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Title: From North America in 2 Days! |
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Description: From North America in 2 days! Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederi. The "Hindenburg" with swasticas painted on its tailfins, floats above the Empire State Building in New York, an appropriate illustration for Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei (German Zeppelin Transport). This Company was created when the Third Reich took over Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, the firm which built and flew "Graf Zeppelin" from Germany to South America. In 1935 the "Hindenburg", already under construction, planned to fly the North American route to New York. When the Nazis took over, Air Minister Hermann Goering recognized the propaganda value of having an airship regularly display the swastica in the New York sky and thus continued with the project. The "Hindenburg" went into service in 1936 and made 10 round trip flights to New York that year. In May 1937, on its first flight of the season, the airship exploded above the Lakehurst airfield, New Jersey, killing 36 people. This tragedy ended the use of the dirigible for commercial purposes, although many believed that it was more suitable for passenger service than the airplane. |
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