A few weeks ago I had to make an offer for a huge (1/5 scale), flying “Hindenburg” model for a movie project and I finally got asked if it would be possible to recreate the “Hindenburg” in 1/1 scale…!!!
My rather superficial research resulted in a devastating answer. First, as there is almost no know-how on how to build large rigid airships anymore, the total cost for engineering, construction and flight tests would add up to more than 1 billion dollars.
Second, for an exact replica of the “Hindenburg” it would be almost impossible to get a certificate of airworthiness according to modern standards, even if the airship will be equipped with modern avionics and a fly-by-wire system.

When the the 9 million-dollar partial replica in the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen was designed, the engineers encountered all the problems associated with recreating an advanced old Zeppelin airship.
Though a complete set of drawings was available (but few assembly drawings), it took them months to find out how the pieces must be put together. By employing cardboard models they found the one and only way in which the different pieces can be riveted together. This only gives a slight impression on how it would be to rebuild the complete “Hindenburg”.

Andreas

Thanks for the photo from the Daimler-Benz
diesel engine, 890 kW (1,200 hp) of the Hindenburg.
Rubens Borges.

Thanks for the compliment!

As to the cost of building the Hindenburg in today’s currency… that would be quite a task even for a highly qualified cost accountant.

Even determining how much it cost to build Hindenburg in the 1930’s is a challenge; which expenses do you include? And do you take the expenses in 1930’s Reichsmarks and just try to convert those figures into a modern currency?

Or are you asking how much it would cost to build the Hindenburg today? And if so, do you mean an exact reproduction — using obsolete technology despite the passage of time? Or do you mean a modern-day functional equivalent, where the Echolot is replaced by a Radar Altimeter?

But to simplify — Charles Rosendahl wrote that the Hindenburg cost $2,600,000 to build. (See, Rosendahl, What About the Airship?, p 154.)

Of course, converting that figure to current dollars is itself tricky, since different economists use different approaches to inflating prices; you can visit http://eh.net/hmit or http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ to learn more about the various approaches. But using Rosendah’s figure of $2.6 million, and the various calculators at measuringworth.com, that yields a range from $43 million to $657 million in 2009 dollars.