The Hindenburg Disaster

Lake  Hurst .  New Jersey  \1937

       

The Hindenburg  was the largest Man-Made object to be put into the air. The ship was even larger than the Saturn Five Rocket which first took Mankind to the moon. The failure of this ship was on the same scale as the Challenger disaster. The Hindenburg disaster ended the era of  Ridged Air Ships.







The Hindenburg

   
    Numbered  the  LZ129  , the  Hindenburg  was  the  129th  Ridged  Air  Ship  to be  built by the Zeppelin Company  of  Germany . 

 
  The  Zeppelin  company was  Founded  by Count   Ferdinand   Von  Zeppelin   and  directed  by  Dr. Hugo  Ekner ,  a  genius   in engineering  and  airframe  design . 
When  completed  the  Hindenburg  was state of  the  art   .


 

    When the  Nazi's  came  to  power   many private companies  were  nationalized , the  Zeppelin  company being one of them . The new  German  government  realized  the military  significance  of  the  new  airships .


    On  this flight  there  would  be  two  captains  Max  Pruss , and  Ernst  Leeman .  Leeman  was  on  board  representing  the  Nazi interests   .

Statistics  -

  The  Hindenburg  was 882  feet  long 

 She  had  a   diameter of  135 feet.

  The  Hindenburg  was almost  as  large   as  the  Queen Mary.

  The  Hindenburg was  almost the  size of  ten  747's .

  The ship had  seven  gas  units  for hydrogen

The Graf  Zeppelin

 Ekner had originally called for the ship to be filled with helium an extremely stable gas. Helium can actually smother a fire it is so inert .

Lake  Hurst 

   

  The United States was the only source of helium at the time and was becoming more alarmed by the Nazi movement . Fearing the ship could be used for military purposes the United States banned the sale of helium to    Germany. 




The  Hindenburg  being  built 

  


    This  forced the  Germans  to use  the more  Volatile  Hydrogen.  Hydrogen has  more lifting  ability  than  helium  , but  Hydrogen
can  be  ignited  by a single  flame  
The  Hindenburg's  first  flight  was  in  May , 1936.

In  flight  over New  York  \

The  Hindenburg  and her  sister ship , the Graf Zeppelin  were the  first  airships  to  go  into  transatlantic  service  ,  making  the  crossing  in just  two  days .  This  was  faster  than  any mode  of  transportation  of  that  time   .

Computer Graphic of the ship 

  The  Hindenburg  could  reach air  speeds of  almost  100 miles an  hour  and  could  carry  over  75  passengers .

 

  Then  on  May  , 7  1937  on  a  routine  flight  to  Lakehurst  , New  Jersey   ,  something went wrong .   There  had been  rumors of      sabotage almost from   the  ships  maiden  flight .

Lake  Hurst 

  On  the  approach  to  the  mooring  mast  the ship  suddenly burst in to  flames  .  This was  one of the   first  disasters of this magnitude to  be  caught  on film and  narrated  by   Herb  Morrison.

  Of  the  two  captains  on  board  that  day 
 only one  survived
 Max Pruss.  
 Pruss was  horribly 
 burned  in  the fire.  



   Leeman  died on  the  scene of  the  disaster  
from  third  degree burns  
to  his back.   


  The  final determination of  the  failure  was  due  to  static electricity , sometimes  called  St. Elmo's  fire .



The  Hindenburg  being  rolled out 

Pruss , who passed away in 1957 felt to the end
of his life that
the Hindenburg
had been sabotaged.
Ekner
also felt   
the  ship 
had  been  destroyed  
claiming  static  electricity 
 was not  enough to cause  
this type of explosion
Today in Lake Hurst there is a memorial to the Hindenburg . The site is where the Flight Deck or "Gondola"
set down.

Gondola  site 

  To  this  day  ,
no one  has  sufficiently  
explained  the  
cause  of  this failure.  


  The  Hindenburg  was  the  last  ridged  airship  
ever  built  . 

     Only  the  smaller  blimps  of  today  which are dwarfed  by  the 
 size of  the Hindenburg  are  
reminders  of  the  German  Airships .

The  Hindenburg  and the  Graf  Zeppelin 

     Kenneth  Lafler