the hindenburg, today in history

[abuseddog]

didnt want to get into an airplane for a long time because of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWKyYRJEcRo

[Truth Detector]

How many fatalities in that crash?

[KevMcNJ]

I could Google it and sound like I know what Im talking about, but I do not know the exact number of fatals.

All I can say is not as many as you would expect from footage like that.

Several Navy crewmen on the ground were killed along with those on the ship and there were some horrific burn injuries.

There are pics of at least one of the burn victims and its gruesome

[NoviVespa]

I started another thread on the same thing. So, here is my site that has the story.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...-in-new-jersey

==

[Tifositoo]

There's a lot of old and outdated info in the History Channel article linked above. The Hindenburg was basically doped with the main ingredients used to make gunpowder and rocket fuel...not as big a blunder as one might think, because those materials were state-of-the-art in the 1930s for fabric covered aircraft.

The Hindenburg landed at Lakehurst after a series of thunderstorms.

When the mooring lines were dropped, they drug the ground, which was still wet. This caused a static electric charge that traveled up the lines and onto the airship itself. The fabric covering of the airship was made up of large cloth panels that were wired to the airframe. Some were wet, and others were dry. The static charge began to cover the cloth panels, which wasn't too much of a problem as long as they were still wet. When the charge encountered a dry panel, it arced from one wire fastener to another over the dry rocket fuel and gunpowder doped cloth, which started to burn. Once this happened, there was no stopping the blaze.

The hydrogen fuel didn't leak; in fact, it was the last component of the blaze. Analysis of colorized film shows that the hydrogen fire produced flames of a different hue than the earlier fabric fire...this was impossible to determine from the black and white newsreel footage.

One Navy crewman was killed. I don't remember his name.

A Jewish surgeon saved the life of one of the Nazi passengers aboard the ship as a goodwill gesture and political statement.

At the funeral services for German victims of the disaster in New Jersey, Nazi flags were draped everywhere.

Hydrogen was used in the Hindenburg because the US had a virtual monopoly on helium, and viewed it as a strategic material, banning its sale to Germany.

So, it wasn't mechanical failure or an act of sabotage that destroyed the Hindenburg...just a chain-reaction series of events.


Dan

[Captain Spyro]

It's a tragic event for a number of reasons. Yes, we must remember those who died, but it also ended the age of passenger dirigible liners.

May those lives lost rest in peace.

[MD-IRLFAN]

The amount of time it took from ignition to complete destruction is almost too hard to logically accept. No matter how many times I watch the footage it just takes my breath away.

[Sea Fury]

I can only imagine what it must have been like to see one of those big rigid airships flying in person back then-they were the size of battleships. 600, 700, 800 feet long....

[Frank Capua]

Oh the Humanity!

[Jamski]

Few remember (Sea Fury probably does) but we had quite the airship program going in the US as well. We had one thing the Germans didn't have, namely, helium, which had one slight drawback in its lower lifting capacity, and one very big plus…it isn't explosive. We had several spectacular "rigids", though with one notable exception they were all star-crossed.

ZR-1: Shenandoah, launched 1923. The first US built rigid. Based on a German design but reworked for use with helium. Broke up in a storm over Ohio in 1925 with a loss of 14.

ZR-2: British built R-38, launched 1921. Never actually turned over to US, it broke up over Hull, UK during its final tests that same year.

ZR-3: Los Angeles, launched 1924. German built LZ-126, the longest-tenured of our fleet, it was eventually dismantled in 1939.

ZRS-4: Akron, launched 1931. Broke up off Barnegat Light, NJ in 1933. With a total loss of 75 lives (73 on the Akron and 2 on the rescue blimp J-3) this was the single worst loss of life in US aviation for a long, long time. In a sad bit of irony, most of the crew lost on the Akron had been survivors of the Shenandoah wreck…as was one of the two on the J-3.

ZRS-5: Macon, launched 1933. Like her sister ship, the Macon was an amazing achievement, the first true airborne aircraft carrier. She could carry four small planes and launch and recover them via a trapeze system. Unfortunately, she suffered the same fate as the Akron, only without the catastrophic loss of life. She was lost off Big Sur, CA in 1935.

Admittedly, the safety record of the Zeppelin is not particularly good, but that of the blimp is pretty darned good. And given today's composite materials and lightweight propulsion, I wonder if an airborne cruiser along the lines of the great airship era would be feasible. How cool would it be to soar across the country in relative comfort? It sure would beat the train. Or am I perhaps just dreaming?

[Captain Spyro]

Oh, if only that was practical. *Sigh.*

[KevMcNJ]

great pic

NEver seen that one before

[DaveL]

great pic

NEver seen that one before

No one ever moored a zeppelin atop the Empire State Building, but the mooring mast is there. I guess the issue of getting passengers down from over 1000 ft posed a bit of a problem.

[Captain Spyro]

great pic

NEver seen that one before

Well, that was the original intention of the top of the Empire State Building. Unfortunately, that scene is only from a movie. The vastly underrated (IMO) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

No one ever moored a zeppelin atop the Empire State Building, but the mooring mast is there. I guess the issue of getting passengers down from over 1000 ft posed a bit of a problem.

I believe there is also an issue of high winds at high altitudes as well. Really made the idea of docking not practical.

[abuseddog]

I started another thread on the same thing. So, here is my site that has the story.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...-in-new-jersey

==

Sorry, NV. I didnt see the thread....apolagies.

It came to my attention because of the philly/jersey hockey game telecast.They were showing the location in jersey where it happened. CBC was explaning that a young foster hewiit(aka ...legendary hockey broadcaster) witnessed the event first hand and decided to change his major to journlisim/broadcasting as a result. he went on to broadcast the toronto games on the radio and later tv. He decided to call his broadcast booth the gondola as a result of hearing that command center in the hindenburg was called the ''gondola''

[NoviVespa]

Sorry, NV. I didnt see the thread....apolagies.

It came to my attention because of the philly/jersey hockey game telecast.They were howing the location in jersey where it happened. CBC was explaning that a young foster hewiit(aka ...legendary hockey broadcaster) witnessed the event first hand and decided to change his major to journlisim/broadcasting as a result. he went on to broadcast the toronto games on the radio and later tv. He decided to call his broadcast booth the gondola as a result of hearing that command center in the hindenburg was called the ''gondola''

No apologies necessary. At least your thread got people talking, mine just laid there and died.

[KevMcNJ]

Interesting blog about the crash site in modern days

http://stuofdoom.com/main/?p=790