one or two books at home which include some plans and diagrams. I could post their titles, if you like. And, if you get the chance, this [film](http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0486679/) has wonderful original footage of zeppelins. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/4 "2007-03-20T13:04:54Z")
There are several contemporary or near-contemporary histories of lighter-than-air craft that include interior pictures of the two cruise-liner airships, _Graf Zeppelin_ and _Hindenburg_. Perhaps a good parallel might be a luxury ocean liner of the day. For most of the great airships, even though it was quite possible to climb around inside the “cigar” framework (in a rigid dirigible, the lifting gas is within large “cells” inside the airframe, which is for all practical purposes like a skyscraper skeleton laid on its side), nearly all crew and passenger activity took place in a large “gondola” slung below it. The Hindenburg and a couple of other airships pioneered the idea of using part of the interior of the airframe for additional passenger and cargo space. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/5 "2007-03-20T13:14:23Z")
[QUOTE=Meurglys] I’ve got one or two books at home which include some plans and diagrams. I could post their titles, if you like. [/QUOTE] Please. I went to the library after starting this thread and found two books crammed with information (_The Airship - A History_ by Basil Collier and _Zeppelin!_ by Manfred Griehl and Joachim Dressel), including interior photos, but none of them contained plans, so I still don’t really have an idea of the layout of an airship. Also, passenger capacity statistics are conspicuously absent. ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/6 "2007-03-20T14:11:41Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] Please. I went to the library after starting this thread and found two books crammed with information (_The Airship - A History_ by Basil Collier and _Zeppelin!_ by Manfred Griehl and Joachim Dressel), including interior photos, but none of them contained plans, so I still don’t really have an idea of the layout of an airship. Also, passenger capacity statistics are conspicuously absent. [/QUOTE] I just sent an email to your profile email address with a quickie scan of the layout of _Graf Zeppelin_. It’s from the book _Dr. Eckeners Dream Machine - The Historic Saga of The Round-The-World Zeppelin_ by Douglas Botting. Quick facts from the book: 61 people on the flight, 20 passengers (13 of them journalists and photographers) and 41 crew (watch officers, navigators, helmsmen, radio operators, engineers, mechanics, electricians, cook and cabin staff). Twenty kilos per passanger is the baggage limit. (Obviously this was a round-the-world trip, so you can probably play with the numbers for a shorter trip.) Hope this helps along with the scan. Now, go forth and mess with your players. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/7 "2007-03-20T14:24:36Z")
The Time-Life book _The Giant Airships_ by Douglas Botting has isometric drawings of the cabin areas of the _Graf Zeppelin_ and _Hindenburg_, some photos of the same, and of a few other passenger airships. (The R-100’s dining salon, page 125, is pretty impressive.) It’s probably common enough a book that you could find it through a local library search. Plus, it’s got a nice overview of the rest of airship history. (Page 72 mentions and illustrates an odd incident when zeppelin L23 captured a Norwegian schooner in 1917, putting a boarding party aboard to sail it back to Germany. Yow.) Heh. Y’know, when you look at even the Hindenburg, it’s easy to forget how _small_ the passenger section is, compared to the rest of the airship. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/8 "2007-03-20T15:14:28Z")
If you’d like to do some field work, then check out the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. They have a full-scale reproduction of many parts of a Zeppelin compartment which you can walk through, including the lounge, passenger cabins, and control room. I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/9 "2007-03-20T23:32:44Z")
The book _Hindenburg - an Illustrated History_ by Rick Archbold and Ken Marschall has a large foldout showing a cutaway of the entire ship as well as floor layout diagrams of the two decks and the control car. I’ve scanned them and put them up here: [A Deck](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/a-deck.jpg) [B Deck](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/b-deck.jpg) [Control Car](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/control-car.jpg) Here’s a full [cutaway of the Hindenburg](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/hindenburg.jpg) (the one in the above mentioned book was so large it’d be a paint in the ass to scan so I include a smaller version from another book). [This page](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/html/e3-diagram.html) has a nice interactive diagram of the zeppelin. The Hindenburg had 35 passenger cabins, 34 two berth cabins and one four berth family cabin. Two great books that give tons of info on what it would be like to travel on a large airship are: _The Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airship, Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg_ by Harold G Dick and Douglas H Robinson. Dick was an engineer at Goodyear-Zeppelin and during the 30’s was sent to the Zeppelin company in Germany for five years to study their operation. He made 22 transatlantic crossings via airship, and gives incredible insight into how they were built and operated, and what an experience it was to fly on one. _The Airships Akron & Macon - Flying Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy_ by Richard K Smith. During the 30’s the US Navy had two large airships that they flew extensively. The airships each carried several fighter planes that they regularly launched and retrieved while in flight! This book covers really well the only two US rigid airships. ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/10 "2007-03-20T23:48:03Z")
[QUOTE=Santos L Halper] This book covers really well the only two US rigid airships. [/QUOTE] D’oh, too late to edit! It slipped my mind that there were actually two earlier US rigid airships as well, the Los Angeles and the Shenandoah. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/11 "2007-03-21T00:26:00Z")
[QUOTE=Santos L Halper] The book _Hindenburg - an Illustrated History_ by Rick Archbold and Ken Marschall has a large foldout showing a cutaway of the entire ship as well as floor layout diagrams of the two decks and the control car. I’ve scanned them and put them up here: [A Deck](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/a-deck.jpg) [B Deck](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/b-deck.jpg) [Control Car](http://www.toymiata.com/temp/control-car.jpg) [/QUOTE] Thanks for posting that! The A Deck is what’s recreated in the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. The furniture and everything else is exactly as depicted in that drawing. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/12 "2007-03-21T10:37:25Z")
The only book I can add which might be worth your time checking out is _Lighter Than Air - an illustrated history of the development of hot-air balloons and airships_ by **David Owen** (Apple Press 1999). It has photos of the Hindenburg including a sleeping cabin (bunk beds, btw), the bar and the promenade deck/dining room and also labeled diagrams of both A & B decks. B deck had a smoking room and also the first shower to be installed on an airship… There are also a couple of interior shots of the Graf Zeppelin - the control room and the dining room. Hope this helps… ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/13 "2007-03-21T11:47:51Z")
[QUOTE=Santos L Halper] I’ve scanned them and put them up here: [/QUOTE] Wow. Thanks a lot. I can’t imagine what else I’d need now. ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/14 "2007-03-21T13:07:19Z")
I’d add that there are a few things that the large floorplans don’t cover that you can see a little bit of in the full airship diagrams. You can just make out the axial corridor which runs the full length of the airship. Also the keel catwalk along the bottom ran the full length of the airship and provided access to fuel and water tanks, crew quarters, freight rooms, engine cars and the auxilliary control room in the airship’s lower fin. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/layout-of-a-passenger-zeppelin/396696/15 "2007-03-21T23:01:28Z")
Which RPG?