Hindenburg

Otto Beyersdorff wrote two letters that detail his findings. Neither were included in the official German report. Today those letters are part of the archives at Friedrichshafen, the town where the Hindenburg was built.

People have always suspected sabotage, but the FBI report does not support that conclusion. Others have thought bad weather caused the fire, but the great airship had been through many storms without a major problem. Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Third Reich, determined the cause was "an Act of God." Many people blamed the use of hydrogen instead of helium. But Dr. Baine’s findings are directly on point with the Beyersdorff letters which, translated, state (at pages 12 and 13):

The actual cause of the fire was the extremely easy flammability of the covering material brought about by the discharges of an electrostatic nature.

In other words, the exterior paint on the Hindenburg caught fire and burned like dry leaves after a spark from an unknown source started the fatal process. Or, as Dr. Bain and his colleagues put it, the great airship (which still had about 5 million cubic feet of hydrogen on board) was:

A flying match known as
"Hindenburg."

Whatever the cause of the disaster, the death of the Hindenburg ended the use of rigid airships as commercial transports. Modern blimps (non-rigid dirigibles that do not ferry people across the ocean) are mere reminders of what used to be. And, it’s safe to say, when people look at the blimps of today many remember the tragedy of yesterday.

NOTE: Several excellent sites, linked in this story, feature the Hindenburg disaster. The best of all is the Naval Lakehurst Historical Society.