not be operated due to the loss of trained crews. In the postwar period, Lanz designed a series of very large airships for trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific passenger operations, as well as submitting a proposal for the US Navy’s rigid airships ZRS-4 and ZRS-5. However none of these were ever realized. Data from: Zeppelin:rigid airships 1893-1940 S.L.1 (Type 'a') The Schütte-Lanz airship S.L.1 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 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 S.L.1 was constructed with a diamond lattice frame and had a highly streamlined shape, allowing it to achieve a record speed of . The structure of the S.L.1 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 12 December 1912 but destroyed soon afterwards when it broke loose from its temporary mooring during a storm. First Flight: 1 October 1911 Length: Diameter: Gas Capacity: Performance: Payload: Engines: 2x Daimler J8L 8-cyl in-line engines: total S.L.2 (Type 'b') The Schütte-Lanz airship S.L.2 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 S.L.1. The S.L.2 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. S.L.2 was built between January and May 1914 and transferred to Austrian military control as the S.L.II. It carried out six missions in the first year of the war over Poland