Launched in 1936, the Hindenburg airship, the largest aircraft in history, promised to cross the Atlantic in record time and in the greatest comfort. The ascent of the lighter than air came to an abrupt end with the crash that claimed the lives of 36 people in 1937.
It is one of the most famous news images of the 20th century: on May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames as it clung to its mooring tower in New Jersey. Transformed into a torch, it crashes with slow, tragic majesty, killing 36 people.
The Hindenburg was then the most impressive and advanced aircraft on the planet.
The crossing of the Atlantic on the fast liner Queen Mary took nearly five days. The Hindenburg connected Frankfurt to Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 60 hours.
Passengers will testify to a padded crossing, without motion sickness, barely disturbed by the roar of the engines, hung far behind.
13 of 36 passengers
22 of 61 crew members and observers
1 ground crew member
Talking about an air liner is no exaggeration. The ship stretched 245 meters, only 24 less than the 269 meters of the Titanic.
Her 32 cabins, lounges and dining room were spread over two levels in the lower part of the structure.
Facilities included a reading room, an insulated pressure-controlled smoking room, toilets and a shower. For more lightness, the furniture was made of aluminum tubes – even the on-board grand piano was made of this metal.
The windows, angled to fit into the profile of the hull, provided a dizzying view of the ground over which it flew 200 meters above sea level.
Its builder, the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, was founded in 1908 by an elderly German aristocrat whose name would be given to this class of rigid-structured balloon, a name later taken up by a group that rose to the rock stratosphere.
Dirigible balloons – therefore able to move in the desired direction despite the wind – made their appearance with the invention of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century. They then looked like a soccer ball filled with hydrogen, under which was suspended a piloting basket. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a professional soldier born in 1838, was convinced that their success depended on their size, and he decided to take on the challenge himself.
Supported by a small grant from Kaiser Wilhelm II, plus aluminum and some funds provided by the industrialist Carl Berg, he founded a small company in May 1898 and surrounded himself with a handful of talented engineers.
Under his direction, they designed a light and streamlined metal structure, made up of longitudinal beams connected by peripheral rings. Covered with a canvas that formed its hull, this structure held balloons filled with hydrogen, a gas lighter than air which however had the serious disadvantage of being highly flammable in the presence of oxygen.
Von Zeppelin built a gigantic hangar on the shores of Lake Constance and assembled his first 128-meter-long zeppelin there. The LZ 1 made its first flight in July 1900 under the eyes of 12,000 amazed witnesses. Too fragile, it was damaged during tests carried out in October, which put an end to the adventure.
Backed again by Carl Berg, in 1905 von Zeppelin launched the construction of a series of sturdier and better-powered aerostats. LZ 2 was destroyed on the ground by a storm. The LZ 3 flew successfully, but the LZ 4, whose trials would secure him government contracts, burned down in 1908, ruining his business.
However, public interest and national pride had been titillated. With the donations pouring in, the old count replenished his bank account and started a new company in 1908: the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.
To make his aircraft profitable, in 1909 he founded the first passenger airline in history, the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG).
Although Zeppelin dreamed of civilian transport, its main customer soon became the German government. His dirigibles, first for observation and then for bombing, sowed terror in the English skies during the First World War.
The old count died in 1917. Dr. Hugo Eckener then took command of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.
Launched in 1928, the LZ 127, dubbed Graf Zeppelin, was 237 meters in length, carried 20 passengers and maintained a cruising speed of 115 km/h, as much as an express train.
During its nine years of uninterrupted service, the equivalent of almost two years in flight, it covered 1.7 million kilometers and transported 13,110 passengers without incident. Very often commanded by Hugo Eckener himself, the Graf Zeppelin made 144 transoceanic crossings, including 64 flights to South America, circumnavigated the globe and made a polar expedition.
The LZ 129 project, the future Hindenburg, was launched at the end of 1930. The German designers envisioned a gigantic airship, the size of which would allow it to accommodate a sufficient quantity of helium, a non-flammable but rare gas, which provides 90 % hydrogen sustenance.
However, after Hitler came to power, the United States, the only producers, refused to sell the Zeppelin the smallest molecule of the precious inert gas.
Hugo Eckener was resistant to the demands of Nazi propaganda. He lost virtually all influence in the business when Hermann Goering, Minister of Aviation, detached DELAG from the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1935 to found the airline Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR). Flight tests of the Hindenburg, inflated with hydrogen, were cut short to allow it to make promotional flights.
The drama of Lakehurst may have something to do with it.
In 1936, the Hindenburg carried 1002 passengers in 10 round trips. The tragedy occurred on the second crossing of the 1937 season. Upon arrival in New Jersey, the weather was wet and stormy, thus conducive to the accumulation of static electricity on the waterproof fabric of the aerostat. It caught fire when its mooring cables hit the ground.
Although rumors of sabotage have circulated, the most likely explanation remains a hydrogen leak on one of the gas balloons located aft, which then ignited due to a discharge of static electricity.
Some will consider that the crew, anxious to make up for an unflattering delay for the Nazi regime, did not respect the strict safety instructions introduced by Hugo Eckener.
Following the disaster, the Graf Zeppelin LZ 126 was withdrawn from service. The LZ 130, twin brother of the Hindenburg whose construction was to be completed in October 1937, could not be converted to helium because of the American embargo. They were dismantled at the start of the Second World War to recover the metal. When the conflict ended, the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin went dormant. It will remain so for half a century.
But all was not said.
The revived Luftschiffbau Zeppelin participated in 1993 in the creation of the company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, dedicated to the development of new technology airships. His Zeppelin NT, a 75-meter semi-rigid airship capable of carrying a dozen passengers, entered service in August 2001.
In the UK, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) launched its Airlander 10 hybrid airship in 2016 – a device that will be able to accommodate up to 100 passengers, the company claims. In 2022, it announced an agreement with Spanish airline Air Nostrum to book 10 of its zero-emission airships.
Quebec is also participating in the renaissance of airships. The provincial government has invested in the local subsidiary of Flying Whales, a French company that wants to design them and use them to transport goods to remote areas.