How Did The Hindenburg Crash In The 1930s

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In the 1930s, zeppelins were the next big innovation of travel, and soon the largest zeppelin ever made took to the skies, the Hindenburg. The Hindenburg was eight hundred four feet from stern to bow, and could carried thirty-six passengers and crew of sixty-one (History). On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg would make its last flight bursting in to flames and falling to the ground. Many were effected that day but many don’t know what it crashing had on the world. While people may have heard of the Hindenburg, it is vital that they understand what effect its crash had to history and air travel. In 1927, the Hindenburg was designed by Ludwig Dürr to be the biggest zeppelin ever made. The zeppelin preceding to Hindenburg, the Graf Zeppelin, was only thirty feet shorter, but the “Hindenburg carried about twice the volume of lifting gas, due to its larger diameter and fatter profile” (Grossman). Building of this monster of a ship started in 1931 and took five years to complete but did not make if …show more content…

Ships like the “USS Akron (on which 73 died) crashed at sea, and the British R-101 (on which 48 were killed) crashed in the darkness of night” (Grossman). These crashes had much higher loss of life, but the defense was that the Hindenburg had camera footage making it seem worse. With the people no longer trusting Zeppelins there had to be a replacement. Lighter- than-air passenger travel rapidly fell out of favor after the Hindenburg disaster, and no rigid airships survived World War II. “On November 22, 1935, three months before Hindenburg first took to the air, Pan American Airways’ M-130 China Clipper made the first scheduled flight across the Pacific” (Grossman). “It cost around $2,600,000 to build the Hindenburg when it was built in the 1930's” (Krystek). Between the cost to build and crew to zeppelins, and fast cheaper modes of air travel, zeppelins were doomed to

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