An introduction to the principles of Airships, examples of dirigibles and the 1937 Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, witnessed by the author.

1. ELLIC C-60
Remembering the Hindenburg
or
Whatever happened to the
Great Airships?
Bill Skillman, BR630, 410-242-5037
http://SkillmansofAmerica.com/SkillHome.htm
May 6, 2013

2. Types of Airships
 Balloon: no structure, no
propulsion
 Non-rigid: no structure,
propulsion, AKA Blimp
 Semi-rigid: keel
structure, propulsion
 Rigid: full structure
AKA Dirigible
Zeppelin- German

3. Types of Airships - II

4. How does a non-rigid or semi-rigid
airship keep its shape?
 Answer: Internal pressure
 Ballonets: internal
balloons, pressurized
with air at launch.
 Increased altitude: lifting
gas expands, air released
from ballonets.
 Pressure altitude: all air
gone, gas valved above
pressure altitude.
 Fore/aft ballonets can
control pitch as shown.

5. Rigid Airships have Gas Bags
 Rigid structure maintains shape.
 Multiple gas bags partially filled at launch.
 Increased altitude, expanding gas fills bags.
 Pressure Altitude: bags 100% filled.
 Hindenburg: PA about 800 feet at launch.
 Hindenburg: fuel 28% of total lift capacity.
• Hydrogen valved to balance fuel weight loss.

6. All Airships use a Lifting Gas
to be Lighter Than Air (LTA)
Lift = Weight of air - Weight of gas
Hot air balloons: lift from heated/expanded air
Blimps/dirigibles: lift per 1000 cu.ft.@STP
Hydrogen: 76.36#-5.31#=71.05# (typ. 68#)
Helium: 76.36#-10.54#=65.82# (typ. 60#)
Methane:76.36#- ~38#=38# (typ. 35#)

7. How much could the Hindenburg lift?
 Helium: expensive, US monopoly, lifts 1 lb. Per 16.7 cu. ft.
 Hindenburg originally designed to use He + H2, US – NO!
 Hydrogen: cheap, lifts 1 lb. Per 14.7 cu. ft. All German ships.
 Hindenburg lifting gas capacity: 7 million cu. ft.
 Total lift 238 tons (Helium: 212 tons)
 Structure: 130 tons
 Useful lift: 108 tons (people, food, fuel, mail, freight, etc)
Diesel fuel capacity about 65 tons (28% total lift)
Passengers: 1936: 50, 1937: 72, Crew: about 60

8. Neutral Buoyancy
Airships operate close to neutral buoyancy.
Minimizes fuel to drive up or down
Need to compensate for burn of heavy fuel
Valve H2 to balance
Condense exhaust (Akron, Macon)
Blau gas abt. same wt. as air, replace with air
Used in Graf Zeppelin
If airship heavy, release water ballast

9. Henri Giffard’s Dirigible – 1852
(Dirigible from French dirigeable=directable)
Built in France using 3 HP Steam Engine
Flew but couldn’t cope with head winds

10. Alberto Santos-Dumont Eiffel Tower flight
He flew 1st gasoline-powered
airship in 1898
He circled Eiffel Tower on
10/19/1901 in Airship No.
6 to win Deutsch de la
Meurthe prize.
He was a Brazilian, also
famous for airplanes.

11. LZ-1 the first Zeppelin
 Inventor: Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
 Made by his Luftschiffbau (Airship Company)
 Length: 420 ft., Gas Volume: 400,000 cu. ft.
 First Flight (shown) 7/2/1900, Lake Constance
(Bodensee), near Friedrichshafen, Germany

12. Airship America - 1910
 Adventurer Walter
Wellman’s ship.
 Attempted Atlantic
crossing 10/15/1910.
 Left Atlantic City, NJ,
flew 1008 miles, engine
failure and weather
brought them down to be
rescued by a Royal Mail
ship, the Trent.
 Length 228 ft.
 First use of aircraft to ship
radio
 After rescue airship never
seen again.

