LZ 129 Hindenburg
Encyclopedia
LZ 129 Hindenburg ' onMouseout='HidePop("91902")' href="/topics/Aircraft_registration">Registration
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
: D-LZ 129) was a large German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship
Rigid airship
A rigid airship is a type of airship in which the envelope retained its shape by the use of an internal structural framework rather than by being forced into shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope as used in blimps and semi-rigid airships.Rigid airships were produced and...
, the lead ship
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
of the Hindenburg class
Hindenburg class airship
The two Hindenburg-class airships were passenger carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the 1930s and named in honor of Paul von Hindenburg. They were the last such aircraft ever built, and in terms of their length and volume, the largest aircraft ever to fly...
, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship by envelope volume. Designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...
) on the shores of the Bodensee
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
(Lake Constance) in Friedrichshafen
Friedrichshafen
This article is about a German town. For the Danish town, see Frederikshavn, and for the Finnish town, see Fredrikshamn .Friedrichshafen is a university city on the northern side of Lake Constance in Southern Germany, near the borders with Switzerland and Austria.It is the district capital of the...
, the airship flew from March 1936 until destroyed by fire
Hindenburg disaster
The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey...
14 months later on May 6, 1937, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of its second season of service. Thirty-six people died in the accident, which occurred while landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station
Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst
JB MDL Lakehurst is a United States Navy base located approximately south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Lakehurst is under the jurisdiction of the Naval Air Systems Command...
in Manchester Township, New Jersey
Manchester Township, New Jersey
Manchester Township is a Township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. The township is noted for containing the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, the site of the infamous Hindenburg disaster of May 6, 1937...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Hindenburg was named after the late Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
(1847–1934), President of Germany (1925–1934).
Design and development
The Hindenburg had a duraluminDuralumin
Duralumin is the trade name of one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The main alloying constituents are copper, manganese, and magnesium. A commonly used modern equivalent of this alloy type is AA2024, which contains 4.4% copper, 1.5% magnesium, 0.6% manganese and 93.5%...
structure, incorporating 15 Ferris wheel
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
-like bulkheads
Bulkhead (partition)
A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship or within the fuselage of an airplane. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...
along its length, with 16 cotton gas bags fitted between them. The bulkheads were braced to each other by longitudinal girders placed around their circumferences. The airship's skin was of cotton doped
Aircraft dope
thumb|right|[[United Kingdom military aircraft serials|2699]] a [[World War I]] [[Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2]] finished in a clear dopeAircraft dope is a plasticised lacquer that is applied to fabric-covered aircraft...
with a mixture of reflective materials intended to protect the gas bags within, which were made of goldbeater's skin
Goldbeater's skin
Goldbeater's skin — the outer membrane of calf's intestine — is a parchment traditionally used in the process of making gold leaf by beating, reducing gold into mere 1μm-thick leaves....
, from both ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
(which would damage them) and infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
(which might cause them to overheat) radiation. In 1931 the Zeppelin Company purchased 5,000 kg of duralumin salvaged from the wreckage of the October 1930 crash of the British airship R101
R101
R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airship completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry-appointed team and was effectively in competition...
, which might have been re-cast and used in the construction of the Hindenburg.
,_speisesaal.jpg)
,_gesellschaftsraum.jpg)
Fritz August Breuhaus
Fritz August Breuhaus, was born on february 9th, 1883 in Solingen, Germany. He was a famous German architect, interior designer, and designer in the 20th century. He added “de Groot” to the end of his name in 1929. He spread the word of this addition claiming to be the grandson/great-grandson of a...
, whose design experience included Pullman coaches
Pullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...
, ocean liners, and warships of the German Navy
German Navy
The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...
. The upper A Deck contained small passenger quarters in the middle flanked by large public rooms: a dining room to port and a lounge and writing room to starboard. Paintings on the dining room walls portrayed the Graf Zeppelins trips to South America. A stylized world map covered the wall of the lounge. Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks. The passengers were expected to spend most of their time in the public areas, rather than their cramped cabins.
