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Schütte-Lanz (SL) is the name of a series of rigid airships designed and built by the Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz company from 1909 until the last LS22 was delivered in 1917. One research and four passenger airships were planned for post-war use, but were never built. The Schütte-Lanz company was an early strong competitor of the more famous airships built by Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
Contents
History
When the Zeppelin LZ 4 met with disaster at Echterdingen in 1908, Professor Johann Schütte started to consider the problems of airship design. He decided, with the co-operation of his students to develop his own scientifically designed, high performance airship. In partnership with Dr Karl Lanz, an industrialist and wood products manufacturer he started the Schütte-Lanz Luftschiffbau on April 22, 1909. The ships were successful at first, and introduced a number of highly successful innovations.
Wood composites had a theoretical superiority as the structural material in airships up to a certain size. After that, the superiority of aluminum (and later duralumin) in tension was more important than the superiority of wood in compression. Schütte-Lanz airships until 1918 were composed of wood and plywood glued together. Moisture tended to degrade the integrity of the glued joints. Schütte-Lanz airships became structurally unstable when water entered the airship's imperfectly waterproofed envelope. This tended to happen during wet weather operations, but also, more insidiously, in defective or damaged hangars. In the words of Führer der Luftschiffe Peter Strasser:
Most of the Schütte-Lanz ships are not usable under combat conditions, especially those operated by the Navy, because their wooden construction cannot cope with the damp conditions inseparable from maritime service...
The decision was made to compensate the company for the unusable wooden ships, and in response the company started work on a tubular aluminum-framed ship which was probably not completed.
The German Navy had bases closer to the sea, and thus more humid. They were reluctant to accept wooden composite craft. As a result, the primary customer for Schütte-Lanz airships was the German Army. The German Army decided well before the German Navy that airship operations were futile in the face of land-based heavier-than-air opposition.
Twenty-four Schütte-Lanz airships were designed before the end of the World War I, most of which the company was not paid for due to the collapse of the German Monarchy. By the time the last eight ships were ready, most of them could not be operated due to the loss of trained crews. There are also political-economic factors to the failure of the company, which have yet to be fully researched. There is certainly evidence for a pro-Zeppelin lobby in the German military and government that wanted to exclude all other airship manufacturers, regardless of what superior technical innovations they proposed.
In the postwar period, Professor Lanz designed a series of very large advanced airships for trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific passenger operations (described below), as well as proposals for the US Navy’s rigid airships ZRS-4 and ZRS-5. However none of these were ever realized due to Allied objections.
SL1
The Schütte-Lanz airship SL1 was the first of 20 airships built by the company. Construction was carried out in a large hangar at Rheinau near Mannheim. The ship was powered by four 125 horsepower (93 kW) Daimler-Benz engines installed in two ventral gondolas. A distinctive feature of the Schütte-Lanz ships was that the frame was constructed from special plywood which was (supposedly) waterproofed and protected from frost. The SL1 was constructed with a diamond lattice frame and had a highly streamlined shape, allowing it to achieve a record speed of 38.3 km/h. The structure of the SL1 resembles the later "geodesic" structures of Barnes Wallis at Vickers or Buckminster Fuller's domes. It was only matched at the time by the structure of the MacMeecham airship, designed and partially built in England in the first years of World War I. Fifty-three experimental flights were made between October 1911 and December 1912, the longest of over 16 hours. The ship was handed over to the German Army on December 12, 1912 but destroyed soon afterwards when it broke loose from its temporary mooring during a storm.
SL2
The Schütte-Lanz airship SL2 surpassed the contemporary Zeppelin airships in performance. It adopted the Zeppelin ring-girder construction method, but retained the streamlined shape and plywood construction of the SL1. The SL2 was also the most significant airship to date in that it laid down two vital design innovations that were copied in almost all subsequent rigid airships. The first was the cruciform tail plane, with a single pair of rudders and elevators. The second was the location of the engines in separate streamlined gondolas or cars. A third innovation, for war service, was the mounting of heavy machine guns for defense against attacking aircraft in each of the engine cars. SL2 was built between January and May 1914 and transferred to Austrian military control. It carried out six missions in the first year of the war over Poland and France. After being enlarged in summer 1915, several more missions were carried out before SL2 was stranded at Luckenwalde on January 10, 1916 after running out of fuel and decommissioned. The SL2 was a perfect example why the advanced technology of Schütte-Lanz, and the advantages of wood in compression as opposed to tension allowed the Schütte-Lanz type of airship to be technically superior until a certain size had been reached.
