LZ 129 Hindenburg (;
Registration:
D-LZ 129) was a large German commercial passenger-carrying
rigid airship, the
lead ship of the
Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) on the shores of
Lake Constance in
Friedrichshafen and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company (
Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei). The airship flew from March 1936 until it was
destroyed by fire 14 months later on May 6, 1937, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. Thirty-six people died in the accident, which occurred while landing at
Lakehurst Naval Air Station in
Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. This was the last of the great airship disasters; it was preceded by the crashes of the British
R38 in 1921 (44 dead), the US airship
Roma in 1922 (34 dead), the French
Dixmude in 1923 (52 dead), the British
R101 in 1930 (48 dead), and the
USS Akron in 1933 (73 dead).