The lower B Deck contained washrooms, a mess hall for the crew, and a smoking lounge. Harold G. Dick
Harold G. Dick
Harold Gustav "Hal" Dick was an American mechanical engineer employed by Goodyear, who flew on almost all of the Hindenburg flights. He was called to the UK for a meeting before the last flight of the Hindenburg and was not aboard during the disaster...
, an American representative from the Goodyear Zeppelin Company, recalled "The only entrance to the smoking room, which was pressurized to prevent the admission of any leaking hydrogen, was via the bar, which had a swiveling air lock door, and all departing passengers were scrutinized by the bar steward to make sure they were not carrying out a lighted cigarette or pipe."
Use of hydrogen instead of helium
HeliumHelium
Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest to use in airships, as it is not flammable. At the time it was extremely expensive, and was only available from natural gas reserves in the United States. Hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
, by comparison, could be cheaply produced by any industrialized nation and had more lift. American rigid airships using helium were forced to conserve the gas at all costs and this hampered their operation. While a hydrogen-filled ship could routinely vent gas as necessary, a helium-filled ship had to resort to dynamic force if it was too light to descend, a measure that took a toll on its structure.
Despite a U.S. ban on helium exports, the Germans designed the ship to use the gas in the belief that the ban would be lifted; when the designers learned that the ban was to remain in place, they were forced to re-engineer the Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. Despite the danger of using flammable hydrogen, no alternative gases that could provide sufficient lift could be produced in sufficient quantities. One beneficial side effect of employing hydrogen was that more passenger cabins could be added. The Germans' long history of flying hydrogen-filled passenger airships without a single injury or fatality engendered a widely held belief they had mastered the safe use of hydrogen. The Hindenburgs first season performance appeared to demonstrate this.
Launching and trial flights
Five years after construction began in 1931, the Hindenburg made its maiden test flight from the Zeppelin dockyards at Friedrichshafen on March 4, 1936, with 87 passengers and crew aboard. These included the Zeppelin Company chairman, Dr. Hugo EckenerHugo Eckener
Dr. Hugo Eckener was the manager of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the inter-war years, and was commander of the famous Graf Zeppelin for most of its record-setting flights, including the first airship flight around the world, making him the most successful airship commander in history...
, as commander, former World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Zeppelin commander Lt. Col. Joachim Breithaupt representing the German Air Ministry, the Zeppelin company's eight airship captains, 47 other crew members, and 30 dockyard employees who flew as passengers. Although the name Hindenburg had been quietly selected by Eckener over a year earlier, only the airship's formal registration number (D-LZ129) and the five Olympic rings (promoting the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
to be held in Berlin that August) were displayed on the hull during its six trial flights. However, as the airship passed over Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
on its second trial flight the next afternoon, that city's Lord Mayor, Karl Fiehler
Karl Fiehler
Karl Fiehler was a German politician of the Nazi Party and Lord Mayor of Munich from 1933 until 1945...
, asked Eckener by radio the LZ129's name, to which he replied "Hindenburg".
The Zeppelin Company chairman’s public pronouncement of the name greatly angered Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, however, who immediately summoned Eckener to Berlin for a meeting the next day, at which the Nazi minister bluntly stated that he wanted the airship to be renamed the Adolf Hitler. When Eckener refused to do so, Goebbels then decreed that the airship would be referred to in Germany only as "LZ 129" and also warned Eckener that he could easily make the world-famous airshipman a "non-person" in the German media. Although the name Hindenburg lettered in 6 feet (1.8 m) red script was finally added to its hull three weeks later, no formal naming ceremony for the airship was ever held.
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung is a type of legal entityvery common in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other Central European countries...
(DZR), which had been established by Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
in March 1935 to increase Nazi influence over zeppelin operations. The DZR was jointly owned by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...
(the airship's builder), the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Air Ministry), and Deutsche Lufthansa A.G.
