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Dead zeppelins: Brazilian gravesite is airships' stairway to heavenThe huge gas-filled aircraft were once a symbol of modernity used to burnish the image of the Nazis. Now a vast hangar near Rio de Janeiro is all that’s leftTe last time a giant swastika flew above the Americas, it was on the zeppelins that pioneered commercial air travel across the Atlantic.The Nazi symbol was emblazoned two storeys tall on the tail of the mammoth dirigibles – which are still the biggest flying machines ever created – in an effort to impress upon the world the scale of fascist ambitions.Almost as big as the Titanic, the airships flew from Frankfurt to New Jersey – and also to Recife and Rio de Janeiro – in a service that started in the spirit of adventure and business, but ended in disaster and war.Little of the huge infrastructure that supported that network survives, but in a quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, a gargantuan reminder of the ill-fated project will mark its 80th anniversary on Monday.Standing 58 metres tall, spanning the length of three football pitches and looking like something out of the classic 1920s film Metropolis, the world’s only remaining original zeppelin hangar dominates the landscape of Santa Cruz, which is about an hour’s drive from the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.Read More At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/27/brazil-zeppelin-hangar-nazis
