Posted: 9/4/2012 6:24:17 PM EDT
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What the hell were they thinking when they built those things?
crash crash w/live comments Seconds from disaster analyzed the disaster and found that two moves that Captain Pruss ordered caused a bracing wire to snap and rip into a hydrogen bag, releasing hydrogen loose into the Hindenburg. The Hindenburg was wet due to rain, which meant that the mooring cables were wet enough to ground the electrical build up in the metal frame, causing a spark that ignited the loose hydrogen. That is our best guess as to why it happened.
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point.
LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. |
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LOL 
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I sometimes wonder how long super massive airships would have persisted, and in what manner, had the Hindenburg incident never occurred. probably not long. heavier than air travel was rapidly improving. the infrastructure for airships was a major bitch. It was hard to scale the service beyond a first class passenger base also. Those fuckers were also in deep shit in anything less than ideal weather. Helium only eliminated the problem of explosion/fire. Helium reserves are thought to be very finite and very limited. You cannot "make" helium. Hydrogen on the other hand is cheap, but has the obvious combustion issues. They do have a certain art-deco romanticism to them though. 
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. |
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. Oh ok, we wanted the german airships to blow up. right. We also bought airships from Germany. |
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. IIRC you're right and not only did the US own the known helium supply, it was specifically prohibited from being sold to Germany at the time. |
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. IIRC you're right and not only did the US own the known helium supply, it was specifically prohibited from being sold to Germany at the time. Because we had our own fledgling airship fleet. Strategy and business, not politics. Helium was to be an industrial commodity that the US could sell to Germany or other airship operators later on. |
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Glad I wasn't the only one. It's awful but I rost hard 
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. Oh ok, we wanted the german airships to blow up. right. We also bought airships from Germany. Okay, just ignore what I told you about the bullshit username. I did a search and we attempted, on the sly, to buy a Zep, but it fell through. Now, if you have a list of Zeps that we bought, I would like to see it. |
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. Oh ok, we wanted the german airships to blow up. right. We also bought airships from Germany. Okay, just ignore what I told you about the bullshit username. I did a search and we attempted, on the sly, to buy a Zep, but it fell through. Now, if you have a list of Zeps that we bought, I would like to see it. Los Angeles. Navy had a good run of crashing their helium ships into the pacific. You should know this. |
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. Oh ok, we wanted the german airships to blow up. right. We also bought airships from Germany. Okay, just ignore what I told you about the bullshit username. I did a search and we attempted, on the sly, to buy a Zep, but it fell through. Now, if you have a list of Zeps that we bought, I would like to see it. The USS Los Angeles would be one. |
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Quoted: You cannot "make" helium.
Actually, you can. Bomardment of lithium with high-speed protons (or neutrons, I forget which), is one of many ways. However, it would be costly as all get out. Most of our naturally occuring helium is slowly escaping into space from the upper atmospher. |
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Hydrogen airships actually had a pretty good safety record up until that point. LarryG36 is correct. The USA had the majority of known helium resources. But it would be wrong to imply that the market was cornered as some political move against Germany, who we were not yet at war with.. It was a strategic move, but was still on the market, just not in quantity. Damn, that's some pathetic shit. For one thing, the user LarryG36, got arrested for some major shit a few years ago, so don't fucking associate that name with me. And you can go on believing that is was not political to cut them off. Oh ok, we wanted the german airships to blow up. right. We also bought airships from Germany. Actually, we got most of them as war reparations post-WWI. |
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Quoted: Navy wasn't particularly succesful with Macon, Akron, or our war reparation Zeppilin (but in Germany by Zeppillin) Los Angeles either. All lost Most of that was incompetence of the highest order. At least if you believe certain officers that were shunned for speaking out. |
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Quoted: You cannot "make" helium.
Actually, you can. Bomardment of lithium with high-speed protons (or neutrons, I forget which), is one of many ways. However, it would be costly as all get out. Most of our naturally occuring helium is slowly escaping into space from the upper atmospher. Also nuclear fusion. If it ever becomes a commercial reality. |
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They were thinking of filling it with Helium but they couldn't get enough so.... Almost all helium in the world for a long time was a byproduct of some natural gas wells in the Amarillo area. We embargoed the sale to Nazi germany - I'm not sure why. arc welding cover gas, aluminium as I recall, or at least blended into the cover gas |
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Quoted: You cannot "make" helium.
Actually, you can. Bomardment of lithium with high-speed protons (or neutrons, I forget which), is one of many ways. However, it would be costly as all get out. Most of our naturally occuring helium is slowly escaping into space from the upper atmospher. Also nuclear fusion. If it ever becomes a commercial reality. Yes. Aware of both. It was not something on the table in the 30's though. |
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Navy wasn't particularly succesful with Macon, Akron, or our war reparation Zeppilin (but in Germany by Zeppillin) Los Angeles either. All lost Most of that was incompetence of the highest order. At least if you believe certain officers that were shunned for speaking out. I am going to correct myself –– after looking it up, Los Angeles was stricken and broken up, not lost –– Shenedoh was lost too, not Los Angles. Britian lost a passembger airship on the way to India R-124 or somehting like that ETA: 
Los Angeles with a little bit of a down angel
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The only place they could get enough helium to fill it was from the US Govt, which owned virtually all the helium in the world at the time, and the US Govt wasn't about to sell helium to Hitler! Back then it wasn't universally available like it is now, now they have more helium than they know what to do with, the US Govt still owns most of the helium in the world, our "Strategic Helium Reserve", but nobody seems to think we even need that anymore. The biggest question is....if there is so much more supply than demand, why the HELL does it cost so much to fill some birthday balloons? |
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The Hindenburgs aluminum paint was more of a fire hazard than her hydrogen was.
In WWI it took hundreds of rounds of incendiary machine gun ammunition to set one on fire. The speed of heavier than air aircraft would have eventually pushed them out of buisness though. The problem Zepplens had with attitude control in wind and with changes in temperature were exactly the same as those faced by early submarines. Amazingly no one made the connection that lighter than air craft needed the equivilant of bow planes, canards, to keep them stable. Blimps still dont have them, they have just abandoned the idea of flyng them in any but perfect weather conditions |