Editing Transatlantic flight (section)

===Commercial airship flights===
[[File:Graf Zeppelin First North American Flight 1928.jpg|thumb|right|160px|Flown picture postcard from the "First North American Flight" of the D-LZ127 (1928)]]

On 11 October 1928, [[Hugo Eckener]], commanding the [[airship]] ''[[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|Graf Zeppelin]]'' as part of [[DELAG]]'s operations, began the first non-stop transatlantic passenger flights, leaving [[Friedrichshafen]], Germany, at 07:54 on 11 October 1928, and arriving at [[NAS Lakehurst]], [[New Jersey]], on 15 October.

Thereafter, DELAG used the ''Graf Zeppelin'' on regularly scheduled passenger flights across the North Atlantic, from [[Frankfurt|Frankfurt-am-Main]] to Lakehurst. In the summer of 1931, a South Atlantic route was introduced, from Frankfurt and Friedrichshafen to [[Recife]] and [[Rio de Janeiro]]. Between 1931 and 1937 the ''Graf Zeppelin'' crossed the South Atlantic 136 times.<ref>[http://www.airships.net/lz127-graf-zeppelin/history "Graf Zeppelin history".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171026155041/http://www.airships.net/lz127-graf-zeppelin/history/ |date=26 October 2017 }} ''Airships.net.'' Retrieved: 5 July 2013.</ref>

The British rigid airship [[R100]] made a successful return trip from [[Cardington, Bedfordshire|Cardington]] to [[Montreal]] in July–August 1930, in what was intended to be a proving flight for regularly scheduled passenger services. Following the [[R101#Final flight|R101 disaster]] in October 1930, the British rigid airship program was abandoned and the R100 scrapped, leaving DELAG as the sole remaining operator of transatlantic passenger airship flights.

In 1936 DELAG began passenger flights with ''[[LZ 129 Hindenburg]]'', and made 36 Atlantic crossings (North and South). The first passenger trip across the North Atlantic left Friedrichshafen on 6 May with 56 crew and 50 passengers, arriving at Lakehurst on 9 May. The fare was $400 one way; the ten westward trips that season took 53 to 78 hours and eastward took 43 to 61 hours. The last eastward trip of the year left Lakehurst on 10 October; the first North Atlantic trip of 1937 ended in the [[Hindenburg disaster]].