On May 6th 1937, while attempting to land at a landing site in Lakehurst, New Jersey after a two day trans-atlantic flight from Frankfurt, Germany, the airship LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames. In 32 seconds, the 804 foot long Hindenburg was consumed in flames that killed 36 out of the 97 people onboard and left the airship with its metal frame. It was the largest airship ever built.
Prior to the trans-atlantic flight, the Hindenburg was used for Nazi propaganda missions. In 1936, the Hindenburg went on a 4,100 mile tour to rally support for a referendum ratifying the reoccupation of the Rhineland. On this 4 day trip, the Hindenburg blasted patriotic songs and pro-Hitler announcements, along with dropping parachutes with propaganda leaflets and swastika flags.Clearly the hydrogen blimp had functioned in previous flights, so how did the explosion occur when landing? The most common theory is that the Hindenburg got charged with static electricity that was generated from a recent storm, and when a broken wire allowed for the leak of hydrogen gas, the airship burst into flames. However, having said that, there are certainly many more conspiracy theories regarding the destruction of the Hindenburg that range from a lightning strike to sabotage.
Previous airships had used helium as their lifting gas, but the Hindenburg used hydrogen. The use of hydrogen in the Hindenburg came down to two main considerations: legal barriers and economic barriers. The US Helium Act of 1925 banned the export of helium, which meant that the Germans couldn’t even get their hands on it in the first place. Although designer Hugo Eckener convinced U.S. officials to grant him the authorization to use helium to float the Hindenburg, it was too expensive, as the cost of helium was 6 to 10 times more than that of hydrogen (due to the monopoly the US had over helium reserves). Even if Eckener had the budget to buy all of that helium, Germany did not have the capability to store it. As a result, Eckener decided to stick to filling the Hindenburg with hydrogen.
However, like some of the designers, the public was skeptical of the use of hydrogen in an airship. To combat their fears, the designers included a smoking lounge. Although the lounge was extremely closely monitored, as a loose spark or flame could have easily set off any leaking hydrogen, the idea of the airship being safe enough to have a smoking lounge eased the minds of the public.
As a result of the Hindenburg disaster and the explosion of many other hydrogen-lifted airships, the use of hydrogen as a lifting gas for passenger airships was abandoned by the late 1930s. We can’t tell how much longer the airship era might have lasted if the Hindenburg didn’t explode into a ball of flames, but what we can tell is that the designers of airships probably shouldn’t have put the H in the Hindenburg.
Sources:
- https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a20746/the-burning-question-about-the-hindenburg/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
- https://www.airships.net/hindenburg-smoking-room/
- https://zephyrsolutions.com/how-helium-could-have-changed-history-the-hindenburg/
I learned a lot from this blog post; I didn't know that the Hindenburg Blimp was used for Nazi propaganda missions. I found it odd that the designers included a smoking lounge in the hydrogen blimp, especially when they knew a single spark could destroy the entire airship, to ease the minds of the public. Perhaps a passenger was so convinced that smoking was safe on the airship that they had brought a lit cigarette outside of the closely-monitored lounge and caused the blimp to explode. An interesting fact I found was that the designers of the Hindenburg wanted to name it after Hitler as a tribute to him. It was rejected, however, and later Hitler was relieved that a crashed airship was not named after him.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.history.com/news/the-hindenburg-disaster-9-surprising-facts
This blog post was very informative. I wanted to do some more investigation on other hypotheses for why the Hindenburg ignited. In addition to the static electricity theory, another intriguing theory is that someone may have sabotaged the Hindenburg. At the time, some believed that a man named Joseph Spah, who was a German acrobat on the Hindenburg, may have sabotaged it. Proponents of this theory say that he was making anti-Nazi comments and made frequent unaccompanied visits to near the stern of the ship in order to feed his dog. Other proponents of the sabotage theory state that a crew member must have been a crew member.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster#Cause_of_ignition
I thought your blog was informative and interesting to read. After doing some of my own research, it turns out many parts of the Hindenburg were flammable such as the the “incendiary paint”, a mix of iron oxide and aluminum-impregnated cellulose. The paint is still very reactive even after drying. The paint made the canvas gas impervious but highly flammable. Later a former rocket scientist at NASA theorized that the Germans painted the Hindenburg in propellant, rocket fuel basically. When the Hindenburg lands, it deploys ropes to touch the ground to dissipate the static build up. In this case, it ignited the ship and caused the fire to start and explode the airship.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/80th-anniversary-hindenburg-disaster-mysteries-remain-180963107/