On May 6th 1937 the Hindenburg, a Nazi passenger blimp, as large, grand and doomed as the Titanic fell from the sky. Herb Morrison is quoted saying “it’s burst into flame … get out of the way , please,oh my, this is terrible.. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers. For more information on the Hindenburg Click here. There are three theories as to what happened on that awful day,for information on the three theories Click here. There were witness’s watching the ship land and reported many strange happenings to read about these Click here. To see pictures of the ship Click here. There are Essential words that can be tied to this project for information click here.

May 6 th was the date of the disaster.

The ship was to land at Lakehurst airfield

It was filled with 804-foot 7millioncubic feet of hydrogen

61crew

36 passengers

92 navy and 139 civilian ground crew

36 people total died only one was a ground crew

It was the first trip of the 1937 season the blimp had already completed 10 trips

1,002 passengers had already completed the trip.

Round trip cost $720, one way $400

The ship had large common spaces, fine food, and a baby grand piano.

It was flown at an altitude of 650 feet .

With a Speed of 78mph

Lead by Captain Pruss

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Lighting storms and strong head winds delayed the landing from 6am to 4pm. Winds of 25 knots made it dangerous for the lighter than air ship to land. At 6:00pm it started raining by 6:12pm it was clear. Captain Pruss tried to slow the blimp down in order to lower its altitude, and than made a sharp left turn. At 7:21pm The Hidenburg was still 300 ft in the air and 1000 ft away from the landing site. At this point a mushroom shaped flame rose from in front of the tail section. Around 7:25 pm witnesses heard a large boom. After that it took 34 seconds for the blimp to go up in smoke. Some passengers jumped or fell to their death but many were rescued after the ship hit the ground. Back

             

•The first theory is that US helium prices were too high so the Germans used hydrogen instead. The hydrogen had a gas leak and was ignited by a spark of electricity. This theory is discredited because helium would not have supported the blimps design.

•Second theory is that the air ship wasn’t grounded properly in one or more sections allowing static electricity. This can be discredited because the mooring lines were not conductors. So static electricity could not have gotten close enough to the blimp to cause it to spark.

•The third and most believed explanation is that the “skin” of the ship had aluminum powder, cellulose nitrate, and iron oxide which is similar to rocket powder. This can be backed up because the Hidenburg did not explode, it burned. The fire had color and a hydrogen fire isn't visible. The airship didn’t crash immediately after the fire started but waited 32 seconds in the air. Also, the hydrogen was given the smell of garlic for leak detection and there were no leaks reported.

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One Essential word that relates to the Hindenburg is Propaganda. This word relates because the nazi( they funded the ship) put swastikas on the blimp and I guess its negative propaganda for them because it killed 36 people.

A Second word would be innovators. The Germans made the first passenger blimp first and bigger than anyone else.

http://www.otr.com/hindenburg.html