The largest airship ever made was the LZ 124 Hindenburg, a German passenger airship built in 1936 for transatlantic flights. The Hindenburg went down in flames during one of the most spectacular and well-publicized transit accidents of modern times, just 14 months after it was built, in May 1937. The crash of the Hindenburg marked the end of the so-called "Age of Airships."

During its operating lifetime, the Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic 35 times, including seven round trips to Rio de Janeiro and ten round trips to New York. The last trip, from Germany to New York, ended in disaster as the world's largest airship was trying to dock in New Jersey. Though the Hindenburg was the largest airship of its time, it could soon be challenged by a new generation of cargo airships.

The largest airship ever made in both length and volume, the Hindenburg had a length of 245 m (804 ft), a width of 41 m (135 ft), and a volume of 200,000 cubic meters, or 7 million cubic feet. It was composed of 17 gas cells compartmentalized by cotton coated with an impermeable material that served as a seal. The Hindenberg was filled with flammable hydrogen, which probably contributed to the fire that destroyed it. In total, the world's largest airship had a lift of 1.1 meganewtons, or 247,100 pounds, which was its approximate weight. The craft could carry 90 passengers and crew and had a maximum speed of 135 km/h (80 mph), which allowed it to cross the Atlantic in three days, a record at the time.

Before the Hindenburg, airships had been built for slightly over two centuries, since in 1784 the French Montgolfier brothers built a hot-air balloon and became the first confirmed airship passengers. It wasn't until 1853 that the first full-sized (44 m in length) airship was built, which eventually (in 1900) led to the start of the "Golden Age of Airships," inaugurated by the construction of the Zeppelin, which was the first of the zeppelins, the most successful class of airships in history. Because heavier-than-air flight was not invented until 1903, and its usage for significant amounts of passengers remained impractical until the development of commercial jet engines in the early 1950s, airships were the world's leader in transporting passengers through the air, until their popularity waned after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.