The Hindenburg disaster in Lakehurst, New Jersey, marked the end of the era of manned airships. Sam Sher/Getty Images)
On May 6, 1937, the German Zeppelin airship Hindenburg exploded, sending thick smoke and fire into the sky over Lakehurst, New Jersey. The giant airship's tail fell to the ground while its hundreds-foot-long nose rose into the air like a broken whale. It was reduced to ashes in less than a minute. Some passengers and crew members jumped dozens of feet to safety, while others were burned. Of the 97 people on board, 62 survived.
At the time, the Hindenburg was supposed to usher in a new era of airship travel. But this air crash brought this era to an abrupt end, making way for the passenger aircraft era. The crash was the first large-scale technological disaster to be captured on film, and the scene was seared into the public consciousness. One horrified broadcast reporter exclaimed: "Oh, humans!" - which has become a catchphrase ever since. Speculation about the cause of the crash has been the subject of numerous books and movies. "In that sense, it's like the Titanic," said Dan Grossman, aviation historian at Airship.com and author of Zeppelin-Hindenburg: An Illustrated History of the LZ-129, a The luxurious airship "KDSP" was developed by German officer Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the late 19th century. He observed a hot air balloon during the American Civil War in 1899, according to Airships. He built his first airship, the LZ-1. Over time, his name became synonymous with all rigid airships.
Hindenburg - officially named LZ-129 Hindenburg. - was the largest commercial airship ever built and the most technologically advanced at the time. It was 245 meters (803.8 feet) long and 41.2 meters (135.1 feet) in diameter. It was three times the size of a Boeing 747. It can reach a cruising speed of 122 km/h (76 mph) and a top speed of 135 km/h (84 mph). Features are 72 passenger compartments in heated cabins, a silk dining room, a lounge, a writing room, a bar, a smoking room, and a window that allows you to fly in the air. The furniture is designed in lightweight aluminum. The American Enterprise Institute said special precautions were taken to secure the smoking room, including a double-door airlock to prevent hydrogen from entering. Named after Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), former president of Weimar Germany, it made its first flight in March 1936 and flew 63 times. , primarily from Germany to North and South America,
Development and Technology
Airships, zeppelins, and hot air balloons are all lighter-than-air airships that fly by lifting gases such as Helium, hydrogen or hot air) to stay aloft Zeppelins, including the Hindenburg, had a rigid frame made of rings and stringers that allowed them to maintain their shape without deflating. Balloons and airships, according to Space.
The frame is made of aluminum alloy duralumin. The Hindenburg is wider than other airships, which makes it more stable. Four engines power the Hindenburg. .
Sixteen gas cells made of gelatinized cotton kept the Hindenburg aloft. These cells were designed to be filled with helium, which is safer than hydrogen, however, because helium is non-flammable. The Germans didn't have access to helium. It was very expensive, required more operators, and reduced payload. On top of that, only the United States and the Soviet Union had helium at the time, Grossman said.
"No. People were doing business with the Soviet Union, and because helium was so difficult to extract, the United States had a law prohibiting the export of helium. "One myth is that the Hindenburg didn't have helium because the United States wouldn't sell it to the Nazis. That's not true; the prohibi was passed six years before the Nazis came to power."
By 1936, the United States was making more helium, and it was possible that they could sell it to the Germans, but they never asked for it.
Nazi pride, Germany's ongoing economic depression, and the difficulty of making a profit from helium airships all deterred the Germans from trying to build the Hindenburg from helium, Grossman said, which crashed
On her last fateful voyage, the Hindenburg took off from Frankfurt, Germany on May 3, 1937. The journey was uneventful, although headwinds slowed the crossing and delayed the estimated landing time by 12 hours. Bad weather awaits in New Jersey, where thunderstorms raged throughout the day. Captain Max Pruss and other senior officers asked to postpone the landing and maneuver the ship near the beach until weather conditions improved, Airships reported.
