Zeppelin LZ 51

Zeppelin LZ 51, with the tactical designation LZ 81, was the 51st airship built by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and the 24th used by the Imperial German Army, a P-class military Zeppelin. It was built at Löwental and made its maiden flight on 7 October 1915. It flew three bombing missions, dropping 4,513 kilograms of bombs, and on 9 November 1915 carried a party of diplomats from Temeswar across enemy-held Serbia to Sofia. In the summer of 1916 the hull was lengthened by 15 metres to raise its gas volume and payload. After a second raid on Bucharest it was hit, and on 27 September 1916 it made an emergency landing near Tirnowa in Bulgaria, where one crew member died.