In 1936, the Hindenburg
Zeppelin arrived at Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA, from Germany marking the
beginning of a regular transatlantic passenger service. The flight, carrying 51
passengers and 56 crew, took 61 hours.
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| Hindenburg at Lakehurst, by U.S. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Aeronautics. Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
The Hindenburg was a large
German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the
Hindenburg class, the longest class of flying machine and the largest airship
by envelope volume. It was designed and built by the Zeppelin Company
(Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) on the shores of Lake Constance in
Friedrichshafen and was operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company
(Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei). The Hindenburg had a duralumin structure,
incorporating 15 Ferris wheel-like bulkheads 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 outer
skin was of cotton doped with a mixture of reflective materials intended to
protect the gas bags within from radiation, both ultraviolet (which would
damage them) and infrared (which might cause them to overheat). The gas cells
were made by a new method pioneered by Goodyear using multiple layers of
gelatinized latex rather than the previous goldbeater's skins. In 1931 the
Zeppelin Company purchased 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) of duralumin salvaged from the
wreckage of the October 1930 crash of the British airship R101, which might
have been re-cast and used in the construction of the Hindenburg.
The interior furnishings of
the Hindenburg were designed by Fritz August Breuhaus, whose design experience
included Pullman coaches, ocean liners, and warships of the German 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
Zeppelin's 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, 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 lit cigarette or pipe."
Helium was initially selected
for the Hindenburg’s lifting gas because it was the safest to use in airships,
as it is not flammable. One proposed measure to save helium was to make
double-gas cells for 14 of the 16 gas cells; an inner hydrogen cell would be
protected by an outer cell filled with helium, with vertical ducting to the
dorsal area of the envelope to permit separate filling and venting of the inner
hydrogen cells. At the time, however, helium was also relatively rare and
extremely expensive as the gas was only available in industrial quantities from
distillation plants at certain oil fields in the United States. Hydrogen, by
comparison, could be cheaply produced by any industrialized nation and being
lighter than helium also provided more lift. Because of its expense and rarity,
American rigid airships using helium were forced to conserve the gas at all
costs and this hampered their operation.
Despite a U.S. ban on the
export of helium under the Helium Control Act of 1927, the Germans designed the
airship to use the far safer gas in the belief that they could convince the US
government to license its export. When the designers learned that the National
Munitions Control Board would refuse to lift the export ban, they were forced
to re-engineer the Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. Despite the danger of
using flammable hydrogen, no alternative lighter-than-air gases could provide
sufficient lift. 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
Hindenburg's first season performance appeared to demonstrate this, however the
airship was destroyed by fire 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. This was the last of the great airship disasters; it was preceded by the
crashes of the British R38 in 1921 (44 dead), the US airship Roma in 1922 (34 dead),
the French Dixmude in 1923 (52 dead), the British R101 in 1930 (48 dead), and
the US Akron in 1933 (73 dead).
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