LZ 129 Hindenburg

"The Hindenburg" redirects here. For the film, see The Hindenburg (film)

File:Zeppelin Picture.jpg

Painting of LZ 129 Hindenburg by Ken Marschall

The Hindenburg moments after catching fire.

LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German zeppelin. Together with its sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II it was the largest aircraft ever built. In its second year of service it was destroyed by a fire while landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on May 6, 1937. A total of 36 people (about one third of those on board) perished in the accident, which was widely reported by film, photographic, and radio media.

The Hindenburg

The Hindenburg on an earlier visit to Lakehurst, 1936

The Hindenburg was named after Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), the President of Germany (1925–1934). It was to have been named the Adolf Hitler but Hugo Eckener, director of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, would not permit that because of his anti-Nazi politics. It was a brand-new, all-duralumin design: 245 m long (804 ft), 41 m in diameter (135 ft), containing 200,000 m³ (7,000,000 ft³) of gas in 16 bags or cells, with a useful lift of 1.099 MN (247,100 pounds), powered by four reversible 890 kW (1,200 horsepower) Daimler-Benz diesel engines, giving it a maximum speed of 135 km/h (84 mph).

The Hindenburg was longer than three Boeing 747s placed end to end, and almost as long as the Titanic. It had cabins for 50 passengers (upgraded to 72 in 1937) and a crew of 61. For aerodynamic reasons, the passenger quarters were contained within the body rather than in gondolas. It was skinned in cotton, doped with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder (both components of solid rocket fuel). Constructed by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1935 at a cost of £500,000, it made its first flight on March 4, 1936. The cost of a ticket from Germany to Lakehurst was US$400, a tremendous amount of money for the depression era (the price equates to about US$5900 in 2006 dollars [1]). The kind of passengers who flew in the Hindenburg were the affluent and leaders of industry at the time.

The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, but a United States military embargo on helium led the Germans to modify the design of the ship to use flammable hydrogen as the lift gas. This also gave the craft approximately 8% higher lifting capacity.

After the first season in winter 1936–7, several changes were made. Because of the greater lifting capacity, ten passenger cabins were added. Nine of them had two beds, and one had four beds. During the first year of service, the airship had a special aluminium Blüthner grand piano on board in the music salon. The Blüthner grand was the first piano in flight and hosted the first broadcast radio "air concert". It was removed to save weight and was not on board in 1937.

The Germans had very advanced scientific and technical experience with hydrogen, and no hydrogen-related fire accidents had occurred on civil zeppelins, so this switch from helium did not cause alarm. Knowing the risks of hydrogen gas, the engineers used various safety measures, including treating the airship's coating to prevent electric sparks. Such was their confidence in their ability to handle hydrogen that a smoking room was present; it was pressurized to keep hydrogen out.

Successful first year

Hindenburg had been in commercial service for more than a year before the accident took place in a field in the United States. It built upon the numerous achievements of its predecessor Graf Zeppelin which had already flown for nearly 1 million miles. During 1936, its first year of commercial operation, the Hindenburg flew 191,583 miles carrying 2,798 passengers and 160 tons of freight and mail. In that year the ship made 17 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean with 10 trips to the US and 7 to Brazil. It also completed a record Atlantic double-crossing in 5 days, 19 hours and 51 minutes in July. The German boxer Max Schmeling was a passenger. He was given a hero's welcome in Frankfurt after defeating Joe Louis.

In May and June 1936, the Hindenburg flew twice over the United Kingdom, primarily the north of England. It has been suggested by the historian Oliver J. Y. Denton in the book The Rose and the Swastika (2001) that the Hindenburg was spying on the north of England.

On August 1 1936, the Hindenburg was present at the opening ceremonies of the eleventh modern day Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Moments before the arrival of Adolf Hitler, the airship crossed over the Olympic stadium trailing the Olympic flag from its tail. (Birchall, 1936)

This success led the Zeppelin Company ('Luftschiffbau Zeppelin') to start plans to expand its airship fleet and trans-Atlantic services.

The disaster

Historic newsreel coverage

	Oh, the humanity!
—Herbert Morrison

The disaster is remembered partly because of extraordinary newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio witness report from the landing field. The crush of journalists was in response to a heavy publicity push about the first trans-Atlantic Zeppelin passenger flight to the US of the year. (The ship had already made one round trip from Germany to Brazil that year.) Morrison's recording was not broadcast until the next day. Parts of his report were later dubbed onto the newsreel footage (giving an incorrect impression to some modern eyes accustomed to live television that the words and film had always been together). Morrison's broadcast remains one of the most famous in history — his plaintive words "Oh, the humanity!" resonate with the impact of the disaster.

