The era of flight began in Germany with the debut of the airship Graf Zeppelin, so christened by the daughter of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, its German designer (who for a time served as a military observer with the Union during the Civil War.) The ship was hardly the first of its kind to go into the air — both Germany and the U.S. built them as early as WW I — but most of its predecessors were military in nature. The Graf Zeppelin would make its name for a peaceful voyage.

On this day, August 8, in 1929 the Graf Zeppelin took off Lakehurst, New Jersey, on cross-continental flight lasting 12 days 11 hours and covering 21,500 miles in five legs.

With a contingent of VIPs and a reporter for Hearst newspaper reporter Lady Grace Hay-Drummond-Hay (the only woman among the 60 men) on board the zeppelin flew from Lakehurst across the Atlantic to Friedrichshafen. From Friedrichshafen the zeppelin crossed seemingly endless Siberian tundra to Tokyo (a planned flight over Moscow had to be canceled due to winds, much to Joseph Stalin’s displeasure.) From Tokyo to Los Angeles took 79 hours of flight, and the zeppelin’s path was calculated to make a dramatic entrance by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. From Los Angeles it flew across the country to Lakehurst, and from there it returned home to Friedrichshafen. again.