Even after the invention of the airplane lighter than air craft were still seen by many to hold the greatest promise for aerial passenger and cargo traffic.
By the early 1930's the Germans had had a great success with helium filled airships. The Graf Zeppelin had become famous and was the pride of Germany beside being a successful busniess venture.
When her sister ship the Hindenburg was built many thought the great age of airship travel had begun. For a year she flew successful and profitable luxury flights between Germany and North and South America.
Then on a flight to New Jersey, the Hindenburg burst into flames, and the great promise of luxury Zeppelin flights got a bad public image. Even after this disaster American military Blimps had a higher deathtoll and worse flight record than the German ships, but the press coverage doomed the Zeppelin passanger business once and for all.
Longer than the Titanic, and lighter than Air, the Hindenburg narrowly escaped being named the Adolf Hitler because the airhip magnates were anit-nazi and acted quickly naming it after the German President rather than the Chancellor who was consolidating power around himself.
The theories of why the explosion that became known as the Hindenburg disaster occurred are several, and interesting, and will be the subject of an upcoming article.
