Hindenburg disaster

On May 6, 1937, at 1825 local time, the German zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was utterly destroyed in less than one minute while approaching a mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew-members were killed. One member of the ground crew also died, bringing the death toll to 36.

The Hindenburg

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, Paul von Hindenburg. It was a brand-new, all-aluminium design: 245 m long (804 ft), 41 m in diameter (135 ft), containing 200,000 m³ (7,060,000 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 km/h (84 mph).

Related Topics:
Aircraft - President of Germany - Paul von Hindenburg - Aluminium - 245 m - Metric ton - MN - Horsepower - Diesel

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To most of the modern world, which only knows about airships from seeing blimps, it is worth pointing out that the average blimp is roughly 1/10 the length of the Hindenburg. That giant airship was longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end.

Related Topics:
Blimp - Boeing 747

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It could carry 72 passengers (50 transatlantic) and had 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 aluminium powder. Constructed by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1935 at a cost of £500,000, it made its first flight in March 1936.

Related Topics:
Transatlantic - 1935 - 1936

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The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, but a United States military embargo on helium forced the Germans to modify the design of the ship to use highly flammable hydrogen as the lift gas. Because hydrogen is half as dense as helium, giving about 10% greater lift capability in air, additional passenger compartments were also added during construction. The Germans had prior experience with hydrogen in airships, so this switch from helium did not cause great alarm. Knowing the risks of hydrogen gas, the engineers used various safety measures to keep the hydrogen from causing any fire when it leaked, and they also treated the airship's coating to prevent electric sparks that could cause fires. Such was their confidence in their ability to handle hydrogen, a smoking room was even present on the Hindenburg, although it was pressurized to see that no stray hydrogen would find its way in.

Related Topics:
Helium - United States - Germans - Hydrogen

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