After 7 pm on May 6, the Hindenburg approached Lakehurst. Fearing that weather conditions would worsen and facing a change in wind direction, officials decided to make a sharp turn to land in a better direction amid the current gusty winds, Airships reported. After the turn, the landing line dropped. Operators on the ground use these ropes to help guide the landing. The Hindenburg was about 180 feet in the air, and a few minutes after it came down from the landing line, ground crews saw what they called a "wave-like sway" beneath the cover near the stern, possibly It was caused by hydrogen escaping from the cabin, and according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, flames appeared in the Hindenburg's tail at 7:25 p.m. Within seconds, the entire tail was covered in fire. The tail of the plane sank into the ground and the nose protruded skyward, according to Don Adams, coordinator and historian for the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society, which maintains the Hindenburg crash site. seconds before crashing and being engulfed in flames. The fabric covering was gone, and the duralumin skeleton stood for a moment before buckling and collapsing. "It only took 34 seconds to burst into flames," Adams said. People are always shocked by that. Adams continued that in just 34 seconds,
Due to the speed of the destruction, survival depended primarily on the position of the passengers and crew at the time of the fire. Most of the people around the ship were able to jump to safety. Most of the passengers in their cabin died. More crew members than passengers were killed, as they were scattered throughout the ship, while most passengers gathered at the windows to watch the landing.
The crash was filmed by four news video companies, although none were caught on camera in the first moments of the fire. "When it came down, they always had reporters and The camera crew, because there were celebrities flying up there. “That was the thing to do. Thousands of people would come to watch the landing.
The most notable media presence during the Hindenburg crash was Herbert Morrison's eyewitness broadcast, broadcast the next day by WLS Chicago. In the book, he described the scene in vivid detail and exclaimed his famous words: "Oh, humanity!" ""
"" "What caused the collapse?" according to Grossman. , there are several theories about the cause of the crash, ranging from crazy to respectable. When it comes to the basics of what happened, "there is no dispute among all respected scholars in this field," he said. It has been determined that there was a leak in the fuel cell, with hydrogen escaping and mixing with oxygen to form a highly flammable mixture. There is no evidence to support the theory that a bomb or arrow hit the Hindenburg during a sabotage operation. Or a chemical or material other than hydrogen caused the fire. Grossman, who once wrote an article about the Hindenburg myth, said: "The most famous theory of the explosion is that the cloth was extremely flammable." No. No evi. Lyman, the senior officer on the Hindenburg, and Captain Pruss were both influenced by the Nazi Party. Grossman said Pruss was a party member, although Lehmann was not, but he "had a history of bowing to Nazi pressure." He damaged the Hindenburg on a propaganda flight because he did what Nazi officers told him to do. thing, he knew it wasn't a good idea.
After that, three of the four untested engines failed on the first flight back from Rio.
During the final flight, Hindenburg's officers came under pressure from the Nazi Party to adhere to a strict schedule. Adams explained that while the Hindenburg's flight from Frankfurt to Lakehurst was only half full, the return flight was fully booked with celebrities, dignitaries and other notables. They needed to go to Europe to attend the coronation of King George VI of England. "They're already late, so they want to try to make up that time, turn around and get out of here quickly," he said. He (Lyman) sticks to his schedule almost like a fanatic.
This fanaticism comes from a place of fear. Grossmann explained that the Germans would have felt badly if they had not arrived at the coronation in time, and that the Nazi Party was very sensitive to public opinion. Hindenburg's officers knew the weather was wrong, but asked themselves: "Who are we more afraid of, the weather or the Gestapo?" "The weather may or may not kill you, but you can't say that about the Gestapo.
Lehmann and Prussia were criticized, even after their deaths, for giving in to Nazi pressure and trying to survive in harsh conditions Landing the Hindenburg. Grossman believed you should wait until the electricity in the air dissipated before landing. The aftermath of the Hindenburg crash ended the airship era. Adams said: "No one wants to fly again." The hydrogen spacecraft flew together and they were scared. "Not only that, but as Hitler gained more power, people really didn't want to fly in a Nazi airship.
Both American and German companies planned to build more airships and saw the Hindenburg as their A test case for investment, Grossman said. After the crash, those plans were canceled, but technological advances also led to a decline in the airship's popularity. The Hindenburg would be one in 1928. "An amazing technological achievement, but by 1936 it was obsolete because fixed-wing aircraft were heavier than air planes," Grossman said. By the time it was launched, there were already aircraft that could fly faster, carry more and fly cheaper. , with fewer crew members and better in every way.
"Even if the Hindenburg hadn't burned, it would have been knocked out by planes."
Additional resources Royal Society of Chemistry: What fired the Hindenburg? AEI: Markets, Risks, and Fashion: The Hindenburg's Smoking Room Airship.: Graf Zeppelin, Hindenburg, U.S. Navy Airships, and Other Airships