Editing LZ 129 Hindenburg (section)

===Launching and trial flights===
[[File:Zeppelin Postkarte 1936 a.jpg|thumb|right|''Hindenburg'' on its first flight on March 4, 1936. The name of the airship was not yet painted on the hull.]]
Four years after construction began in 1932, ''Hindenburg'' made its [[Maiden flight|maiden test flight]] from the Zeppelin [[dockyard]]s at [[Friedrichshafen]] on March 4, 1936, with 87 passengers and crew aboard. These included the Zeppelin Company chairman, [[Hugo Eckener|Dr. Hugo Eckener]], as commander, former [[World War I]] Zeppelin commander Lt. Col. Joachim Breithaupt representing the German Air Ministry, the Zeppelin Company's eight airship captains, 47 other crew members, and 30 dockyard employees who flew as passengers.<ref>Lehmann 1937, p. 323.</ref> [[Harold G. Dick]] was the only non-Luftschiffbau representative aboard. Although the name ''Hindenburg'' had been quietly selected by Eckener over a year earlier,<ref>"The Airship." ''British Quarterly Journal'', Spring 1935.</ref> only the airship's formal registration number (D-LZ129) and the five [[Olympic rings#Olympic rings|Olympic rings]] (promoting the [[1936 Summer Olympics]] to be held in Berlin that August) were displayed on the hull during its trial flights. As the airship passed over [[Munich]] on its second trial flight the next afternoon, the city's Lord Mayor, [[Karl Fiehler]], asked Eckener by radio the LZ129's name, to which he replied "''Hindenburg''". On March 23, ''Hindenburg'' made its first passenger and mail flight, carrying 80 reporters from Friedrichshafen to [[Löwenthal]]. The ship flew over [[Lake Constance]] with ''Graf Zeppelin''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Zeppelin airship LZ 129 Hindenburg|last=Waibel|first=Barbara|publisher=Sutton Verlag GmbH|year=2013|isbn=9783954003013}}</ref>

[[File:Hindenburg_D-LZ129-logotype.svg|thumb|left|''Hindenburg''{{'}}s [[logotype]] (modern recreation)]]

The name ''Hindenburg'' lettered in {{convert|1.8|m|adj=mid}} high red [[Fraktur (script)|Fraktur script]] (designed by Berlin advertiser Georg Wagner) was added to its hull three weeks later before the ''Deutschlandfahrt'' on March 26. No formal naming ceremony for the airship was ever held.<ref>[http://www.airships.net/blog/hindenburg-flight-march-4-1936 "Today in History: Hindenburg’s First Flight, March 4, 1936."] Airships.net. Retrieved October 27, 2010.</ref> 

[[File:Zeppelin Reederei.svg|thumb|Flag of the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei GmbH]]

The airship was operated commercially by the [[Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei]] (DZR) [[Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung|GmbH]], which had been established by [[Hermann Göring]] in March 1935 to increase Nazi influence over airship operations.<ref>[http://www.airships.net/deutsche-zeppelin-reederei "Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR)".] Airships.net. Retrieved October 27, 2010.</ref> The DZR was jointly owned by the [[Luftschiffbau Zeppelin]] (the airship's builder), the [[Air Ministry (Germany)|Reichsluftfahrtministerium]] (German Air Ministry), and [[Deutsche Luft Hansa|Deutsche Lufthansa A.G.]] (Germany's national airline at that time), and also operated the [[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'']] during its last two years of commercial service to South America from 1935 to 1937.  ''Hindenburg'' and its sister ship, the [[LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II|LZ 130 ''Graf Zeppelin II'']] (launched in September 1938), were the only two airships ever purpose-built for regular commercial transatlantic passenger operations, although the latter never entered passenger service before being scrapped in 1940.

After a total of six flights made over a three-week period from the Zeppelin dockyards where the airship had been built, ''Hindenburg'' was {{nowrap|drafted{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}}}over Hugo Eckener's {{nowrap|objections{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}}}for a formal public debut in a {{cvt|6600|km|-1}} Nazi Party propaganda flight around Germany (''Die Deutschlandfahrt'') made jointly with the ''Graf Zeppelin'' from March 26 to 29.<ref>Lehmann 1937, pp. 323–332.</ref> This was to be followed by its first commercial passenger flight, a four-day transatlantic voyage to [[Rio de Janeiro]] that departed from the [[Friedrichshafen Airport]] in nearby Löwenthal on March 31.<ref>Lehmann 1937, p. 341.</ref> After again departing from Löwenthal on 6 May on its first of ten round trips to North America made in 1936,<ref>"Hindenburg Begins First U.S. Flight." ''New York Times,'' May 7, 1936.</ref> all ''Hindenburg''{{'}}s subsequent transatlantic flights to both North and South America originated at the airport at [[Frankfurt am Main]].<ref>"Hindenburg is off on 2d U.S. Flight." ''New York Times'', May 17, 1936.</ref><ref>[http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/flight-schedule "Hindenburg Flight Schedules."] Airships.net. Retrieved October 27, 2010.</ref>