Original German 1925' edition: the history of the airship Zeppelin ZR III [later Los Angeles] and her flight to America, written by the navigation officer on board, Wittemann.

"Mit dem Luftschiff ueber den Atlantischen Ozean. / DIE AMERIKAFAHRT DES Z.R. III. die Geschichte des Gesamten Zeppelinbaues". by A. Wittemann, Navigations-Offizier des Z.R. III [later Navigation officer on the Graf Zeppelin], the complete history of the construction of ZR III "Los Angeles" and flight to US in 1924, which was the first flight to America by the Zeppelin airship". Published by Amsel - Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1925.

Hard boards, original publisher's cloth [creases between spine and boards, a little wear]; name inside cover; number "28" on the front endpaper; 5.1/4" x 7.3/4"; 119 pages + advertising of companies involved in the Zeppelin project, several photographs, a little soiling, very good condition.

Captain Anton Wittemann (1887-1971) had been working on airships since 1910. He flew on DELAG airships prior to World War I, and then during the war he took part in all test and certification flights for the Zeppelins that were built for wartime service by Zeppelin Construction Company. As new zeppelins were built, Wittemann trained new airships' crews as they took over their airship.

Certified as an airship pilot in 1919, Wittemann flew aboard the LZ-120 Bodensee, which made regular flights between Friedrichshafen and Berlin between August of 1919 and July of 1921 when it, along with its newly-built sister ship, the LZ-121 Nordstern, was seized by the Inter-Allied Commission as war reparations.

When Zeppelin Company completed the LZ-126 for the United States Navy in 1924, Wittemann served as a navigator on the delivery flight across the Atlantic. Along with a number of other members of the German delivery crew, he then stayed in the United States for approximately three months to train US train US airship officers to operation their new airship, christened Los Angeles.

Starting in 1928, Wittemann served as a navigator on the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin. He made over 350 of the Graf Zeppelin's flights in all, and covered approximately a million miles in the process. Captain Wittemann was aboard the Hindenburg's first North American flight of 1937 as an observer, he also was on board on the final flight on May 5, 1937. During his long career on the airships, he witnessed lightning strikes dozens of times, and therefore he could not believe the theory that Hindenburg explosion was accidental.

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