by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 10, 2012 | Airlines |
Today in 1972 Lufthansa took delivery of the world’s first cargo dedicated Boeing 747, registration number D-ABYE. For several years it would be the only one of it’s kind. Taking into account historic Deutsche Mark conversions, the aircraft had cost about 53 million dollars at the time. Adjusted for inflation, it would be approximately 221 million dollars today.
One of the most unique features of the 747F (F for freight) is the ability for the nose cone beneath the cockpit to swing up to allow easy access to the cargo hold. This allowed for a wide variety of cargo to be transported by air that previously would not have been able to do so. To read more about the history of the 747, and the story behind the Bubble Top, you can read my post on the topic here.
This delivery coincided closely with the opening of Frankfurt’s Cargo Hall earlier in October of 1971 which at the time was the largest air cargo facility in the world and served as the air cargo hub for virtually everything flying into and out of Europe. To this day, Frankfurt is still regarded as one of the world’s largest air cargo handling facilities.
Early Images of the 747F:
Lufthansa's First 747F: D-ABYE courtesy of JetPhotos.net
Look, German Planes Are Smiling......
Frankfurt’s Cargo Hall (Courtesy of Lufthansa):
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 11, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Thanks to my friends at Lufthansa, I have been able to put together a chronicle of the history of this great airline. As a result, I will post a piece of Lufthansa history any time that it celebrates an anniversary.
On February 11th in Lufthansa History:
1955 – Lufthansa signs a preliminary contract with Boeing for the purchase of 4 Boeing 707-400s. The price per aircraft was DM 22 million. This equated to 5.23 million US dollars at the time. In today’s dollars it would be the equivalent of approximately $42.3 million per aircraft. Today, a new Boeing 737-600 lists for $59.4 million dollars. These would become Lufthansa’s first jet aircraft to join her fleet. The first Lufthansa 707 rolled out of ‘final assembly’ in November of 1959.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 10, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Thanks to my friends at Lufthansa, I have been able to put together a chronicle of the history of this great airline. As a result, I will post a piece of Lufthansa history any time that it celebrates an anniversary….
Today’s anniversary goes WAY WAY WAY back to 1919.
On February 10, 1919 Deutsche Luft-Reederei carried it’s first passenger from Johanistal Airfield in Berlin to Weimar marking the beginning of civilian airline operations in Germany. Soon afterwards in March of 1919, service from Berlin would expand to Leipzig, Hamburg, Warnemünde and in April, Gelsenkirchen.
Up until this point, Zeppelins were the primary source of air transport in Germany. Deutsche Luft-Reederei would be the first company in Germany that would operate commercial flights with “Heavier Than Air” aircraft.
The initial fleet:
A.E.G. J II Biplane
The L.V.G. C V Biplane
A brief background on Deutsche Luft-Reederei(DLR):
DLR was founded on December 13, 1917 and was authorized by the German Air Ministry to begin civilian airline operations in January 1919. DLR’s first flights began on January 8, 1919 but only for newspaper and mail delivery flights between Berlin and Weimar, Germany.
Deutsche Luft-Reederei was also a founding member of the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) which is the predecessor to today’s International Air Transport Association(IATA) which was inaugurated in Havana, Cuba in April of 1945.
In essence, we can look at DLR as being the grandparent of today’s Lufthansa.
What may be the most important aspect of DLR as it relates to the Lufthansa that we know and love today, is the fact that the famous crane logo was born with DLR. Created by Otto Firle, this symbol would persevere through trial and tribulation in the coming years and decades, and has changed little in nearly 100 years.
