Under construction : input welcome.
David Schwarz was a pioneer of airship development . He conducted a test flight outside Berlin in 1897 which was witnessed by Count Ferdinand Zeppelin. The German government made a contract with Schwarz that granted him exclusive rights to build airships in Germany for the next 30 years. But Schwarz had a bad heart which occasionally caused the development of his craft to be delayed. And, partly due to excitement from receiving the German contract, Schwarz suffered a fatal heart attack in 1897.
But what if David Schwatz had a good heart?
Early Development
1896: A carpenter from Croatia, David Schwarz, drives his workers like a demon. He is determined to make his dirigible a success. The four cylinder Daimler engine had already proven itself, and Hans Gross was an excellent balloonist. Schwarz's negotiation with the German Army were going well. One military man in particular, Count Ferdinan Zeppelin, was keenly interested in the craft's progress. The entire nation seemed engrossed by the idea of powered flight, news reporters and the curious flocked to Carl Bergs shops where the dirigible was being developed.
1897: The demonstration flight within Berlin was almost flawless. Even before the flight, the German Government granted Schwarts exclusive rights to airship construction for the next 30 years; now he would prove their trust was well placed. Count Zeppelin attended the flight as expected.
1898: Carl Bergs' shops were expanded and Schwarts continued to drive his men to fill the new Army contract. Zeppelin had proven to be an invaluable evangelist in the otherwise conservative military.
1899: The industrialist Karl Lanz offered to help finance further development. He wanted to actively participate in projects and also encouraged the use of laminated wood as a cheaper alternative to aluminum for a dirigible's structural members.
1900: A very large dirigible (Designated the Lanz-1) was constructed using plywood supports. The remainder of dirigibles under construction use aluminum.
1902: After a spectacular failure of the Lanz-1, Johann Schütte became involved. He introduces several improvements in design. -- Now the four great names in early airship design are all working together: Schwarz, Zeppelin, Lanz, & Schütte. Because of Schwarz's exclusive contract they are not allowed to set up independent efforts as in OTL. The team benefits from Schwarz's drive and vision, Zeppelins pragmatism and clout in military and political circles, Schütte's innovative engineering, and Lanz's ideas and financial support.
1903: The K-16 is completed which uses an internal keel and plus sign-tail assembly. The k-16 proved to be a very reliable and capable craft.
Pre War
1904-1914: The Germans have a decade before the outbreak of WW1 to continue airship development and experiment with their use. Airships in ATL are advanced by about 5 to 7 years over their OTL counterparts. At the time many people who were interested in flight were not loyal to heavier-than-air versus lighter-than-air craft: they just wanted to fly with whatever technology that could do the job. With the success of the German airships, many key people who worked on airplane development in OTL would instead work on dirigible development in ATL. This contributes tho the advancement of airship technology but also slows heavier-than-air craft development in ATL. As a result, airplane technology in ATL is generally one to two years behind OTL.
At Lanz's insistence, several more experimental plywood craft were built. These proved to be susceptible to humid air and were completely unsuitable for Naval use. Even in the best circumstances the wood structured craft flew lower and slower than aluminum structured dirigibles. The L-3 was later used as target practice in an artillery experiment, and the L-5 was similarly used for target practice from ship-born guns. Both test demonstrated that airship were vulnerable to large guns (this fact was a well kept German secret). These results, along with the continued difficulty in airship navigation, gave David Schwarz enough evidence to argue against using airships as strategic bombers.
Schwarz argued that dirigible were best used for patrol over land and sea. They could not be effectively used to bomb protected targets because they were vulnerable to artillery and they were unlikely to be able to navigate over the targets in the first place. Schwarz's unpopular stance earned him the nickname of "Mr. Good Heart" (Herr gutes Herz(?)) because he was considered to be too "goodhearted" for the realities of war. Through various machinations Count Zeppelin was placed in de facto control of the Schwarz Airship Company.
Although Zeppelin believed city-wide bombardment via airship was a viable strategy, he experimented with a wide variety of possible uses for the craft. Before WW1 German military thinker had already devised several uses for airships and all these uses were experimented with.
-Naval Patrol: This was where airships were considered most useful. It is very difficult for ships at see to find each other, but airships can spot ships, and even submarines, without difficulty. They could then relay this information to sea craft which would respond accordingly.
-Air to ship combat: If dirigibles found isolated ships at sea they could drop bombs on their usually weakly protected decks.
-Overland Patrol: Although not as useful as over-sea patrol, Overland patrol was considered a crucial role for the airship in any future conflict.
-Air bombardment of cities: German thinkers often considered airships to fill the role of artillery with almost unlimited range.
-Supply: It was thought that dirigibles could break naval blockades by dropping supplies from the air. They could also supply troops in remote areas (this tactic proved critical in the African campaign in WW1)
-Paratroop platform: Experiments were made with the Kathchen Paulus style of parachute both for dropping supplies and for dropping soldiers. The K-36 and K-39 were constructed specifically for paratroopers. This ability was widely publicized and Germans often bragged that they could move their soldiers anywhere in the world. In actuality only a small number of soldiers could be deployed by this means and navigation problems meant that they could not reliably be dropped at a specific location. But as a propaganda tool the paratroopers were quite useful. Both France and England were especially concerned.
My to-do list
WW1:
keep out of reach of HTA craft through the war (i.e are not often shot down by airplanes).
African resupply missions are successful (they failed OTL)
bombardment (some attempted despite Schwarz's disapproval but ineffective targeting causes the program to fade)
air to sea-ship combat including anti-submarine
Troop transport. Airborne/air assault troops.
Reduced submarine warfare and Zimmerman msg delivered by air = US stays out of WW1
Post war:
Luxury transport, Cargo, Continued naval patrol