Deutsche Luft Hansa
Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and throughout the Third Reich.-1920s:Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin...
(Germany's national airline at that time), and also operated the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German built and operated passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life,...
during its last two years of commercial service to South America from 1935 to 1937. The Hindenburg and its sister ship, the LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II (launched in September 1938), were the only two airships ever purpose-built for regular commercial transatlantic passenger operations, although the latter never entered passenger service before being scrapped in 1940.
After a total of six trial flights made over a three-week period from the Zeppelin dockyards where the airship had been built, the Hindenburg was ready for its formal public debut with a 4,100-mile (6,598 km) propaganda flight around Germany (Die Deutschlandfahrt) made jointly with the Graf Zeppelin
Graf Zeppelin
Graf Zeppelin may refer to:*Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin , German officer and engineer, founder of the Zeppelin airship company *LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, the first airship named after Count Zeppelin...
from March 26 to 29. This was to be followed by its first commercial passenger flight, a four-day transatlantic voyage to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
that departed from the Friedrichshafen Airport in nearby Löwenthal on March 31. After again departing from Löwenthal on May 6 on its first of 10 round trips to North America made in 1936, all subsequent transatlantic operations flown by the Hindenburg to both North and South America originated at the airport at Frankfurt am Main.
Die Deutschlandfahrt
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
), the Hindenburg was first impressed into use by the Air Ministry (its DLZ co-operator) as a vehicle for the delivery of Nazi propaganda. On March 7, 1936, ground forces of the German Reich had entered and occupied the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
, a region bordering the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France, which had been designated in the 1920 Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
as a de-militarized zone established to provide a buffer between Germany and those neighboring countries.
In order to justify its remilitarization
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
The Remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. This was significant because it violated the terms of the Locarno Treaties and was the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this...
— which was also a violation of the 1925 Locarno Pact, — a "post hoc" plebiscite (or referendum) was quickly called by Hitler for March 29 to "ask the German people" to both ratify the Rhineland’s occupation by the German Army, and to approve a single party list composed exclusively of Nazi candidates to sit in the new Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
. The Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin were designated by the government as a key part of the process.
As a public relations ploy, Propaganda Minister Goebbels demanded that the Zeppelin Company make the two airships available to fly "in tandem" around Germany over the four day period prior to the voting with a joint departure from Löwenthal on the morning of March 26. While gusty wind conditions that morning would prove to make the process of safely launching the new airship a difficult one, the Hindenburgs commander, Captain Ernst Lehmann, was determined to impress the politicians, Nazi party officials, and press present at the airfield with an "on time" departure and thus proceeded with its launch despite the unfavorable conditions. However, as the massive airship began to rise under full engine power it was caught by a 35-degree crosswind gust, causing its lower vertical tail fin to strike and be dragged across the ground, resulting in significant damage to the bottom portion of the airfoil and its attached rudder.
Zeppelin Company Chairman Eckener, who had opposed the joint flight both because it politicized the airships and had forced the cancellation of an essential final endurance test for the Hindenburg, was furious and rebuked Lehmann:
"How could you, Mr. Lehmann, order the ship to be brought out in such windy conditions? You had the best excuse in the world for postponing this idiotic flight; instead, you risk the ship, merely to avoid annoying Mr. Goebbels. Do you call this showing a sense of responsibility towards our enterprise?"
The Graf Zeppelin, which had been hovering above the airfield waiting for the Hindenburg to join it, thus had to start off on the propaganda mission alone while the LZ 129 was returned to its hangar, where temporary repairs were quickly made to its empennage
Empennage
The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
before joining up with the smaller airship several hours later. As millions of Germans watched from below, the two giants of the sky sailed over Germany for the next four days and three nights, dropping propaganda leaflets, blaring martial music and slogans from large loudspeakers, and broadcasting political speeches from a makeshift radio studio on board the Hindenburg.
