The LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German zeppelin, named in honour of the late President Paul von Hindenburg. Along with its sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, it was the largest aircraft ever built. First launched in March 1936, it went up in flames and was destroyed while landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people. This disaster is often considered to been the final "coffin nail" for commercial travel by airships, which were soon replaced in that purpose by airplanes.
Hindenburg in Curious Notions[]
In the 1940s, about a decade after Imperial Germany defeated France for the second time, the airship Hindenburg crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the French coast. Nearly 150 years later, divers found the ship's remains.
Lucy Woo found the story intriguing, but not intriguing enough to spend two cents to buy a San Francisco Chronicle to read more about it.
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