Herbert Morrison's famous words should be understood in the context of the broadcast, in which he had repeatedly referred to the large team of people on the field, engaged in landing the airship, as a "mass of humanity." He used the phrase when it became clear that the burning wreckage was going to settle onto the ground, and that the people underneath would probably not have time to escape it. Although there is some speculation as to whether his actual words were "Oh, the humanity" or "all the humanity", (the radio recording is unclear) it was most likely "Oh, the humanity" as the complete sentence is "Oh, the humanity and all the passengers..."

There had been a series of other airship accidents (none of them Zeppelins) prior to the Hindenburg fire, most due to bad weather and most of these accidents were dirigibles of British and US making — both of which had only primitive technology in dirigible manufacture and had not accumulated the scientific knowledge and experience the Germans had. This is particularly strange for the US since balloons and other such craft were used in the world's first Air Force during the American Civil War. However, Zeppelins had an impressive safety record; the Graf Zeppelin had flown safely for more than 1.6 million km (1 million miles) including making the first circumnavigation of the globe. The Zeppelin company was very proud of the fact that no passenger had ever been injured on one of their airships.

The Hindenburg accident changed this. Public faith in airships was shattered by the spectacular movie footage and impassioned live voice recording from the scene. It marked the end of the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airships. Also contributing to this was the arrival of international passenger air travel with the rise of the Pan American Airlines, which regularly crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean much faster than the 130 kilometers an hour (80 miles an hour) that the Hindenburg could do. What the Hindenburg had going for it that the Airlines did not was that one could travel fast in the same comfort one could aboard a ship.

This news report is available in the old time radio circles as well. (Although many transfers of this show are very high pitched, there is a compact disc available of the show in its correct pitch.)

Death toll

Most of the crew and passengers survived. Of 36 passengers and 61 crew, 13 passengers and 22 crew died. Also killed was one member of the ground crew, Navy Linesman Allen Hagaman. Most deaths did not arise from the fire but were suffered by those who leapt from the burning ship. (The lighter-than-air fire burned overhead.) Those passengers who rode the ship on its gentle descent to the ground escaped unharmed. In comparison, almost twice as many perished when the helium-filled USS Akron crashed.

Controversies

There remain three major points of contention: 1) How the fire started, 2) Which material (fabric or gas) started to burn first and 3) Which material (fabric or gas) caused the rapid spread of the fire which traveled from tailfin where the fire started to the nose at a rate of approximately 47 feet per second. The two main theories are the Addison Bain Incendiary Paint theory, which was the subject of a TV program [2], and the traditional theory of hydrogen combustion, which is critical of many of the incendiary paint claims [3]

Cause of ignition

Sabotage theory

At the time, sabotage was commonly put forward as the cause of the fire, in particular by Hugo Eckener, former head of the Zeppelin company and the "old man" of the German airships. (Eckener later publicly endorsed the static spark theory — see below.) The FBI in the United States and others reached the conclusion that this was a red herring. The Zeppelin airships were widely seen as symbols of German and Nazi power. However, the Zeppelin Company was very openly anti-Nazi. Hitler had wanted the Hindenburg named for him. To keep this from happening Zeppelin took swift action, naming it for Hindenburg.

Another proponent of the sabotage hypothesis was Max Pruss, commander of the Hindenburg throughout the airship's career. Pruss flew on nearly every flight of the Graf Zeppelin until the Hindenburg was ready. In a 1960 interview conducted by Kenneth Leish on behalf of Columbia's Oral History Research Office, he described early dirigible use as safe and felt strongly that the fire was caused by sabotage. Pruss stated that on trips to South America, which was a popular destination for German tourists, both ships passed through multiple thunderstorms with lightning striking the ship without any trouble whatsoever.

Several theories as to who the alleged saboteur may have been have been put forward. In particular, some have alleged that Zionist agents working against anti-semitic Germany were behind the fire.

In 1962, A. Hoehling published a book entitled Who Destroyed the Hindenburg?. In the book, Hoehling considers all explanations, and rejects all but sabotage. He alleges that the most likely saboteur is one Eric Spehl, a rigger on the Hindenburg crew who was killed at Lakehurst.

