On May 6,
1937 a dream died with a bang, along with 37 souls. Up until then, the future of trans-oceanic and other mega-long
distant air service looked like it belonged to lighter than air craft. Airplanes,
it was thought, were too limited by fuel needs and lift capacity to
economically serve this need. They were
alright for military use, that had been proven, and had a place supplementing
good rail service in shorter distance travel, but the great dirigibles held the promise of
connecting the world with fast, reliable passenger service and a lift capacity
that could also eventually become a freight hauler.
All of that
changed when the German passenger airship LZ
129 Hindenburg ignited and crashed in a fiery inferno as it
attempted to dock with its mooring mast
at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station
in New Jersey. The event was
captured in all of its dramatic horror by newsreel
cameras and described in a live broadcast by WLS Radio of Chicago.
Dirigibles
were a refinement on the concept of a powered balloon developed by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin beginning in
1899. Unlike their predecessors, Zeppelin’s
creation featured a light but rigid cigar shaped envelope inside of which
lighter than air gas was contained in a series of tanks or bladders. The envelope provided additional space inside
which could be used for freight or passengers.
The ships were powered by two or more gasoline or diesel engines and a
cab extending below the envelope served as a pilot station.
Zeppelin
built several models of increasing size and lift potential over the years. In the World
War I they were pressed into military service and famously bombed London.
The British, French, Italians, and
the U.S. all scrambled to enter the
field with lighter than air craft themselves.
But crashes and failures dodged all attempts. The British R34 became
the first
dirigible to cross the Atlantic in
1919, but it crashed in a storm two years later. A larger sister ship R38 exploded in 1921 when
its frame snapped, unable to stand the strain causing a spark which ignited
explosive hydrogen gas used for
lift.
The U.S.
hardly fared better. It ship, the U.S. Navy’s ZR1 Shenandoah
was built in 1923 and used
non-combustible helium for
safety. Despite this advantage Shenandoah
broke up in a thunderstorm over Ohio
in 1925 killing 19 of 43 crewmen.
The Navy, which remained committed to
lighter than air ships, commissioned the Zeppelin company to build it a ship as
part of war reparations from defeated Germany.
The commission kept the company alive while Germany was forbidden by
treaty from building airships for its own use.
Delivered to the Navy in 1924 it was also designed for use with
helium. Designated ZR3 Los Angeles it became the most successful large
dirigible yet with a capacity for 30 passengers in addition to crew. It made more than 250 flights including trips
to Puerto Rico and Panama.
Impressed, the Navy arranged for the
Zeppelin company to license the Goodyear
Tire and Rubber Company to build ships of German design. The results were the Akron and the Macon
both of which could serve as aircraft carriers capable of launching and
retrieving 5 light scout planes.
Delivered in 1931 both ships went into service. But the Akron but was lost in a storm
over the Atlantic in 1933 and the Macon crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 1935. The Navy then
abandoned building new rigid airships, although it continued to fly the Los Angeles.
Meanwhile
the British re-entered the race with two new mammoth airships, the largest ever
built. The R-101, the largest ship
ever to fly with a passenger capacity of over 100, crashed and burned near Beauvais, France, on October 4, 1930 killing 48 of 54 aboard. The slightly smaller R-100 made a successful
round trip to Montreal, Canada, but was withdrawn from service
and ultimately scrapped after the R-101 disaster.
Despite the
dismal safety record, the fact remained that no dirigible ever manufactured by
the Zeppelin company in Germany had ever crashed. They seemed immune from the stresses of
extreme weather that had doomed most other ships.
Following
the success of its Los Angeles for
the U.S. Navy, the Zeppelin company began construction of a new airship for
German civilian use. The Graf Zeppelin completed in 1928 was meant to be a
prototype and a demonstration for a new generation of air ships meant for
passenger packet and airmail service. It
was a huge success. It made a trans
Atlantic flight to Lakehurst in October and was welcomed with great ballyhoo
including a New York ticker-tape parade for
the crew and a reception at the White
House. The next year she completed a
round the world trip that officially began and ended in Lakehurst after she had
crossed the Atlantic again. After that
their were triumphant tours of Europe and trips to South America. Crossing from
Germany to Lakehurst became almost routine, if not yet regularly scheduled.
The company planned for a larger airship to
inaugurate regular scheduled service.
Plans for that ship, designated LZ-129 had to be reconsidered after the R-101
disaster. He ship was made heavier
and stronger, but also intended for the safer helium being successfully used by
the U.S. Navy. As the ship was being
re-designed the Nazis came to power
in Germany. Despite the resistance of
Zeppelin company chief Dr. Hugo
Eckener impressed the Graf Zeppelin
and future air ships into a new state owned air line. From then on German airships would be ablaze
the Nazi swastika on their tail fins
and the air ships would become propaganda
tools for the Third Reich.
The new ship
was dubbed the Hindenburg by Eckener
in honor of the former German President Paul
von Hindenburg, much to the annoyance of Nazi authorities who had hoped the
ship would be named for Hitler. She was tested in March of 1937. But due to the rise of German militarism, the
Zeppelin company was unable to obtain helium from the United States, the only
nation with a capacity to produce it in large quantities. Helium was restricted as a strategic material
Eckener was force to fly the new ship with dangerous hydrogen under pressure
from the government.
After a series
of trial flights and an extensive propaganda tour of Germany the Hindenburg made its first trans Atlantic
flight to Rio de Janerio, Brazil the ship was put into the long
dreamed of regularly scheduled service.
In 1936 she made ten trips to Lakehurst and seven to Rio.
The Hindenburg
left Frankfurt for Lakehurst on May
3, 1937 on its first scheduled round trip between Europe and the United States
that season. She arrived over New Jersey
three days later but attempts to land were delayed until a line of
thunderstorms passed Lakehurst. The
press was out in force to cover the still unique event.
When the
weather cleared, the Hindenburg made a routine descent. Just after she had dropped bow lines to be taken up by Navy personnel on the ground, the ship
was rocked by an explosion. Fire erupted
about a third of the way from the ship’s stern.
She dropped to the ground in 37 seconds and was completely engulfed in
flames in moments. WLS announcer Herbert Morrison famously sobbed “Oh
the Humanity!” as he attempted to describe the horrible scene.
Amazingly,
of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, only 13 passengers and 22 crew and
one ground crew member died. Others were
severely injured including those with horrible burns. What ever the toll, it was enough to end
lighter than air travel. German
invincibility in the air was disproven and the image of the burning ship seared
into the public imagination. The Graf Zeppelin was withdrawn from service
and work on its replacement, Graf Zeppelin II was scrapped.
Although
many theories abound as to the cause of the explosion ranging from spontaneous
combustion to sabotage, no cause has
ever been proven. Ultimately, any
airship using explosive hydrogen and at the mercy of any stray spark was
probably doomed. We will never know if
the safe operation of the ship with helium might have led to continued
development of lighter than air fleets.
The
compressed laboratory of war time soon produced technological innovations that
made trans oceanic service by fixed wing air craft not only possible but
routine.
Today,
despite some efforts to revive them as freight handlers, lighter than air ships
are mostly to blimps, much smaller
gas filled bags used mostly for advertising and as camera platforms for
sporting events.
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