Probably the most famous Zeppelin is The Hindenburg; it was the largest airship ever built. However, Eckener had not obtained the helium to inflate it due to a military embargo; only the United States possessed the rare gas in usable quantities. So, the Hindenburg was filled with flammable hydrogen. On 6 May 1937, while landing in Lakehurst after a transatlantic flight, in front of thousands of spectators, the tail of the ship caught fire, and within seconds, the Hindenburg burst into flames, killing 35 of the 97 people on board and one member of the ground crew. The actual cause of the fire was never definitively determined; the entire airship became engulfed in flames within 34 seconds. Blimp inside Hangar One. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center