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Hindenburg: Last of the Great Airships

J.M. Syken

Course Outline

In this course, we will examine the developments in lighter-than-air flight leading to the design and construction of the last great commercial airship – the Hindenburg (a.k.a. “LZ-129”). We will examine the origins of lighter-than-air flight commencing in the middle ages, through the early “free-balloon” flights of the late 18th and early 19th century/s through to the development of “dirigible” (steerable) balloons by the middle/late 19th century. This will include the evolution of various means of propulsion including wind, steam, electric and gasoline power. The various types of lighter-than-air vessels and their design and performance characteristics will also be reviewed.

Furthermore, we will review the life and work of Count Fedinand von Zeppelin including his early interest in lighter-than-air flight, the design, construction and experimental flights in 1900 of his first “Luftschiff (Airship) Zeppelin,” LZ-1 and subsequent Zeppelins built by the Zeppelin Company before, during and after the first world war. The tangential development of rigid airships in the United States and Great Britain and their successes and failures will also be discussed in-depth. The highly successful career of Hindenburg’s immediate predecessor – Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127) will be highlighted and discussed as well. The events and aftermath of the catastrophic destruction of Hindenburg on May 6th 1937 will be discussed in-depth as well as the future prospects of airships in the wake of the disaster.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

• Understand/appreciate the quest by man to “fly like the birds” dating back to the ancient world;
• Understand/appreciate the early conceptual development/s of both lighter and heavier-than-air flight during the middle ages in Europe;
• Understand/appreciate the role of early experimenters in lighter-than-air  flight in France in the late 18th century leading to the first successful manned flight by the Montgolfier Brothers in a free-balloon;
• Understand/appreciate the development of a “dirigible” (steerable) lighter-than-air balloon and the evolution of its aerodynamic design, control and propulsion;
• Understand/appreciate the background and life of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and the critical role he played in the evolution of the rigid dirigible airship;
• Understand/appreciate the development of “Zeppelins” before, during and after WWI and how the war hastened the development of rigid airships and the role they played during the war as bombers and scouts;
• Understand/appreciate the development of airships in the U.S. and U.K.;
• Understand/appreciate the various types of lifting gases and their inherent problems;
• Understand/appreciate the design, construction and career of Graf Zeppelin and how in the early late 1920s/early 1930s it demonstrated the feasibility of Zeppelins for long-distance air travel;
• Understand/appreciate the development on the Hindenburg from a commercial, design, construction and technical perspective;
• Understand/appreciate the events leading up to and including the catastrophic destruction of Hindenburg at the Lakehurst, N.J. Naval Air Station on May 6th 1937;
• Understand/appreciate the various theories, conclusions etc. concerning the cause of the disaster; and
• Understand/appreciate the aftermath of the disaster and the development of airships immediately after the calamity through to the present.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for architects, engineers and other design professionals.

Benefit to Attendees

The attendee/s will gain an intimate knowledge and insight into the history of lighter-than-air flight leading up to the design/construction/destruction of the greatest airship of them all: Hindenburg.

Course Introduction

The course includes an in-depth PowerPoint presentation and the viewing a documentary film.

Course Content

In this course, you are required to view/study the following slideshow and the materials contained in the web pages:

Hindenburg: Last of the Great Airships (printable handout in PDF, 18 MB, see Note A below for downloading instruction)
Hindenburg: Last of the Great Airships (non-printable slideshow for screen-viewing only, 91 MB, see Note A below for downloading instruction)

Archival/Documentary Film:

TITLE: Seconds from Disaster: The Hindenburg
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKo7IpwU5X8
DURATION: 47:03

TITLE: Lost Worlds: The Age of Airships
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZvQ9FApYns
DURATION: 40:48

Note A: Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right-clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader from your computer.

Course Summary

She was the Concorde of her era, a “silver sliver” gliding gracefully through the air at an altitude low enough to make the view interesting and ever changing. Seasickness was unknown on the Hindenburg and she cut the time to make a trans-Atlantic crossing from four to just two days for her well-heeled passengers. For all her grace and Teutonic efficiency, she was doomed from her conception. Her enormous size was in response to the destruction of the British R-101 with terrible loss of life; not from the crash itself, but the ensuing hydrogen fire. Nonflammable helium was to be used rather than flammable hydrogen as her lifting gas thus she needed to be larger to offset the reduced lifting capacity of helium. Alas, America had a monopoly on helium reserves/production and banned its export, especially to a potential enemy such as Nazi Germany represented as war clouds gathered in the 1930s. There had been worse airship disasters with greater loss of life than Hindenburg, but they were out-of-sight of the motion picture camera with only their aftermath recorded. Hindenburg’s death was a public spectacle like no other, effectively ending the golden age of airship travel.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg

http://archive.org/details/NewsreelsHindenburgCrash
(Newsreel Compilation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=k60YoKKiayE
(R-100 Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-nwumcrgw
(Goodyear Blimp Flight Test - 11:43)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CamkAonyprk
(Film: Hindenburg - Titanic of the Skies - 1:40:03)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjtGB1wC_hY
(Film: History of Heavy Dirigibles and Airships - 40:41)

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.