SL3
Naval airship based at Seddin which flew 30 reconnaissance missions and one bombing mission over England. The highlight of SL3's career was its attack on the British submarine E4 on September 24, 1915. The structure of the ship degraded because of atmospheric exposure and the ship was stranded near Riga on May 1, 1916.
SL4
Naval airship based at Seddin. SL4 flew 21 reconnaissance missions and two bombing raids again enemy harbors on the Eastern front. It was destroyed on December 14, 1915 after its hangar collapsed due to snow accumulation on the roof.
SL5
SL5 was an army airship, based at Darmstadt. The structure was damaged during the first flight, but repaired after several months work. During its second flight the ship was forced down by bad weather at Gießen and stricken from service on July 5, 1915
SL6
Naval airship based at Seddin. Flew six reconnaissance missions, but exploded due to unknown causes with the loss of all hands while taking off on November 10, 1915.
SL7
Army airship based at Königsberg. Carried out three reconnaissance missions and three bombing raids before suffering structural failure. Repaired and possibly enlarged before being decommissioned March 6, 1917 when the army terminated airship operations.
SL8
Naval airship based at Seddin. Carried out 34 reconnaissance missions and three bombing raids, carrying 4,000 kg of bombs each mission. Held the record for the greatest number of combat missions of any Schütte-Lanz airship. Decommissioned due to age November 20, 1917.
SL9
Naval airship based at Seddin. Carried out 13 reconnaissance missions and four bombing raids carrying 4,230 kg of bombs each mission. Crashed in Baltic, possibly after lightning strike on March 30, 1917.
SL10
Army airship based at Yambol, Bulgaria. Carried out a 16-hour reconnaissance mission. Disappeared during a subsequent attack on Sevastopol, possibly due to bad weather July 28, 1916.
SL11
Army airship based at Spich. Commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm. The first German airship to be shot down over Britain; it was attacked over Hertfordshire by Lt. W.L. Robinson in a BE 2C with incendiary ammunition on September 3, 1916. It crashed at Cuffley, having bombed Saint Albans. The crew were buried at Potters Bar Cemetery: and in 1962 they were re-interred at Cannock Chase German war cemetery.
SL12
Navy airship based at Ahlhorn. Obsolete in design before completion, this ship only flew reconnaissance missions. Badly damaged after hitting gas-holder near hangar and stricken December 28, 1916
SL13
Army airship based at Leipzig. Considered unfit for combat duty and used for training only. Badly damaged when hangar collapsed because of heavy snow and stricken February 8, 1917.
SL14
Navy airship based at Seerappen and Wainoden. Carried out two reconnaissance missions and two bombing raids. A later attack on Riga was abandoned because of engine failure. Rebuilt February 1917 but later damaged before finally being scrapped on May 18, 1917.
SL15
Army airship based at Mannheim. No active service. Decommissioned August 1917.
SL16
Intended for the Army, this ship was never officially commissioned and was laid up at Spich. Scrapped August 1917.
SL17
Intended for the Army, this ship was never officially commissioned and was laid up at Allenstein. Scrapped August 1917.
SL18
Construction completed at Leipzig base, but ship destroyed by hangar collapse on February 8, 1917.
SL19
Never built due to lack of space at Leipzig base, due to hangar collapse on February 8, 1917.
SL20
Navy ship based at Ahlhorn. Burnt in huge hangar explosion and fire with four zeppelin airships on January 5, 1918 after only two missions.
SL21
Intended for Army but never officially commissioned. Based at Zeesen and used for static testing. Decommissioned February 1918.
SL22
Intended for Navy but refused acceptance on grounds of insufficient payload. Based at Gegen and scrapped June 1920.
SL23
Never commissioned. First Schütte-Lanz ship with tubular aluminum frame. May have been complete at war's end but no further details are known.
SL24
Never commissioned. Second Schütte-Lanz ship with tubular aluminum frame. May have been completed after war, but no further details.
SL101
After the war, Schütte-Lanz came up with several peacetime airship projects which were never realized. Based on the metal framed SL23 and SL24, the first was the SL101. This was intended for a regular transatlantic service to New York or South America.
SL102 Panamerica
This was intended for a regular transatlantic service to New York or South America.
SL103 Pacific
This was intended for a regular transatlantic service to New York or South America, although the name indicates different aspirations.
American Airship Tender
Schütte-Lanz submitted an unsuccessful design to the U.S. Navy in 1926 in competition with the successful Goodyear-Zeppelin designs, USS Akron (ZRS-4) and USS Macon (ZRS-5).