Ten years later, Michael MacDonald Mooney published his own book, The Hindenburg. He, too, alleges that Spehl was the saboteur.

Those putting Spehl forward as the alleged saboteur focus on several historic threads including: the course of Spehl’s own life, his girlfriend’s anti-Nazi connections (she was reportedly a suspected communist opposed to the Nazis); that the fire started near Gas Cell 4 (Spehl’s duty station); the discovery of a dry-cell battery among the wreckage; the fact that Spehl was an amateur photographer familiar with flashbulbs that could have served as an igniter (presumably wired to the above mentioned dry cells); the fact a few crew members near the lower fin had seen what they described as a flash bulb; and rumors about Spehl’s involvement dating from a 1938 Gestapo investigation.

Another suspect was a German acrobat named Joseph Spah. He actually survived the disaster. He brought with him a german shepherd dog named Ulla as a surprise for his children. He often visited the dog and fed and talked to it. Some accuse him of planting a bomb when he was with his dog. They also point out that he made many anti-Nazi jokes. The dog died in the disaster. However, the FBI conducted an investigation on him and found no hard evidence against Spah.

It has even been suggested that Adolf Hitler himself had ordered the Hindenburg to be destroyed in retaliation to Hugo Eckener's anti-Nazi views .

However, opponents of the sabotage hypothesis claimed that no firm evidence, only suppositions, supporting sabotage as a cause of the fire was produced at any of the formal hearings on the matter. The opponents also claim that the sabotage theory rests on selective use of the available evidence. They point out that Spehl could be viewed as a convenient scapegoat as he died in the fire and was hence unable to refute the accusations made against him. These opponents also believe that the sabotage theory was fostered by the children of Max Pruss in an effort to exonerate their father. They also point out that neither of the postwar memoirs of Eckener nor von Schiller contained any support for the notion of "suppressed investigation findings" and, given the timing of the memoirs, there would be little incentive for these two airshipmen to perpetuate a cover-up of the then fallen Nazi regime. This is particularly true of Eckener who had been extremely vocal in his opposition to the Nazis during their rise to power.

And finally, opponents point to the fact that neither of the formal investigations (American and German) concluded in favor of any of the sabotage theories. However, proponents of the sabotage theory point out that any finding of sabotage would have been an embarrassment for the Nazi regime. Thus they speculate that such a finding was suppressed for political reasons. Source: Hindenburg Disaster: Probable cause Opponents of the theory point out that no such political pressure would have been applied to the American inquiry which also concluded against sabotage.

However, keeping true science in mind, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Therefore, there is no evidence that the Hindenburg wasn't sabotaged.

Static spark theory

Another theory that the fire was started by a spark caused by a buildup of static electricity between the airship and the ground. Proponents of the "static spark" theory point out that the airship's skin was not constructed in a way that allowed its charge to be evenly distributed, and the skin was separated from the duralumin frame by nonconductive ramie cords. This may have allowed a potential difference between the wet Zeppelin and the ground to form. In order to make up for a delay of over 12 hours in its trans-atlantic flight, the ship passed through a weather front with a high electrical charge and where the humidity was high. This made the mooring lines wet and thus conductive. As the ship moved through the air, its skin may have become charged. When the wet mooring lines connected to the duralumin frame touched the ground, they would have grounded the frame. The grounding of the frame may thus have caused an electrical discharge between the skin and the grounded frame. Some witnesses reported seeing a glow consistent with St. Elmo's fire along the tail portion of the ship just before the flames broke out, although these reports were made after the official inquiry was completed. The hydrogen in the airship did not catch fire until the skin had burned through. The Hindenburg's metal and cotton skin was covered with a highly flammable finish. When the mooring line touched the ground, the electricity built up in the frame could have passed through the line and ignited the skin.

A variant on this theory, presented by Addison Bain, is that there was a spark between segments of the Hindenburg itself.

Lightning theory

A. J. Dessler, former director of the Space Science Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and a critic of the Incendiary Paint Theory, claims that there is a much simpler explanation for the conflagration: namely, natural lightning. The Hindenburg was not unusual in the fact that it had been struck by lightning several times previously. This does not normally cause a conflagration in hydrogen-lifted airships, despite the high ignition energy, because the hydrogen is not mixed with oxygen. However, many fires have been documented as started by lightning while airships were venting hydrogen in preparation for landing, as the Hindenburg was doing at the time. The vented hydrogen is mixed with air, making it readily combustible. He cites an airship rule from the time, "Never blow off gas during a thunderstorm."

