These images show the airship Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 flying over Chicago in August 1929, on the American leg of its round-the-world trip. The Graf Zeppelin flew low over the city. Large crowds gathered to watch its flight.







Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German count, or "Graf," developed the Zeppelin airship. The design was patented in 1895 in Germany and 1899 in the U.S. Designed to carry passengers, the airship began commercial operations in 1910 through the company Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG).



By the middle of 1914, the craft had made over 1,500 flights and carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers. It was the world's first commercial airline, and was so successful that the word Zeppelin was used to describe all airships.



During WWI the German army used Zeppelins in bombing raids on Britain, killing over 500 people. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty which finally ended the First World War, the remaining Zeppelins were surrendered to the Allies and production stopped.



In 1924 as war reparation, the Zeppelin Company manufactured the LZ 126. The vessel was flown to America and operated there as the ZR-3 USS Los Angeles.







Restrictions were lifted in 1926 and after two years of fundraising and construction, the LZ 127 — christened the "Graf Zeppelin" — was launched. It was the largest dirigible (airship with a solid frame) built thus far.



Later that year it flew to the U.S., landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station for some repairs.



Then in 1929 American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst backed an ambitious project: a four-leg circumnavigation of the globe. On Aug. 8, 1929 the Graf Zeppelin took off from Lakehurst and headed east. It carried several distinguished passengers and Hearst correspondents, including Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, making her the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by air.



After refueling in Germany it continued across Eastern Europe, Russia and Siberia to Tokyo. After five days there, the Graf continued across the Pacific to California, completing the first ever nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean. From there it crossed 13 states and several American cities, including Chicago, arriving back at Lakehurst from the west on Aug. 29, three weeks after its initial departure.