13. Airship Akron - 1912
 Melvin Vaniman’s ship.
 Launched Atlantic City,
7/3/1912
 Exploded shortly, all 5
lives lost.

14. Zeppelin over London in WW I
• Many raids over England
• Many shot down!

15. Lakehurst Hangar #1
• Army’s Camp Kendrick converted to
• Naval Air Station (NAS) Lakehurst
• Hangar #1 completed September, 1923
• Height-200’ x Width-350’ x Length-808’

17. Lakehurst Area
• Small town on the
edge of the Pine
Barrens
• Dad walked about
1.3 miles to work
from garage
apartment on
“other” side of RR
tracks

18. ZR-1, Shenandoah, under construction
Hangar #1, Lakehurst

19. Shenandoah leaving Ft. Worth, Texas
Oct. 9, 1924 after refill with Helium
• First flight: Sept. 4 1923, christened October
• Shenandoah=Daughter of the Stars.
• Built in Hangar #1, Lakehurst
• Downed by line squall in Ohio Sept. 3, 1925
• 29 of 43 aboard survived

20. Shenandoah crash at Ava, Ohio

21. Shenandoah Crash
Souvenir Hunters

22. Los Angeles Arrives at Lakehurst NAS
• WW I Reparation, constructed 1923 by Luftschiffbau
Zeppelin GmbH - their 126th airship = LZ126 : ZR-3(Navy)
• Transatlantic delivery from Germany: October, 1924
• Flew 4398 hours in 8 years, decommissioned in 1932,
scrapped 1939.

23. Los Angeles does nose stand!
• August 25, 1927
• Moored at high mast.
• Cold breeze upended.
• Crew of 25 aboard.
• Low mast completed
45 days later.

24. A New Arrival in Lakehurst
• Wilbur - 6th GGS of Immigrant ancestor Thomas, born 1900
• Greta - Immigrated from Sweden in 1901, age 9 mos.
• Met in offices in Hangar #1, married Elkton, MD
• Bill born in garage apartment

25. The Los Angeles over Lakehurst
• Picture taken by
Bill’s Mom
about 1932

26. LZ-127: Graf Zeppelin
• Christened July 8, 1928
• Built in Germany by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Co.
• Round-the-World Aug. 7-29, 1929, 21,000 miles
• Dismantled April, 1940

27. Graf Zeppelin Gondola
• Carried 20 passengers with a crew of 40
• 590 flights with 144 ocean crossings
• More than 1 million miles, 13,110 passengers

28. Graf Zeppelin Gondola

29. Graf Zeppelin Cabin

30. Graf Zeppelin flies at
Charlestown

31. Airship Hospital - 1930

32. Graf Zeppelin at Century of Progress
Chicago 1933

33. ZRS-4 Akron’s Maiden Flight
• Sept. 23, 1932.
• Build by Goodyear, Akron, Ohio.
• April 3, 1933, crashed in storm off N.J.
• 73 of 76 aboard died.

34. Macon: ZRS-5, with two Sparrowhawk Fighters
• First flight April, 1933 - Mfg. by Goodyear, Akron, Ohio
• Sank in storm off Pt. Sur, CA, Feb 12, 1935, 81/83 survived

35. Hindenburg
Souvenir
Book
May 9, 1936

36. Hindenburg D-LZ129
• Probably at Lakehurst, I may be in the picture!

37. Hindenburg at Lakehurst NAS

38. Hindenburg in Hangar #1

39. Hindenburg Passenger Deck Layout

40. Hindenburg Cabin
• Cabin: 6.5’x5.5’,
sink with Hot &
Cold water
• 1936: 25 cabins,
50 passengers
• 1937: 35 cabins,
72 passengers (one
family cabin)

41. Hindenburg Promenade
• 3 of the 6 windows could be opened - no
breeze under way!

42. Hindenburg Dining Room

43. Hindenburg flight time/speed
• Rio flights – 7 in 1936– 6850 mi.
• Lakehurst – 10 in 1936– 4500 mi.
• Top Speed – 85 mph
• Cruise Speed – 75 mph
• Normandie cruise speed – 33 mph
• Cruise altitude – 200-650 feet
• Flight times vary considerably due to
weather conditions and winds aloft

44. Hindenburg’s Final Flight
• Depart Germany
• May 3, 1937 7:16 PM
• Headwinds delay
arrival at Lakehurst to
May 6, 1937 4:15 PM
• Rain delayed landing
until 7:15PM
• Hindenburg over
Princeton Univ. en
route to Lakehurst

45. Landing Approach at Lakehurst

46. Hangar #1 and Administration Bldg.
• Dad’s office was on 2nd floor of Admin. Bldg
(Cshaped)in 1936-7 - originally in side of Hangar #1.
He was administrative ass’t to commanding officer.

