The Hindenburg disaster of 1937

The Hindenburg on fire at the mooring mast of Lakehurst, N.J., May 6 1937. Ballast water is being dropped.

Nationaal Archief/Spaarnestad Photo Nederlands

(Note: Even though it is now commonplace to see the Goodyear Blimp hovering over the stadium of important football games, it is still a reassuring sight for me and I take great pleasure in watching those big balloons hovering in the sky, yet I’m still reminded of the Hindenburg disaster some 80 years ago.)

Airships — Balloons, Blimps, Zeppelins, Dirigibles — the casual observer tends to use the terms interchangeably. They all have one thing in common; they are lighter than air flying craft, as distinguished from Airplanes and Gliders, all of which are heavier than air flying craft.

Balloons have been around for a long time, and came into their own during the Civil War, when they were used as forward observation posts by both the Yanks and the Rebels. They are still widely used to carry weather monitoring instruments, even to very high altitudes. Large, hot air balloons in the last years have become very colorful and popular with sportsmen, who take part in huge Hot Air Balloon Festivals in Albuquerque and other venues around the country — including McCook. On a summer evening the familiar green Kugler balloon is a happy sight in this part of the state. These flexible hot air balloons can certainly be rigged to carry passengers as well as instruments, but lack ability to steer, and are at the vagaries of the natural wind currents to take them to their destinations.

On the other hand, Dirigibles, such as the Goodyear Blimp, The Graf Zeppelin, and The Hindenburg, have an envelope, which covers a rigid framework and are filled with lighter than air gasses (helium or hydrogen). They are larger airships, and have gondolas for carrying passengers and have machine driven propellers, which drive the airship, and allow the operators to determine the direction of their flight.

In the early 1900s the German Count von Zeppelin introduced his airship, the Zeppelin, to the world. It proved to be a superior design for an old idea and was quickly adapted to carrying passengers between German and European cities. When World War I came along the German government made good use of Zeppelin’s airships, which were used widely by the Germans as bombers and observation vehicles.

After World War I Zeppelin again promoted his airships for commercial travel, and by the early 1930s his company was providing air service from Germany to North American and South American cities on a regular basis, led by the company’s flagship, “The Graf Zeppelin.”

The Germans were faced a serious problem with the Zeppelins. They could use either helium (an inert, non-combustible gas, or the highly combustible gas, hydrogen, for the lift of its airships. Since helium was heavier than hydrogen, and more expensive to produce, the helium airships had to be a great deal larger, and more expensive, than if hydrogen were to be used.

Almost from the start there had been some disasters with the hydrogen-filled Zeppelins, but the company officials felt that they had mastered the safety procedures for the hydrogen machines so that they could be operated efficiently, with safety, (and were much cheaper).

In 1936 the Zeppelin Company introduced its newest airship, the Hindenburg. The airship was the finest in air transportation in 1936 (transoceanic passenger airplanes were still a few years off). In the 1930s the world was still in the midst of a worldwide depression, so. Hitler, the new Chancellor of Germany, anxious to show off the great scientific advancements of the new Third Reich, had heavily subsidized he construction of the Super Airship.

The Hindenburg was a huge airship, 804’ in length, just 78’ shorter than the Titanic Steamship, and four times larger than the Goodyear Blimps we see at football games. Four 1,100 h.p. diesel engines powered the big airship. Its envelope had 16 gas cells, containing over 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas. The United States had refused to sell helium to the Germans, fearing that the Nazis would use the Airships for military purposes. But the Germans felt that they had taken care of any safety problems, which hydrogen might present, even though in the middle 30s England had had serious accidents with their hydrogen airships.

The 1936 Olympic Games were the perfect showcase to show off the new Airship. Each day it was much in evidence, sporting the Nazi Swastika, hovering over various events in the Olympic Stadium, much like the Goodyear Blimp these days, to the great delight of Herr Hitler.

In 1937 the Hindenburg went into regular trans-Atlantic service, boasting, “80 miles per hour, Two days to New York”. Speed was not its only advantage. The Hindenburg was designed to offer luxuries only found on the large steamships. 72 passengers (61 crew) were treated to luxurious (if a bit small) staterooms, fine dining rooms, with delicious meals, two promenade decks for exercise, a Club Room for cocktails and entertainment, and yes, a smoking room — the Germans had that much confidence in their safety measures concerning the hydrogen.

On the 3rd of May, 1937 the Hindenburg set out on its first of 10 scheduled round trips to North America (it had already completed one trip to South America). Because of strong headwinds, it took three days instead of two to complete the trip to New York---otherwise the trip had been uneventful and most enjoyable.

As the Hindenburg approached its mooring base at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, there were lingering thunderstorms, causing the big airship to detour around the storms until the weather cleared. At a little after 7 p.m. it approached its mooring tower and lowered its tethering ropes, to begin its descent. Though the exact cause has never been absolutely proven, most think that static electricity set off explosions in one of the hydrogen gas cells. Whatever the cause, in a 35-second span of time the grand Hindenburg came crashing down---a flaming inferno.

There had been considerable worldwide interest in the Hindenburg’s voyage, and there was a small army of newsmen, newsreel men and radio reporters covering the landing, so we have a complete picture of the Hindenburg’s last moments, including the classic report of radio reporter, Herbert Morrison, giving his emotional description of the fiery crash. Morrison’s report on the disaster can be viewed on the internet, at Youtube. com---well worth watching.

For its return to Europe, the Hindenburg was fully sold out (72 passengers), most stopping off at London for the Coronation of King George. But for its initial trip to North. America trip the Hindenburg (fortunately) carried only 38 passengers and 61 crew. Of this number, 13 passengers and 22 crew members lost their lives in the fiery crash. But the Hindenburg’s last flight turned out to be the last of mass overseas travel via giant dirigibles.

On a personal note---less dramatic than the Hindenburg disaster: Dirigibles, of the Goodyear type (filled with helium rather than hydrogen), were, and maybe still are, used for observation purposes on America’s Gulf Coast. I found out the hard way. After my Army discharge after the Korean War, my wife, Jean and I were on an extended vacation through the South. Returning to Homestead, FL from Key West on the 127 mile Keys Highway, we were stopped by a Navy Shore Patrol Jeep, while we were filming a low-flying Navy Dirigible..

“Alright, stand where you are and hand over that camera” one SP ordered, advancing with his revolver drawn and leveled at me. “Don’t you know it is illegal to photograph Navy airships on the Trans-Oceanic highway?” I did not know I was breaking the law but was about to surrender my camera with the pictures of our trip when his partner suddenly, with some urgency, called for him to hurry back to the Jeep. There had been an accident a mile back, toward Key West, and they had been ordered back to control traffic around the accident.

Clearly, the SP was in a quandary as to what to do with me. His solution---”Now you just stay where you are! We’ll be back to take care of you!”

We dutifully waited---for probably 15 minutes, then decided that the SP probably had more important things to tend to, and we proceeded slowly on to Homestead, hoping we would not be overtaken by irate Navy men, in search of one movie camera and one minute’s film of a Navy Airship. We weren’t. But each time we see the film of that big, low-flying airship it invokes vivid memories of a happy trip to Key West (plus a bit of added excitement.)

— Source: The Hindenburg Disaster; Herbert Morrison on Youtube