The duralumin frame was covered by cotton cloth varnished with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder.

[citation needed] 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 provided as war reparations to the United States and served as the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) from 1924 until decommissioned in 1933.

Hindenburg was powered by four reversible 890 kW (1,190 hp) Daimler-Benz diesel engines which gave the airship a maximum speed of 135 km/h (84 mph).

Although the Graf Zeppelin had the same engine car design in its early stages of construction, the pods were later completely redesigned to power tractor propellers.

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.

After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes refused to supply the gas, and the Graf Zeppelin II was also filled with hydrogen.

[citation needed] Hindenburg made her first flight on 4 March 1936, but before commencing its intended role as a passenger liner, was put to use for propaganda purposes by the Nazi government.

Together with LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, it spent four days dropping leaflets, playing music, and making radio broadcasts in the lead up to the March 29 plebiscite mandating Hitler's Chancellorship and remilitarization of the Rhineland.

Commercial services commenced on 31 March 1936 with the first of seven round trips to Rio de Janeiro that Hindenburg was to make during her first passenger season.

Together with ten round trips to New York City, Hindenburg covered 308,323 km (191,583 mi) that year with 2,798 passengers and 160 tons of freight and mail.

By the time the Graf Zeppelin II was completed, it was obvious that the ship would never serve its intended purpose as a passenger liner; the lack of a supply of inert helium was one cause.

In April 1940, Hermann Göring issued the order to scrap both Graf Zeppelins and the unfinished framework of LZ 131, since the metal was needed for the construction of airplanes.