The two Hindenburg-class airships were hydrogen-filled, passenger-carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the 1930s and named in honor of Paul von Hindenburg. They were the last such aircraft to be constructed, and in terms of their length, height, and volume, the largest aircraft ever built. During the 1930s, airships like the Hindenburg class were widely considered the future of air travel, and the lead ship of the class, LZ 129 Hindenburg, established a regular transatlantic service. The airship's destruction in a highly publicized accident was the end of these expectations. The second ship, LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin, was never operated on a regular passenger service, and was scrapped in 1940 along with its namesake predecessor, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, by order of Hermann Göring.

The Daimler-Benz DB 602, originally known as Daimler-Benz LOF.6, was a German diesel cycle aero engine designed and built in the early 1930s. It was a liquid-cooled upright V16, and powered the two Hindenburg-class airships. It has roughly the same displacement and weight of the Beardmore Tornado, which was used in the ill-fated R101, but has almost twice the power of the Tornado, showing Daimler-Benz's superior knowledge regarding diesel engine construction.