The Hindenburg disaster was the last of a number of major airship disasters that, combined with improvements in aeroplane technology, spelled the end for zeppelins. The British abandoned rigid airships after the crash of R101 in 1930; the US Navy's massive Akron and Macon were each in service for less than two years, lost in 1933 and 1935; and of course there was the very public demise of Hindenburg in 1937. Rigid airships were enormous, and enormously costly, not just in their own construction but the associated infrastructure (e.g. sheds to accommodate them), and they were slow (<100mph). In their favour was their colossal range and endurance, but over the 1930s aeroplanes improved to the point that by 1939 Pan American could offer a transatlantic passenger service using Boeing 314 flying boats.

The dramatic impact of the Hindenburg fire, captured in photographs, film footage and radio commentary, undoubtedly hastened the end of the zeppelin era, underscoring the dangers of hydrogen as a lift gas, but R101, Akron and Macon crashed rather than burned (the latter two used helium as a lift gas), the speed and efficiency of airliner rivals eclipsed rigid airships for passenger travel, and vulnerability precluded their military use in the vicinity of hostile aircraft, though US Navy blimps performed sterling anti-submarine patrol work in World War II.