Initial fuel for combustion

Most current analysis of the accident assumes that ignition due to some form of electricity is correct. However, there is still a controversy as to whether the fabric covering of the ship or the hydrogen used for buoyancy was the initial fuel for the fire.

Incendiary paint theory

IPT Proponents believe that the major component in the fire was the skin because of the doping compound used on it. In a TV show on the subject, Dr. Addison Bain burned a piece of the actual fabric which collectors had taken from the site the day the Hindenburg burned and crashed. There are still many such fragments and large pieces that survive that were scattered all over the Lakeworth field. One piece that remains intact, is the radio operator's chair that is displayed at the Frontiers of Flight Museum on Love Field Airport in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Bain has worked with hydrogen as part of the NASA space program until his retirement. His work led him to believe that hydrogen was not the cause of the fire as so many unquestioningly stated in the aftermath of the fire.

Proponents point out that the coatings on the fabric contained both iron oxide and aluminium-impregnated cellulose acetate butyrate dope. These components were potentially reactive. In fact, iron oxide and aluminium are sometimes used as components of solid rocket fuel or thermite.

Bain also received permission from the German government to look through the old archives and discovered that the German scientists during the time of the Nazi regime concluded that the paint on the canvas of the Hindenburg was indeed the cause of the conflagration. Bain interviewed the wife of the lead scientist of the German investigation, and she confirmed that her husband had told her all about the discovery and instructed her to not tell anyone about it. The results of the German conclusion would likely have embarrassed the Nazi government (Secrets of the Dead, KCET, October 11, 2006).

Some opponents of this theory point to the fact that the hydrogen gas in the Hindenburg was "odorised" with garlic so that any leaks could be detected, and that there were no reports of garlic odors during the flight or prior to the fire. Proponents of the flammable fabric theory point out that odorized hydrogen would only be detected in the area of a leak. The fire started near the ship's top, an area devoid of personnel. Since any leaking hydrogen would have moved upward, away from any personnel, there could possibly have been a hydrogen leak in the area where the fire started with no smell detected.

Proponents of the theory point out that Hindenburg was also seen to stay aloft for a relatively long period of time after the fire started, instead of immediately tilting and falling as it would have if the hydrogen cells were ruptured.

Objections to the incendiary paint theory

Opponents of the theory point out that cellulose acetate butyrate dope is rated within the plastics industry as combustible but nonflammable. It will burn when placed within a fire but will not readily ignite by itself. It is considered to be self-extinguishing. The fact that so many pieces of the Hindenburg's fabric remain despite such a fierce firestorm are cited as proof of this. While the coating components were potentially reactive, they were not only in opposite proportions, but also only applied on part of the ship and were separated by a layer of material (cellulose acetate butyrate) that would have prevented their mingling and reaction. Occasionally the Hindenburg's cellulose acetate is incorrectly identified as (or stated as being similar to) cellulose nitrate, which, like most nitrates, burns readily. Claims of the material being like "rocket fuel" are dismissed as being misguided on several counts, such as the presence of an oxidizer in rocket fuels and a misunderstanding of the rate at which rocket fuels burn, which are nowhere near the requisite velocity and require high pressures.

The ignition of the fabric is similarly dismissed. They note that in addition to the Hindenburg having suffered lightning strikes in the past, Bain had to use a high-energy ignition source and orient the fabric properly just to get it to burn.

While proponents of the theory point out that, after the disaster, the Zeppelin company's engineers determined this skin material was the cause, opponents of the theory counter that Hindenburg had flown for over a year (and through several lightning storms, taking several strikes) with no reports of adverse chemical reactions, much less fires on the fabric.

Opponents of the theory claim that any delay in the ship's descent was the result of buoyancy forces and their effect upon the inertia of the ship's considerable mass. They point to pictures which show the fire burning along straight lines that happen to be the boundaries between different gas cells, suggesting that the fire was not burning along the skin (which was continuous), but within discrete cells. The total event, initiation of the fire and its near total destruction upon the ground, took only 37 seconds.

