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Hindenburg Goes Down in Flames


Eric
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On this day (May 5th), 1937, the Zeppelin Hindenburg burst into flames and was destroyed, in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The video is interesting. I hadn’t known that the Hindenburg had circled the landing field for three hours, repeatedly dumping water ballast from the stern. Apparently, even with the ballast having been dumped, the Hindenburg had continued to settle by the stern. I have heard about this disaster all my life, but I guess I never paid much attention to what was going on before the explosion and fire.  

 

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I saw a NOVA (?) episode a few years ago that showed spectrographs which indicated the aluminized coating on the Hindenburg's outer skin was the source of most of the fire as opposed to the hydrogen.

i.e., (and TBO probably knows this) it was a dope-related disaster.

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35 minutes ago, gwalchmai said:

Macon, Akron, and Shenandoah were wind-related crashes, though, weren't they? IIRC, they used helium instead of the burny stuff.

Yep, all weather related and helium filled ( we had the helium market and would not sell any to Germany; hence the hydrogen in the Hindenburg.

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During this era, dirigibles were seen as potential war machines, so Helium was a strategic material, as determined by the USA, that would enhance the durability and safety of a foreign powers war machines.  Remember the first bombing of England was done with dirigibles so this evaluation was proven out.

 

Edited by janice6
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I saw the three Goodyear blimps flying in formation (and later read that it had never happened before) over Toledo.

They were in a staggered triangle.  The brand-new,  just commissioned one in the rear,  an experienced one in the middle, and one going to it's retirement / decommissioning at the front. 

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Just now, Huaco Kid said:

I saw the three Goodyear blimps flying in formation (and later read that it had never happened before) over Toledo.

They were in a staggered triangle.  The brand-new,  just commissioned one in the rear,  an experienced one in the middle, and one going to it's retirement / decommissioning at the front. 

After the hurricane destroyed the Florida Goodyear blimp in 1979 or 1980, they built its replacement, but its new hanger wasn’t finished yet. So it was sent to a Houston, where it shared the Houston blimp’s hanger. I remember seeing the two of them nestled into that one hanger. I was twelve at the time. I remember thinking it looked like a hanger with cleavage. 

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On 5/5/2019 at 10:16 AM, willie-pete said:

Yep, all weather related and helium filled ( we had the helium market and would not sell any to Germany; hence the hydrogen in the Hindenburg.

I'm surprised that more hasn't been made of that - that the US had all the Helium, wouldn't sell it to the Germans, forcing them to use Hydrogen, leading to the Hindenburg and paving the way for the Nazis..........

........or some damn thing.

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I don't believe that the Nazi's needed Helium to change their political goals to be peaceful.  It would have simply been a means for them to safely increase the numbers of their dirigibles capable of long distance bombing to support their military.  Lighter than air was the weapon of choice at that time.

Edited by janice6
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On 5/5/2019 at 9:36 AM, gwalchmai said:

I saw a NOVA (?) episode a few years ago that showed spectrographs which indicated the aluminized coating on the Hindenburg's outer skin was the source of most of the fire as opposed to the hydrogen.

i.e., (and TBO probably knows this) it was a dope-related disaster.

I recall hearing that as well, but whenever I would mention it, people would look at me like I was nutz. (they may have just been looking at me that way because of the way I look, but I took it as due to the tidbit I was sharing).

 

Anyway, glad to hear it from someone else. 

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Fine Aluminum particles are known to be tremendous accelerants in fire.  I'm sure your absolutely right in your speculation!

Verification:

 

"...Abstract
To solve the low reaction efficiency of aluminum powder in thermobaric explosive, some aluminum accelerants were selected. The combustion-support role and the properties of these accelerants and their mixture with aluminum and the influence law of accelerants on the high temperature oxidation process and ignition temperature of aluminum powder obtained by differential thermal analyzer(TG-DSC)and the simple ignition device were studied. Several explosive formulas were designed and the applied effect of aluminum containing accelerant in explosive was verified. The result shows that accelerant and aluminum powder can be mixed up by colloid mill, PTFE, CuO, Fe2O3, Ni and boron can play a certain combustion-support role and improve the energy of explosive...",  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292935342_Aluminum_accelerant_and_its_role_in_explosive
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https://blogs.nasa.gov/Rocketology/tag/aluminum/

"Solid rocket fuel is the original rocket fuel, dating back to the early fireworks developed by the Chinese centuries ago. For the SLS boosters, aluminum powder serves as the fuel and a mineral salt, ammonium perchlorate, is the oxidizer. "

 

 

It worked pretty good for the Space Shuttle also.

I wonder if the Germans realized they painted the Hindenburg with rocket fuel   :Alex:

Edited by willie-pete
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3 hours ago, willie-pete said:

I wonder if the Germans realized they painted the Hindenburg with rocket fuel   :Alex:

"Ya, vee haf painted zee zeppelin mit der rocketzeeboomboompowder. Und vee haf seen zee lady on der GlockTalkenVebSite mit der zeppelin titties. Ja Ja Ja!!"

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