Why did the zeppelin disappear?

   Two factors contributed to the decline of the zeppelins. First, those filled with hydro­gen were very dangerous, since hydrogen explodes and burns. The last hydrogen-filled zeppelin seen outside of Germany was the Hindenburg, which exploded and burned in May, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Although the United States used helium, a natural gas which does not burn, its airships, the Akron and Macon, were both lost. They were destroyed by bad weather, the second factor which caused the decline of zep­pelin-type airships.
   Small, nonrigid airships, or blimps, are still used for offshore anti-submarine patrol duty and to explore the edges of space, but large, rigid airships are part of history.

Zeppelins