Zeppelin L65 of WW1

L65 was the last of the German Navy "L53 Class", V-Type airships of WW1. She was Zeppelin N° LZ111 and built in the Löwenthal shed, not far from the Friedrichschafen factory.

L65 was the first Zeppelin to have cantilever-section tail fins with a minimum of external wire bracing. This design feature was then used in the X-Types, (Navy L70 & L71, plus the never comissioned L72) the last production series of the war.

Her first flight was on 17 April 1918 and she was taken into service 3 May and based at Nordholz. 
It was L65 and L70, together with L53, L56 and L65 that made the last, fateful raid on England on August 5 and 6 1918 and in which "Leader of Airships" Peter Strasser died. He was with all of the crew of the magnificent L70 as she plunged, burning into the North Sea. But by then the war was already lost for Germany: on November 9, 1918 L65 was decomissioned. Her end came on 23 June 1919 when she was wrecked by airship crews in the "Nordstern" shed at Nordholz to prevent her being taken from Germany by the Allies as part of war reparations.

In 1:700 scale L65 is 279.7mm long
In 1:600 scale L65 is 326.4mm long

Sutable 1:700 scale DECALS ARE AVAILABLE HERE on my website

All production data and operational history taken from "The Zeppelin in Combat" by Douglas H Robinson. Translated into German with additional photos and diagrams as "Deutsche Marine-Lufftshiffe 1912-1918".