First commercial passenger flight
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
scheduled to depart from there on March 31. Hugo Eckener was not to be the commander of the flight, however, but instead was relegated to being a "supervisor" with no operational control over the Hindenburg while Ernst Lehmann had command of the ship. To add insult to injury, Eckener learned from an Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reporter upon the Hindenburg's arrival in Rio that Goebbels had also followed through on his month-old threat to decree that Eckener's name would "no longer be mentioned in German newspapers and periodicals" and "no pictures nor articles about him shall be printed." This action was taken because of Eckener's opposition to using the Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin for political purposes during the Deutschlandfahrt, and his "refusal to give a special appeal during the Reichstag election campaign endorsing Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his policies." (Although the existence of the ban was never publicly acknowledged by Goebbels, it was quietly lifted a month later.)
The first South America flight itself was not trouble free for the Hindenburg either, as one of the airship's four Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
16-cylinder diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s suffered a wrist pin breakage during the outbound leg, and although repairs were made at Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
the engine could no longer deliver full power. A similar problem developed on the return journey when another engine failed off the African Gold Coast
Gold Coast (region)
The Gold Coast was the region of West Africa which is now the nation of Ghana. Early uses of the term refer literally to the coast and not the interior. It was not until the 19th century that the term came to refer to areas that are far from the coast...
near Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and as mechanics were attempting to repair it a second stalled and could not be restarted. By then running on just two of its four powerplants, the Hindenburg was in danger of drifting into the Sahara Desert, where a forced landing made without a ground crew and mooring mast available would have likely resulted in the airship having to be written off as damaged beyond repair. To avoid such a catastrophe, the crew raised the airship in search of counter-trade wind
Trade wind
The trade winds are the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics, within the lower portion of the Earth's atmosphere, in the lower section of the troposphere near the Earth's equator...
s usually found above 5000 feet (1,524 m), well beyond the airship's pressure height. Unexpectedly, however, the crew found such a favorable wind at a lower altitude [3600 feet (1,097.3 m)], which permitted them to guide the airship safely back to Germany after also getting emergency permission from France to fly a more direct route over the Rhone Valley. The nine-day flight covered 12756 miles (20,528.7 km) in 203 hours and 32 minutes of flight time. All four engines were later overhauled, and no subsequent problems were encountered on later flights.
The 1936 transatlantic season
The Hindenburg made 17 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean in 1936, its first and only full year of service, with 10 trips to the United States and seven to Brazil. In July 1936, the airship also completed a record Atlantic double crossing in five days, 19 hours and 51 minutes. Among the famous passengers who traveled on the airship was German heavyweight boxing champion Max SchmelingMax Schmeling
Maximillian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in the late 1930s transcended boxing, and became worldwide social events because of their national associations...
, who returned home on the Hindenburg to a hero's welcome after knocking out Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
in New York on June 19, 1936. During the 1936 season the airship flew 191583 miles (308,322.2 km), carried 2,798 passengers, and transported 160 tons of freight and mail, a level of success that encouraged the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...
Company to plan the expansion of its airship fleet and transatlantic services.
The ship was reportedly so stable that a pen or pencil could be stood on a table without falling. Its launches were so smooth that passengers often missed them, believing that the airship was still on the ground. The cost of a ticket between Germany and the United States was US$400 (about US$6,300 in 2010 dollars), a considerable sum in the Depression era. Hindenburg passengers were generally affluent, including many public figures, entertainers, noted sportsmen, political figures, and leaders of industry.
Olympic Stadium (Berlin)
The Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. There have been two stadiums on the site: the present facility, and one that is called the Deutsches Stadion which was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics. Both were designed by members of the same family, the first by Otto March...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
during the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
. Shortly before the arrival of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
to declare the Games open, the airship crossed low over the packed stadium while trailing the Olympic flag on a long weighted line suspended from its gondola.
During 1936 the Hindenburg had a special aluminium Blüthner
Blüthner
Blüthner, formally Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH, is a piano-manufacturing company founded by Julius Blüthner in 1853 in Leipzig Germany.- History :...
grand piano placed on board in the music salon, although the instrument was removed after the first year to save weight.
