‘The two Hindenburg-class airships were passenger carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the 1930s named in honor of Paul von Hindenburg. They were the last such aircraft ever built, and in terms of their length and volume, the largest aircraft ever to fly.’
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Thank you to Dan Grossman and Amanda Uren.
No tenía sus billetes… -” Indiana Jones ” -
NO TICKET!
No ashtrays…
Great pictures…it would be nice to take a ride with it
Half of those interiors were rebuilt at the Zeppelin museum at Friedrichshafen. Too bad neither pictures nor replica have the piano.
We should really be able to fly in class they way they used to. Surely we have the know how to bring back this classy way to travel without the threat of the whole thing going down in flames. I wouldn’t mind a much lengthier flight or a pricier ticket if it meant accomodations such as this. It’s a shame they way we are charged a fortune to be crammed into jumbo jets like cattle, treated even worse, and never reach our destinations on time. The tragedies of the Hindenburg and the Titanic shouldn’t stop us from perfecting international travel. But no one has any money anymore… *ahem* NASA.
@Red Bunny, if you’re willing to shell out the equivalent of $6300 for one ticket from Germany to New Jersey, and have 71 or so other people willing to pay the same, I guess you could argue that would be a viable enterprise. However, you’re forgetting the weight and fuel issues. The Hindenburg was filled with a highly inflammable gas specifically because it could support the weight of all those furnishings and people (and, naturally, because it was cheaper). Perhaps we can make safer dirigibles, but companies today are more concerned with speed and effciency than accomadating their passengers comfortably. The transatlantic flights of the Hindenburg took nearly 6 days!
So instead of complaining about your somewhat cramped conditions, be thankful they take less than half a day in-flight, and are not in an aircraft that is a disaster waiting to happen.
The main reason the Germans used hydrogen was that only the USA were able to produce high amounts of helium at that time.
Another problem of the zeppelins was that they needed complex infrastructure (pole, big ground crew etc.) and were very sensitive to weather conditions, so landing often had to be delayed.
A possibility to solve that problem would be a zeppelin/airplane hybrid. There are concepts for such helium filled lifting-bodies…
Well…six days ROUND TRIP. They advertised 2-1/2 days from Europe to New York (which really meant New Jersey).
And it’s true: DELAG was never really a financially viable enterprise. They had too many uncertainties (delaying flight times often due to weather), and having very high labor costs due to the many crew and groundsmen needed.
Zeppelins were symbols of German pride, and when they stopped being that, they were finished. They were not money-makers.
I think bringing back luxury blimps (helium instead of hydrogen of course), would be a huge money spinner. Like a cruise ship in the sky.
old age home cafeteria of the sky!
It wasn’t the hydrogen, it was the skin of the blimp that caused the rapid burning. That’s been proven time and time again. But that’s beside the point. As mentioned earlier, it’s just too darn expensive to be viable.
I’d gladly pay 6000$ to go to the US in an Airship like the Hindenburg.
Travel 2-3 days in luxery and class, have all the space you want, be able to smoke, enjoy fine dining, live music, amazing views, a lot less noise and NO JETLAG.
Besides with modern technologies they could probably get the prize down a bit.
What do people pay these days to go to the US on a luxery cruise ship?
Surely you should compare the Hindenburg with a cruise ship not a Bo(r)ing plane.
Large show…it would be pleasant to obtain a travel through it.
Would liked to have seen pics of the ‘smoking room’. Yes, the Hindenburg did have a room for smoking. Entry involved passing through doors which sealed to prevent stray sparks. The Hindenburg also had a very nice wine list.
The Americans refused to sell the helium to the Germans.
Is that a flat-screen TV on the wall in the very last photo????? (Obviously it’s not, but what the heck is it?)
Oh. Duh. Upon putting my glasses on, I see it’s a bookshelf.
Sorry!
Another factor limiting a revival of the big airship is the loss of German expertise in piloting. No one could handle these ships like Hugo Eckener and his proteges. When the American navy had its big airships, all but one succumbed to weather-related accidents. Someone would have to recreate the experience of the men who piloted the Graf and the Hindenburg. Recall that the Graf operated safely for its whole life.
Who said there were no ash trays? wrong,there was a smoking room where the air was pumped in from below the ship maintaining a slightly higher pressure than the surrounding rooms therefore no gas could enter. For good measure all lighters in the room were chained to the tables. As to the piano, obviously didn’t survive the crash, but there were two others, the one on the old Graf and the one made for Graf 11 that Goering grounded to build fighters. If they survive they’re probably in the possession of some geriatric old nazi who in the privacy of his own bunker still has his slaves play a little Wagner to remind him of the old days !
I read somewhere that there was a piano in the lounge with all the structural metal parts made of aluminium and covered with pigskin to prevent sparking.
I also read that there was only one lighter on board and it was chained to the waist of an attendant in the Smoking Lounge.
I only wish I’d been around to fly this magnificent aircraft.
Actually, the only piano that was made was the one for the Hindenburg. The original Graf Zeppelin was too small to add that much weight, and the Graf II had to be lightened in anticipation of helium inflation following the Hindenburg disaster. I’ve actually never even heard of Blüthner having designed a piano for the Graf II, so perhaps it was never even intended to have one aboard.
The Hindenburg’s piano, by the way, was not aboard for the last flight. It seems to have been removed at some point during the 1936-37 winter layover and was never put back aboard. It may have been a weight-saving measure since they added a new row of passenger cabins during that winter layover. The piano was returned to the Blüthner factory and placed on display. It was, sadly, destroyed during the war when the factory was bombed.
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5th grade