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KF5JRV > TODAY 06.05.19 13:31l 45 Lines 2327 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 35857_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - May 06
Path: IW8PGT<HB9CSR<IK7NXU<HB9ON<IW2OHX<IR1UAW<F1OYP<ON0AR<GB7CIP<N3HYM<
KF5JRV
Sent: 190506/1126Z 35857@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride
of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in
Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers.
Frenchman Henri Giffard constructed the first successful airship in
1852. His hydrogen-filled blimp carried a three-horsepower steam engine
that turned a large propeller and flew at a speed of six miles per hour.
The rigid airship, often known as the “zeppelinö after the last name of
its innovator, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was developed by the
Germans in the late 19th century. Unlike French airships, the German
ships had a light framework of metal girders that protected a gas-filled
interior. However, like Giffard’s airship, they were lifted by highly
flammable hydrogen gas and vulnerable to explosion. Large enough to
carry substantial numbers of passengers, one of the most famous rigid
airships was the Graf Zeppelin, a dirigible that traveled around the
world in 1929. In the 1930s, the Graf Zeppelin pioneered the first
transatlantic air service, leading to the construction of the
Hindenburg, a larger passenger airship.
On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg left Frankfurt, Germany, for a journey
across the Atlantic to Lakehurst’s Navy Air Base. Stretching 804 feet
from stern to bow, it carried 36 passengers and crew of 61. While
attempting to moor at Lakehurst, the airship suddenly burst into flames,
probably after a spark ignited its hydrogen core. Rapidly falling 200
feet to the ground, the hull of the airship incinerated within seconds.
Thirteen passengers, 21 crewmen, and 1 civilian member of the ground
crew lost their lives, and most of the survivors suffered substantial
injuries.
Radio announcer Herb Morrison, who came to Lakehurst to record a routine
voice-over for an NBC newsreel, immortalized the Hindenberg disaster in
a famous on-the-scene description in which he emotionally declared, “Oh,
the humanity!ö The recording of Morrison’s commentary was immediately
flown to New York, where it was aired as part of America’s first
coast-to-coast radio news broadcast. Lighter-than-air passenger travel
rapidly fell out of favor after the Hindenberg disaster, and no rigid
airships survived World War II.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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