1937

Hindenburg

Every now and again, engineers will create something, put it out in public, and people will look at it and say, “That does not seem like a very good idea.” Or they might say, “That looks like a recipe for disaster.” Or perhaps, “There must be a better way.” Sometimes engineers do these things out of ignorance, sometimes because of economics, sometimes pure hubris or delusion. Single-hull supertankers are one example. Anyone could look at that idea and say, “Well, what if you run into something? Then there’s going to be a million gallons of crude oil in a marine ecosystem.” The idea of dumping gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere falls into the same category.

And then there was the Hindenburg. The Hindenburg was a rigid airship that derived its lift from a lighter-than-air gas. The original idea was to use helium as the lifting gas, but the German company Zepplin that made the Hindenburg could not secure enough helium. So they switched over to hydrogen as the lifting gas. Hydrogen is cheap, easy to make, and is the lightest lifting gas available. Its big problem is that it is easy to ignite and extremely flammable. The Zepplin company felt they had taken all the needed steps to guard against an explosion, and the Hindenburg operated without incident over tens of thousands of miles.

While it was operating, the Hindenburg was an engineering marvel—a luxury cruise for 50 passengers in the air. The ship was just over 800 feet (245 meters) long, with the passenger compartment being tiny by comparison. The passenger accommodations might be compared to those of a cruise ship of the era, but the Hindenburg was quite a bit faster with speeds up to 75 mph (125 kph).

But then, on May 6, 1937, something went wrong. The hydrogen ignited and the entire load of gas—something like 7 million cubic feet (200,000 cubic meters) of hydrogen—went up in flames in just a few seconds.

Since then, there have been many efforts to resurrect both blimps and rigid airships, using helium obviously, rather than hydrogen. The idea is so tantalizing because the lift provided by the lighter-than-air gas requires no fuel and is therefore free. The problem is that the ships have to be so gigantic to get that lift that they can’t go very fast and have problems in severe weather. Compared to jet airplanes going 500 mph in any kind of weather, dirigibles have trouble competing.

SEE ALSO Titanic (1912), Seawise Giant Supertanker (1979).

This photo, taken during the initial explosion of the Hindenburg, shows the 804-foot German zeppelin just before subsequent explosions sent the ship crashing to the ground at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, NJ, USA, May 6, 1937.