Hugo Eckener
(Flensburg, 1868-Friedrichshafen, 1954) German aeronaut, one of the promoters of the famous zeppelins of the interwar era.Eckener carried out his aeronautics studies at three German universities: Munich, Berlin and Leipzig.
Hugo Eckener
After finishing his degree, he joined the Zeppelin factory, where he would develop rigid airplanes, as well as the lightest airplane in the world for fly around the earth.During World War I, Eckener dedicated himself to teaching German war pilots, while directing the construction of 88 zeppelins for German aviation.
After the war, Eckener took over the reins of Ferdinand von Zeppelin's factory, when he died in 1918, and he became president of it in 1924.In that time interval he devoted himself mainly to popularizing business travel.In that same year he directed the ZR-3 flight between the German city of Friedrichshafen (Berlin) to the North American city of Lakehurst (New Jersey).This airship was built for the United States as part of the war compensation, for which it received the name Los Angeles.With the well-known Graf Zeppelin , he circled the world in 1929 and made numerous long-distance flights, such as the polar expedition of 1931.
With the arrival of Nazism, Hugo Eckener lost the management of the Zeppelin factories for opposing Hitler's totalitarian regime, especially when in 1937 the airship Hindenburg , successor to Graf Zeppelin , burned in Lakehurst leaving a balance of 26 victims, a tragedy that ended with international passenger flights.In 1938 it was sent to the United States in an unsuccessful attempt to buy helium for the German airships that were being used with the dangerous hydrogen.He gradually moved away from the controls of the German aviation.
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