Editing Zeppelin (section)

====''Hindenburg'', the end of an era====
{{Main|LZ 129 Hindenburg}}
[[File:Hindenburg at lakehurst.jpg|thumbnail|left|The ''Hindenburg'': note swastikas on tail fins.]]
The coming to power of the [[Nazi Party]] in 1933 had important consequences for Zeppelin Luftschiffbau. Zeppelins became a propaganda tool for the new regime: they would now display the [[swastika#Use in Nazism|Nazi swastika]] on their fins and occasionally tour [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] to play march music and propaganda speeches to the people. In 1934 [[Joseph Goebbels]], the Minister of Propaganda, contributed two million reichsmarks towards the construction of LZ&nbsp;129, and in 1935 [[Hermann Göring]] established a new airline directed by [[Ernst Lehmann]], the ''[[Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei]]'', as a subsidiary of ''[[Lufthansa]]'' to take over Zeppelin operations. [[Hugo Eckener]], the father of the post-war Zeppelin renaissance, was an outspoken anti-Nazi: complaints about the use of Zeppelins for propaganda purposes in 1936 led Goebbels to declare "Dr.&nbsp;Eckener has placed himself outside the pale of society. Henceforth his name is not to be mentioned in the newspapers and his photograph is not to be published".<ref>Robinson 1973, p.&nbsp;282</ref>

On 4&nbsp;March 1936 [[LZ 129 Hindenburg|LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'']] (named after former [[President of Germany]], [[Paul von Hindenburg]]) made its first flight. The ''Hindenburg'' was the largest airship ever built. It had been designed to use non-flammable helium, but the only supplies of the rare gas were controlled by the United States, which refused to allow its export.<ref>Robinson 1973, p.&nbsp;285</ref> The fatal decision was made to fill the ''Hindenburg'' with flammable [[hydrogen]]. Apart from propaganda flights, ''LZ&nbsp;129'' was used on the transatlantic service alongside ''Graf Zeppelin''.
[[File:Hindenburg burning.jpg|thumb|The ''Hindenburg'' on fire in 1937]]
On 6&nbsp;May 1937, while landing in [[Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst|Lakehurst]] after a transatlantic flight, the tail of the ship caught fire, and within seconds, the ''Hindenburg'' burst into flames, killing 35 of the 97&nbsp;people on board and one&nbsp;member of the ground crew. The cause of the fire was never definitively determined. The investigation into the accident concluded that [[static electricity]] had ignited hydrogen which had leaked from the gasbags, although there were allegations of [[sabotage]]. 13&nbsp;passengers and 22&nbsp;crew, including Ernst Lehmann, were killed.<ref>Robinson 1973, pp&nbsp;291-294.</ref>

Despite the obvious danger, there remained a list of 400&nbsp;people who still wanted to fly as Zeppelin passengers and had paid for the trip. Their money was refunded in 1940.

''Graf Zeppelin'' was retired one month after the ''Hindenburg'' wreck and turned into a museum.<ref>Robinson 1974, p.&nbsp;294</ref> A new intended flagship Zeppelin was completed in 1938 and, inflated with hydrogen, made some test flights (the first on 14&nbsp;September), but never carried passengers.<ref>Robinson 1974, p.&nbsp;295</ref> Another project, ''LZ&nbsp;131'', designed to be even larger than ''Hindenburg'' and ''[[Graf Zeppelin&nbsp;II]]'', never progressed beyond the production of a few ring frames.

''Graf Zeppelin&nbsp;II'' was assigned to the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' and made about 30 test flights prior to the beginning of World War II. Most of those flights were carried out near the [[Second Polish Republic|Polish]] border, first in the [[Sudeten mountains]] region of [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]], then in the Baltic Sea region. During one such flight ''LZ&nbsp;130'' crossed the Polish border near the [[Hel Peninsula]], where it was intercepted by a Polish [[Lublin R-XIII]] aircraft from [[Puck, Poland|Puck]] naval airbase and forced to leave Polish airspace.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} During this time, ''LZ&nbsp;130'' was used for electronic scouting missions, and was equipped with various measuring equipment. In August 1939, it made a flight near the coastline of Great Britain in an attempt to determine whether the 100&nbsp;metre towers erected from [[Portsmouth]] to [[Scapa Flow]] were used for aircraft radio location.<ref>Robinson 1973, p.&nbsp;295</ref> Photography, radio wave interception, magnetic and radio frequency analysis were unable to detect operational British [[Chain Home]] [[radar]] due to searching in the wrong frequency range. The frequencies searched were too high, an assumption based on the Germans' own radar systems. The mistaken conclusion was that the British towers were not connected with radar operations, but were for naval radio communications.

After the beginning of the Second World War on 1&nbsp;September, the ''Luftwaffe'' ordered LZ&nbsp;127 and ''LZ&nbsp;130'' moved to a large Zeppelin hangar in Frankfurt, where the skeleton of LZ&nbsp;131 was also located. In March 1940 Göring ordered the scrapping of the remaining airships, and on 6&nbsp;May the Frankfurt hangars were demolished.<ref>Robinson 1973, p.&nbsp;296.</ref>