The Rigid Airship (Zeppelin)

The rigid airship was the first machine to carry passengers in comfort across oceans. Count Zeppelin’s LZ 1 flew in 1900, and by the 1920s and 30s vast hydrogen-filled craft like the Graf Zeppelin and the 245-metre Hindenburg offered dining rooms and staterooms aloft, crossing the Atlantic in days. The flaw was the lifting gas: hydrogen burns. On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg caught fire while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 in a blaze captured on film and live radio. Public trust evaporated, and faster, safer aeroplanes finished what the fire began.