It was floating over Manhattan just minutes before it burst into flames and crashed to the ground. This week, Tidbits focuses on the Hindenburg, the massive airship that met a fiery end 87 years ago this week.
• Construction began on the Hindenburg in 1931 by the German-based Zeppelin Company. Some of the airship’s parts were salvaged from a British airship that had crashed in October, 1930.
• The airship was named for the late Paul von Hindenburg, who had been Germany’s president from 1925 to 1934. The Nazis had wanted to name the ship after Hitler, but the Zeppelin Company’s president refused the request, due to his disagreements with the Nazi Party.
• The Hindenburg was the largest craft to ever fly. At 804 feet long (245 m), it was three times longer than today’s Boeing 747. Its top speed was 84 mph (135 km/hr) with a cruising speed of 78 mph (125 km/hr).
• The Hindenburg was launched on its first public flight on March 4, 1936, part of an aerial tour of Germany ordered by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In August of that year, the ship flew over the Olympic complex in Berlin as part of the Summer Games’ opening ceremony.
• During 1936, the Hindenburg made 17 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean, including ten trips to the United States, with one of the trips setting a new record, flying across the Atlantic and back in five days, 19 hours, and 51 minutes. The day of the disaster, May 6, 1937, was the first of its scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings that year, with a destination of Lakehurst, New Jersey.
• The airship was capable of carrying 70 passengers, but only 36 were on board on that May day in 1937, along with 61 crewmen.
• The return flight to Germany was fully booked. It was the choice of travel for many passengers who planned to attend the coronation of British monarch King George VI. A one-way ticket was about $450, around $8,000 in today’s dollars.
• Because hydrogen-powered airships didn’t have a very favorable safety record, the designers intended to fill it with non-flammable helium gas. However, because the United States had a monopoly on the world’s supply of helium and feared that Germany might use it for military purposes, they prohibited its export. Consequently, the Hindenburg was filled with 7 million cubic feet of flammable hydrogen.
• At 7:25 PM, as the airship came in for landing, at about 180 feet (55 m) off the ground, all of a sudden it caught fire. In less than 40 seconds, the Hindenburg was engulfed in flames and had crashed to the ground. Many passengers and crew leapt out of the windows. Of the 97 total people on board, 62 miraculously survived. Thirteen passengers and 22 crew members perished, along with one worker on the ground.
• Even today, the cause of the disaster remains a mystery, although varying theories have been suggested. Some say it was due to a leak of hydrogen into the electrically-charged atmosphere, creating an electrostatic discharge which ignited the gas on the craft’s outer skin. Others speculate that the ship’s paints resembled rocket fuel and caused the fire. Because thunderstorms were present in the New York area, some have mentioned a lightning strike, but the airship had been struck by lightning several times during its many flights with no effect. Sabotage was also suggested.
• Fragments of the Hindenburg are on display at the Smithsonian Institute, including a chunk of a support girder and a piece of a drive propeller. The collection also includes a demitasse cup and saucer and a postcard from a mailbag that survived the fire.