48. Hindenburg burning

49. Hindenburg tail on ground
Picture taken near where I stood

50. Hindenburg burning on ground

51. Hindenburg’s Charred Remains

52. Hindenburg Spar

53. Hindenburg Crash Facts
• 35 out of 97 on board died.
• Passengers: 36 on board, 13 died, 23
survived.
• Crew: 61 on board, 22 died, 39 survived,
Capt. Ernst Lehmann died, he had
commanded more than 100 flights on the
Graf and 10 on the Hindenburg.
• Ground crew: 100+ on ground, 1 died.

54. What caused the fire?
• Engine backfire ignited valved H2?
• Static discharge ignited valved H2?
• Broken wire punctured H2 cell?
• Static discharge ignited flammable
cover?
• Gasoline dumped/ignited?
• Bomb?
• YGIAGAM?

55. Hindenburg Memorial
• Hangar #1 on left
• Newer hangars on right
• Located where control car crashed

56. Hindenburg Disaster Memorial Plaque

57. My Family at the Crash Site - 2005
• Daughter Karen, husband Richard,
• Grandkids Eli, 5, Sarah, 9

58. Hindenburg Memorial Service
May 6, 2007 - 70th Anniversary

59. LZ130 Graf Zeppelin II
Hindenburg’s Twin Sister
• First Flight: Sept. 14, 1938
• Spy flights: Dec. 1938 to Aug 1939 (failed to detect Chain Home Radar)
• Scrapped 1940, Frankfort hangers dynamited May 6, 1940

60. Zeppelin NT
• Modern Semi-Rigid
Airship
• Sightseeing flights in
Germany, Japan and
California
• NT = New Technology
• Three steerable propellors
• Built by Zeppelin
Luftschifftechnik
• Helium inflated like
blimps – No gas bags

61. Zeppelin NT construction
• Triangular trusses made of
graphite-reinforced plastic
• Three longitudinal girders
of aluminum connect
trusses
• Three-layered laminate
serves as hull and gas cell
• V=290,000cu ft. L=246 ft
• (H-burg 7M cu Ft, 776 ft)

62. Zeppelin NT Cabin
• 12 Passengers and crew of 2

63. Giant Wurzburg Radar
• WWII radar built by Zeppelin Co., builder of the Hindenburg
• Used similar lightweight construction as the dirigibles

64. Wurzburg Radar arrives at
National Electronics Museum
November 18, 2007

65. National Electronics Museum
1745 W. Nursery Road, Linthicum, MD
www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org
• Admission:
Adults, $3
Students & Seniors, $1
Children under 5, free
• Hours: 9-4 M-F, 10-2 Sat.
• Info: 410-765-0230

66. Pearl Harbor Radar at NEM
• SCR-270 – designed by
Army Signal Corps
• Built by Westinghouse
• Similar radar at Opana site
on Oahu detected Japanese
raid on December 7, 1941
but was ignored
• Several hundred built

67. The Dirigible is not dead!
Starred in the movie “UP”
DISNEY-PIXAR graphics

68. U.S. Army: Long Endurance Multi-
Intelligence Vehicle -LEMV- 2009
Northrop Grumman $517M, 5 year contract to build
up to three ships.
Load: 2400 lbs, Altitude: 20 kft, Duration: 21days
Deploy Afghanistan late 2011/early 2012

69. Interesting events of May, 1937
May 3 – Wallis Simpson divorce final
Hindenburg departs Germany
May 6 – Hindenburg crashes at Lakehurst, N.J.
May 12 – King George VI coronation
May 17 – Juan Negrin Prime Minister of Spain
May 23 – Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrians
May 28 – Neville Chamberlain Prime Min. of Eng.
May 32 – Amelia Earhart departs Miami on
fatal round-the-world flight
May 34 – Wallis Simpson marries Duke of
Windsor

70. Blimps to
Explore
Other
Worlds

71. Coming ELLIC Attraction!
The Story of AWACS