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__NOTOC__ The two ''Hindenburg''-class airships were hydrogen passenger carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the 1930s and 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. During the 1930s, airships like the ''Hindenburg'' class were widely considered the future of air travel, and the lead ship of the class, LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'', established a regular transatlantic service. The destruction of this same ship in a spectacular and highly publicized accident was to prove the death knell for these expectations. The second ship, LZ 130 ''Graf Zeppelin'' was never operated on a regular passenger service, and was scrapped in 1940 at the order of Hermann Göring. == Design and development == The ''Hindenburg'' class were built to an all-duralumin design. The leader of the design team was Dr. Ludwig Dürr, who had overseen the design of all Zeppelins except LZ-1 (on which he was a crew member), under the overall direction of Hugo Eckener, the head of the company. They were long and in diameter, longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, longer than four Goodyear GZ-20 "blimps" end-to-end, and only shorter than the . The previous largest civilian airship was the British R101 at 777 ft (236.83 m) long and 40 m wide completed in 1929. The US Navy's ''Akron'' and ''Macon'' were 239 m (785 feet) long and 144 feet wide. The design originally called for cabins for 50 passengers and a crew complement of 40. Construction of the first ship, LZ 129, later named ''Hindenburg'', began in 1931, but was suddenly stopped when Luftschiffbau Zeppelin went bankrupt. This led Eckener to make a deal with the Nazi Party which came to power in 1933. He needed money to build the airship, but in return he was forced to display the swastikas on the tail fins. Construction then resumed in 1935. The keel of the second ship, LZ 130 ''Graf Zeppelin'' was laid on June 23, 1936, and the cells were inflated with hydrogen on August 15, 1938. As the second Zeppelin to carry the name ''Graf Zeppelin'' (after the LZ 127), she is often referred to as ''Graf Zeppelin II''. The duralumin frame was covered by cotton cloth varnished with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder. The aluminium was added to reflect both ultraviolet, which damaged the fabric, and infrared light, which caused heating of the gas. This was an innovation that was first used on the LZ 126 which was taken as war reparations by the US and served as the USS ''Los Angeles'' (ZR-3) from 1924 until decommissioned in 1933. Following the destruction of ''Hindenburg'', the doping compound for the outer fabric covering of ''Graf Zeppelin'' was changed: bronze and graphite were added to prevent flammability and improve the outer covering's electrical conductivity. The rigid structure was held together by many large rings up to the size of a Ferris wheel, 15 of which were gas cell boundaries which formed bulkheads. These bulkheads were braced by steel wires which connected up into the axial catwalk. The longitudinal duralumin girders connected all the rings together and formed "panels". The 16 gas cells were made of cotton and a gas-tight material. On ''Graf Zeppelin'', the cells were lightened and one was made of lightweight silk instead of cotton. Hydrogen was vented out through valves on the top of the ship. These valves could be controlled both manually and automatically. The axial catwalk was added across the center of the ship to provide access to the gas valves. A keel catwalk provided access to the crew quarters and the engines. Alongside the keel were water ballast and fuel tanks. The tail fins of the airship were over in length, and were held together with a cross-like structure. The lower tail fin also had an auxiliary control room in case the controls in the gondola malfunctioned. ''Hindenburg'' was powered by four reversible Daimler-Benz diesel engines which gave the airship a maximum speed of . The engine pods were completely redesigned for ''Graf Zeppelin'', using diesel engines powering tractor propellers. The engines had a water recovery system which captured the exhaust of the engines to minimize weight lost during flight. To reduce drag, the passenger rooms were contained entirely within the hull, rather than in the gondola as on the LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'', on two decks. The upper deck, "A", contained the passenger quarters, public areas, a dining room, a lounge, and a writing room. The lower deck, "B", contained washrooms, a mess hall for the crew, and a smoking lounge. Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks. The passenger decks were redesigned for ''Graf Zeppelin''; the restaurant was moved to the middle of the quarters and the promenade windows were half a panel lower. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hindenburg-class airship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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