1929 Packard Standard Eight /Graf Zeppelin Airships

The Packard Standard Eight 633 offered seven body types. The new Packard Standard Eight offered new luxuries and a number of mechanical improvements that made them most outstanding. The 1929 fiscal year was a record year for the Packard Motor Car Company. Net sales were approximately $107,542,000 while net profit was $25,912,000. Both the net sales and net profit figures were the highest ever and the company's unprecedented sales volume had demanded further plant expansion in a complex which already contained seventy-nine buildings (The Packard building still stands today).




The Packard Model 633 was the company’s mid-priced automobile and positioned to compete with Cadillac's very successful La Salle brand. The model 633 rode on a 133 inch wheelbase and was powered by a 319 cubic inch straight eight engine producing 90 horsepower. The images seen within this article took place during August 1929, when the Graf Zeppelin air ship stopped in Los Angles in route to New York, following a historic round the world air ship cruise. Packard's west coast distributor, Mr. Earle C. Anthony, arranged a fleet of 25 new Packard automobiles for the use as ground transportation for Graf Zeppelin passengers which included airship pilot Dr.Hugo Eckener and other crew members and dignitaries. Dr. Hugo Eckener, was the chairman of the Zeppelin company, the company that also built the Hindenburg.




The Garf Zeppelin LZ -127 was one of the most widely traveled passenger airship ever built. The airship made its inaugural flight on the 18th of September 1928 and at 776 feet in length, it was the largest airship to have been built up to that time. During its nine years of service, it covered over one million miles making 590 flights. Unfortunately, the use of Zeppelin airships was short lived and it was labeled as a faulty and dangerous technology design. The airship Zeppelins not only demonstrated the world's interest in air technology, but also led the change in developing safer, faster, and more reliable air craft’s both for commercial, military and industrial use.



A special thanks to Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and Researcher, for donating his story to the MotorCities Story of the Week program. Photographs courtesy- National Automotive History CollectionFor further information contact Robert Tate at btate@motorcities.org

If you have a story that you would like to donate to be featured as a MotorCities Story of the Week, email Lisa Ambriez at: lambriez@motorcities.org