LZ 129 Hindenburg

LZ 129 Hindenburg
Hindenburg at NAS Lakehurst
General information
Type	Hindenburg-class airship
Manufacturer	Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH
Management	Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei
Registration	D-LZ129
Radio code	DEKKA[1]
Flights	63[2]
History
Manufactured	1931–1936
First flight	March 4, 1936
In service	1936–1937
Last flight	May 6, 1937
Fate	Destroyed in fire and crash

LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129; Registration: D-LZ 129) was a German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume.^[3] It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) on the shores of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company (Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei). It was named after Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, who was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934.

The airship flew from March 1936 until it was destroyed by fire 14 months later on May 6, 1937, while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. This was the last of the great airship disasters; it was preceded by the crashes of the British R38, the US airship Roma, the French Dixmude, the USS Shenandoah, the British R101, and the USS Akron.