Over the winter of 1936–37, several changes were made. The greater lift capacity allowed 10 passenger cabins to be added, nine with two beds and one with four beds, increasing the total passenger capacity to 72. In addition, "gutters" were installed to collect rain for use as water ballast
Buoyancy compensator (aviation)
The static buoyancy of airships during a trip is not constant. It is therefore necessary to take measures to control the buoyancy and thus the altitude, the so-called buoyancy compensation.-Changes which have an effect on buoyancy:...
.
Another change was the installation of an experimental aircraft hook-on trapeze based on the system similar to the one used on the US Navy Goodyear-Zeppelin built airships USS Akron (ZRS-4)
USS Akron (ZRS-4)
USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the United States Navy that was lost in a weather-related accident off the New Jersey coast early on April 4, 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crew and passengers on board...
and USS Macon (ZRS-5)
USS Macon (ZRS-5)
USS Macon was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting. She served as a "flying aircraft carrier", launching Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters. In service for less than two years, in 1935 Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast,...
. This was intended to allow customs officials to be flown out to the Hindenburg to process passengers before landing and to retrieve mail from the ship for early delivery. Experimental hook-ons and takeoffs were attempted on March 11 and April 27, 1937, but were not very successful, owing to turbulence around the area where the hook-up trapeze had been mounted. The loss of the ship ended all prospects of further testing.
The final flight: May 3–6, 1937
The Hindenburg's arrival on May 6 was delayed for several hours to avoid a line of thunderstorms passing over Lakehurst, but around 7:00 p.m. the airship was cleared for its final approach to the Naval Air Station, which it made at an altitude of 650 ft (198.1 m) with Captain Max Pruss at the helm. However, as ground handlers grabbed hold of a pair of landing lines dropped from the nose of the ship at 7:21 p.m., the Hindenburg suddenly burst into flames and dropped to the ground in just 37 seconds. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew died, as well as one member of the ground crew, making a total of 36 lives lost in the disaster.
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, as were the frames of the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German built and operated passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life,...
and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II when they were scrapped in 1940.
Notable appearances in media
- Actual footage of the Hindenburg is shown in the 1937 Charlie ChanCharlie ChanCharlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
film Charlie Chan at the Olympics, which depicts Chan onboard for a flight across the Atlantic to attend the 1936 Summer Olympics1936 Summer OlympicsThe 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. The movie was released 15 days after the actual Hindenburg disaster on May 21, 1937. - The image of the airship exploding was used as the cover of Led ZeppelinLed ZeppelinLed Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's self-titled debut albumLed Zeppelin (album)Led Zeppelin is the debut album of the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded in October 1968 at Olympic Studios in London and released on Atlantic Records on 12 January 1969 in the United States and 31 March 1969 in the United Kingdom. The album featured integral contributions from each...
(1969). - The HindenburgThe Hindenburg (film)The Hindenburg is a 1975 American film based on the disaster of the German airship Hindenburg. The film stars George C. Scott. It was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link based on the book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney .A.A...
is a 1975 film inspired by the disaster, but centered around the sabotage theory; the some of these plot elements were based on real bomb threats before the flight began, as well as proponents of the sabotage theory. * The 2011 television-movie Hindenburg for RTLRTL TelevisionRtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
is also fictionally based on sabotage, with a fictional storyline. In this movie, however, the bomb is de-fused but the ship explodes due to static electricity. - In the original theatrical release of the film Indiana Jones and the Last CrusadeIndiana Jones and the Last CrusadeIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry...
