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The LZ 129 Hindenburg and her sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II were the two largest aircraft ever built. The Hindenburg was named after the President of Germany (1924-1934), Paul von Hindenburg. It was a brand-new, all-duralumin design: 245 meters long (804 ft), 41 meters in diameter (135 ft), containing 200,000 cubic meters (7,000,000 ft³) of gas in 16 bags or cells, with a useful lift of 112.1 metric tons force (1.099 MN), powered by four reversible 1,200 horsepower (890 kW) Daimler-Benz diesel engines, giving it a maximum speed of 135 kilometers per hour (84 mph). The Hindenburg was longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end. It had cabins for 50 passengers (upgraded to 72 in 1937) and a crew of 61. For aerodynamic reasons, the passenger quarters were contained within the body rather than in gondolas. It was skinned in cotton, doped with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminum powder. Constructed by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1935 at a cost of £500,000, it made its first flight on March 4th, 1936. The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, but a United States military embargo on helium led the Germans to modify the design of the ship to use highly flammable hydrogen as the lift gas. Though hydrogen is half as dense as helium, lift capability in air was only increased about 10%. After the first season in winter 1936/37 several changes were made. Because of the greater lift capacity ten passenger cabins were added. Nine of them had two beds, one four beds. During the first year of service LZ 129 had a special aluminium Blüthner piano on board. It was removed to save weight and was not on board in 1937 (and on the last flight into the accident). The Germans had experience with hydrogen and no hydrogen related fire accidents had occurred on civil Zeppelins, so this switch from helium did not cause alarm. Knowing the risks of hydrogen gas, the engineers used various safety measures, including treating the airship's coating to prevent electric sparks. Such was their confidence in their ability to handle hydrogen that a smoking room was present on the Hindenburg; it was pressurized to keep hydrogen out.