Additionally, the newsreel footage clearly shows something burning inside the keel, which probably means the fire started inside the ship. Source: Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause

Rate of flame propagation

Regardless of the source of ignition or the initial fuel for the fire, there remains a third point of controversy with regard to the cause of the rapid spread of the flames along the length of the ship. Here again the debate has centered on the culpability of fabric covering of the ship vs. the hydrogen used for buoyancy.

The proponents of the Incendiary Paint Theory also contend that the fabric coatings were responsible for the rapid spread of the flames. They point out that hydrogen burns invisibly (emitting light in the UV range), so the visible flames (see photo) of the fire could not have been caused by the hydrogen gas. The motion picture films show downward burning.

Opponents of the IPT theory point out that once the fire started, all of the components of the ship (fabric, gas, metal, etc.) burned. So, while it may be that the combustion of the metal and fabric changed the color of the flame, the presence of color does not imply that hydrogen did not also burn. Also, while all fires generally tend to burn upward, including hydrogen fires, the enormous radiant heat from the burning of all of the materials of the ship would have quickly led to ignition over the entire surface of the ship, thus explaining the downward propagation of the flames. They observe that World War I airships, made using completely different materials but also filled with hydrogen, also burned, suggesting that the glow is of a mechanism similar to that in a gas lantern.

Opponents also cite recent technical papers [4] which claim that even if the ship had been coated with typical rocket fuel (as is often stated in the press), it would have taken many hours to burn — not the 37 seconds that it actually took. Proponents claim that this doesn't take into account the conditions that lead to firestorms, such as convection and ignition from radiant energy.

Additional opposition to the IPT is found in a set of modern[5] experiments, recreating the fabric and coating materials of the Hindenburg, which contradict the IPT theory. These experiments conclude that it would have taken about 40 hours for the Hindenburg to have burned if the fire had been driven by combusting fabric. These experiments, as well as other industrial tests of the coating materials, conclude that the covering materials were combustible but nonflammable. Two additional scientific papers[6] also strongly reject the IPT.

Other controversial hypotheses

Structural Failure

In the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen a 33-foot full scale replica of the Hindenburg's passenger quarters show some metal fatigue. Some believed that although Captain Pruss believed that the ship can withstand tight turns without much damage, the ship would still get repeatedly stressed leading to the puncture theory below.

There was also evidence of damage on previous flights. The ship did not get much routine inspection and the ship once lost an engine and almost drifted into Africa where it could have crashed. Dr Eckener was furious and ordered all section chiefs to inspect the ship during flight. March of 1936, the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg made a three day flight dropping leaflets and making speeches via a loudspeaker. Captain Ernst Lehmann made the Hindenburg in very gusty conditions at full engine power to impress all those watching on that day. The Ship's tail strucked the ground and broke part of the lower fin [7]. Many spectators had their cameras confiscated that day to remove any negative propaganda. However Harold G. Dick hid his camera and took pictures of the damaged fin. Dr. Eckener got very upset and criticized Captain Lehmann in so many worlds:

"How could you, Herr Lehmann, order the ship to be brought out in such wind conditions. You had the best excuse in the world for postponing this idiotic flight; instead, you risk the ship, merely to avoid annoying Herr Goebbels. Do you call this showing a sense of responsibility towards our enterprise?"

The Hindenburg can also be seen in the film footage and the pictures of the disaster cracking or bending, leading some to say that the ship's structure was rather weak.

This theory has not been very popular because it has to be combined with another theory.

Puncture theory

Another popular theory put forward referred to the film footage taken during the disaster, in which the Hindenburg can be seen taking a rather sharp turn prior to bursting into flames. Some experts speculate that one of the many bracing wires within the structure of the airship may have snapped and punctured the fabric of one or more of the internal gas cells. They refer to gauges found in the wreckage that showed that the tension of the wires was much too high. The punctured cells would have allowed hydrogen out of the Hindenburg, which could have been ignited by the static discharge mentioned previously. Advocates of this theory believe that the hydrogen began to leak approximately eight minutes prior to the explosion, building up until the spark ignited the gas. This theory, however, remains speculation, because no concrete evidence has shown that the gas cells were punctured and no witness accounts back up this hypothesis. However, persons on board the ship heard a muffled sound and a ground crew member said they heard a crack which some speculate to be a bracing wire cracking. Additionally, Dr. Eckener also blamed Captain Pruss for rushing the landing maneuver and how he handled it. Source: Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause

Fuel leak

The 2001 documentary Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause suggested another theory. A 16-year-old boy had smelled what he described as gasoline when he was standing below the Hindenburg's aft port engine. During the investigation, commander Charles Rosendahl dismissed this clue. Some have suggested he had smelled diesel fuel, which could have leaked and could have created highly inflammable oil vapor that could have ignited the ship. They also suggested that overheating engines may have played a role in the theory. This theory does somehow support the crew members seeing a flashbulb-like explosion. Although most fuel tanks were near the keel catwalk and not the axial catwalk, there were a few fuel lines that were leading towards the landing lights.