(1989), Indiana JonesIndiana JonesColonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
travels on the Hindenburg. The name was digitally removed from the Zeppelin's fixtures in subsequent releases, apparently because the film's events took place in 1938 and the Hindenburg was actually destroyed a year earlier in 1937. Jones also escapes the zeppelin via a trapeze-mounted parasite fighterParasite aircraftA parasite aircraft is a component of a composite aircraft which is carried, and air launched by, a mother ship aircraft.The first use for parasite aircraft was in 1916, when the British used a Bristol Scout, flying from a Felixstowe Porte Baby, a giant flying boat of its time. This eventually...
biplaneBiplaneA biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
, a system experimentally installed on the Hindenburg in early Spring 1937. - The plot of the third book of the Pendragon fantasy book series, The Never WarThe Never WarThe Never War is a book in the Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale. In this book, the main character, Robert "Bobby" Pendragon follows the antagonist, named Saint Dane, to a territory called First Earth, which is essentially Earth in the year 1937....
(2003) is based on the Hindenburg disaster. - Episodes in the 2009 airing of the television show MythbustersMythBustersMythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...
included extensive testing related to the circumstances of the Hindenburg disaster. - The title story of Jim ShepardJim ShepardJim Shepard is an American author and professor of creative writing and film at Williams College.-Biography:Shepard was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He received a B.A. at Trinity College in 1978, his MFA from Brown University in 1980. He currently teaches creative writing and film at Williams...
's short story collection Love and Hydrogen takes place on the Hindenburg. - In Neal StephensonNeal StephensonNeal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.Difficult to categorize, his novels have been variously referred to as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk...
's CryptonomiconCryptonomiconCryptonomicon is a 1999 novel by American author Neal Stephenson. The novel follows the exploits of two groups of people in two different time periods, presented in alternating chapters...
the main character happens upon the Hindenburg in the midst of the disastrous fire - In an episode of The WaltonsThe WaltonsThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
John Boy Walton, played by Richard Thomas, returns as a newspaper reporter covering the arrival of The Hindenberg, and watches as it explodes.
Specifications
See also
- Hindenburg class airshipHindenburg class airshipThe two Hindenburg-class airships were passenger carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the 1930s and named in honor of Paul von Hindenburg. They were the last such aircraft ever built, and in terms of their length and volume, the largest aircraft ever to fly...
- The Zeppelin Museum FriedrichshafenZeppelin Museum FriedrichshafenThe Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance chronicles the history of the Zeppelin airships in the city where they were born. The museum, housed inside the former Hafenbahnhof , opened in 1996....
displays a reconstruction of a 33 m section of the Hindenburg. - Timeline of hydrogen technologiesTimeline of hydrogen technologiesTimeline of hydrogen technologies — A timeline of the history of hydrogen technology.-1600s:* 1625 - First description of hydrogen by Johann Baptista van Helmont...
External links
(film shows docking team, passengers) (film of passengers descending ramp)- Technical Drawing of the LZ 129 Hindenburg
- Airships.net: Detailed history and photographs of interior and exterior of LZ-129 Hindenburg
- "The Hindenburg Makes Her Last Standing at Lakehurst", Life Magazine article from 1937
- eZEP.de, The webportal for Zeppelin mail and airship memorabilia
- Hindenburg: Sky Cruise. Illustrated account of a flight on the Hindenburg - with maiden voyage and final flight passenger lists
- Harold G. Dick Airship Collection - lists of contents of the collection
- ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co KG. The modern Zeppelin company
- The Hindenburg at Navy Lakehurst Historical Society
- http://books.google.com/books?id=p-IDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA220&dq=popular+mechanics+1930+aircraft&hl=en&ei=KaMmTZ-LCentnQeE6ZzjAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=popular%20mechanics%201930%20aircraft&f=true"The Air Liners Of The Future." Popular Mechanics, February 1930, the future of dirigibles as aviation experts predicted in 1930, drawings on pages 220 and 221 shows how aviation experts saw the Hindenburg then under construction, including an overhead glass covered dance floor]
- "Super Zepp To Have All Luxuries Of A Liner."Popular Mechanics, July 1932, early drawing of future Hindenburg
- "Biggest Birds That Ever Flew." Popular Science, May 1962