The giant airship Hindenburg crashing to the ground in flames remains one of the most instantly recognizable photographs this century. Truly a flying luxury liner, the Hindenburg was the largest object ever launched in the air and her spectacular destruction on May 6th, 1937, marked the end of airship travel. This book looks at Germany's titanic airship and the other silver giants that once silently crossed the skies. It chronicles the great dirigibles, from the pioneering efforts of Count Zeppelin to the years between the wars when the United States and Great Britain competed with Germany for the prestige of building the world's most advanced airships. British hopes of airship flights spanning the empire had ended before the Hindenburg disaster with the crash of the R101 in a French field.