Full Size Printed Plans Vintage 1962 Semi-Scale 1:300 “Graf Zeppelin” Germany's only aircraft carrier.
Description
listing is for Full Size Printed Plans
Not a Kit and No material supplied
“Graf Zeppelin”
Full Size Printed Plan on a SHEET 36” x 24”
Three-page article of Building Notes, Photos and Illustrations
Semi-Scale 1:300
LENGTH 34 ½”
ELECTRIC
RADIO CONTROL or DISPLAY
semi - scale model of Germany's only aircraft carrier.
Scale is 25 ft, = 1 in. to match "Scharnhorst" and "Graf Spee" by the same designer
By M. A. Hundleby
THE Graf Zeppelin, Germany's first aircraft carrier, was laid down at Deutsche Werke at Kiel in early 1938 and launched on December 8th the same year. When war began in 1939 the Deutschen Kriegsmarine was ill-prepared to meet the British Navy at sea. Admiral Raeder and his staff had been working on the 'Z' plan, which was to have provided four aircraft carriers by 1948, the earliest date Hitler had given for war to break out. As a direct consequence, the U-Boats became the German Navy's main offensive arm and the capital ships were squandered piecemeal as surface raiders. A balanced fleet was therefore out of the question and the Graf Zeppelin was discontinued in 1940.
Interest returned in late 194 I to the use of an aircraft carrier to accompany Tirpitz as the loss of the Bismarck could be attributed directly to the action of British aircraft carriers and the lack of a German one. Work restarted on Gra] Zeppelin in 1942 but was again stopped later the same year, this time for good. All the steel was needed for the submarine expansion programme.
Graf Zeppelin was scuttled by the Germans at Stettin in 1945 to prevent its capture by the Russians, but was raised by them in 1946/47. Its ultimate fate is uncertain. It was allegedly dismantled in 1947, but many authorities believe that the hull was towed to Russia and may have become the first of that country's aircraft carriers.
The model is to the scale 25 ft. = I in. and represents the final plan for the ship as it appeared in 1942. A Flugzeugtrager is of little use without Flugzeugen, and scale drawings are included for all the types likely to have been used. Originally the ship was intended to carry 42 aircraft comprising 12 JV87D and 30 ME 109F, but this was altered by 1942 to 28 JU87D and 12 ME 109G, a total of 40. It is possible that she would have carried other types, had she ever become operational, but there were only two which seem probable, the Fieseler 167 torpedo-bomber and the FW 190A5/UI5 torpedo-fighter. For the man who wants to load his model with aeroplanes there seems to have been three FWI90A5/U15 prototypes only but 23 Fi 167. The model could therefore carry this number on deck if they could be fitted on with the residual Stukas ! The original represents the ship prepared for an Atlantic raiding cruise with 2 ME 109s on the catapults, torpedo aircraft waiting to follow and dive bombers at the back from where they would take off unaided.
Building Instructions
Building is begun by cutting the deck from two sheets of1/8 in. balsa butt jointed along one edge, at the same time marking the positions of the lifts and catapult tracks on the upper face..
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