Luger Pistol among wreckage

Some more sensational newspapers at the time said that a person on board committed suicide because a Luger pistol with one shell fired was found among the wreckage. Another possibility would be that the Hindenburg was shot with the pistol. Source: Hindenburg: An Illustrated History Most historians discount this story as having only circumstantial and incidental evidence.

Cultural references

Audio

• The 1938 radio drama version of "War of the Worlds" uses the reporting of the Hindenburg disaster as inspiration for their style of reporting the Martian invasion.
• The words for the song, "The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)", on Captain Beefheart's album, Trout Mask Replica, are based on Herbert Morrison reporting of the Hindenburg disaster.
• English rock group Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album has a picture of the Hindenburg disaster on the front cover. The band's name is a reference to Keith Moon's quotation that the band would "go over like a lead zeppelin." The album cover is in fact an illustration of the famous UPI photograph, drawn with a Rapidograph pen and ink by graphic artist George Hardie.
• Folk/blues musician Huddie Ledbetter (AKA Leadbelly) wrote a two-part song about the Hindenburg crash, called "The Hindenburgh Disaster".
• In the Simpsons episode Bart the Fink, Bart's checkbook is actually a flipbook animation of the Hindenburg disaster.
• In the Simpsons episode Lisa the Beauty Queen, Barney is in control of the Duff Blimp (a parody of the Hindenburg) and makes a severe turn. The blimp explodes and Kent Brockman echoes Morrison's words: "Oh, the humanity!", before returning to reporting on the opening of the Danish superchain, Shøp, in Springfield.
• In the WKRP episode Turkeys Away live turkeys are thrown out of a helicopter in a Thanksgiving Day promotion. The turkeys are unable to fly and crash to the ground. Les Nessman, with tears in his eyes, exclaims "Oh, the humanity" in a parody of the Hindenburg radio broadcast.
• On the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, the characters frequently quote Morrison's words: "Oh the Humanity!" (or a similar phrase) whenever something explodes.

Other

• The Hindenburg is the primary motif of the first section of Three Tales by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot.

• The black comedy and mock children's television show, Wonder Showzen, features a clip of the Hindenburg burning to the ground in its opening credits.

• In the anime Kiki's Delivery Service, high winds cause a dirigible to lift off with a young boy desperately holding on to one of its tie down ropes, a reference to an incident that happened to the USS Akron. In the Streamline/JAL dub, a television reporter covering the incident states, "Oh the Humanity!"

• In the Computer Game World of Warcraft theres a Zeppelin master whose name is Hindenburg.

See also

• Crash cover
• Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage
• Herbert Morrison
• The Hindenburg (1975 Movie)
• List of Airship Accidents
• Zeppelin
• Harold G. Dick was an American engineer who flew on most of the Hindenburg flights.

References

• Birchall, Frederick (August 1, 1936). "100,000 Hail Hitler; U.S. Athletes Avoid Nazi Salute to Him". The New York Times, p. 1.
• Duggan, John (2002). LZ 129 "Hindenburg" — The Complete Story. Ickenham, UK: Zeppelin Study Group. ISBN 0-9514114-8-9.

External links

• Video of the incident
• Page at Great Zeppelins website, with various pictures
• Complete passenger and crew listing
• Footage from Castle and Pathé coverage of the Hindenburg disaster
• An Article Supporting the Flammable Fabric Theory
• Two Articles Rejecting the Flammable Fabric Theory
• Experiments Reject the Flammable Fabric Theory
• FBI investigation into the Hindenburg disaster
• Harold G. Dick was an American engineer who flew on most Hindenburg flights.
• CD of the Hindenburg Disaster WLS news report
• Hindenburg Fire Video at Internet Archive
• "The Hindenburg" - Failure Magazine (January 2002)
• Zeppelin Company -- the company is still in the airship business today