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Read This: In 1936, the Hindenburg sounded like a great timeBy Chris BreaultMay 7, 2017 10:14 AMThe word “zeppelin” today conjures up images of explosions, bad steampunk fiction, and Indiana Jones arguing with his dad. And yet, as Slate reminds us, the airships of the 1930s once stood for stately luxury rather than fiery death. Prompted by the 80th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster, historian Michael J. Socolow looks back at the rapturous radio coverage of the aircraft’s successful 1936 voyages, which marked “the brief heyday of zeppelin travel”: [NBC broadcaster Max Jordan] described that evening’s excellent dinner and the Beethoven sonata enjoyed by the passengers earlier in the afternoon and mentioned that the Hindenburg’s airspeed in perfect weather would ensure its early arrival. The next day, Jordan updated the nation as the Hindenburg headed down the Atlantic coast from Canada. That broadcast included piano music played by Dresden musician Franz Wagner on the ship’s specially constructed lightweight grand piano. Jordan explained how the ship’s remarkable stability allowed him to sleep peacefully through a brief but violent thunderstorm the previous night. Aside from his NBC updates, Jordan also participated in special RRG broadcasts, beamed back to Germany and hosted by Kurt von Boeckmann, the RRG’s director of international broadcasting. These NBC and RRG programs were the first live broadcasts from a passenger airship aloft over the ocean, a remarkable technological achievement celebrated widely in newspapers and magazines.Continued: http://www.avclub.com/article/read-1936-hindenburg-sounded-great-time-254905
The huge airship had circled three times around the Empire State Building. It was on its way to land in New Jersey. From her home in southern Pennsylvania, Libby Magness Weisberg watched the Hindenburg glide by.“It was amazing how beautiful it was,” she told the Guardian on Saturday. “The silver airship against a clear blue sky. How enormous. It was the most exquisite thing I had ever seen.”Then the zeppelin turned. Its tail swung into view. On it, stark and black, were swastikas.From the archive, 8 May 1937: Hindenburg airship disaster leaves 33 deadRead more“We had no inkling of what Hitler was really doing to the Jews already, but I knew Germany was the enemy,” said Weisberg, 89. “I was startled, and that beauty up there turned into fear.”Her neighbors, she said, gesticulated angrily at the sky.Not long after, on 6 May 1937, as it was coming in to moor at the naval base at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Hindenburg caught fire and crashed. Of the 97 people on board, 62 miraculously escaped the burning wreckage. But 22 crew members, 13 passengers and one worker on the ground were killed.After the disaster, President Franklin Roosevelt and King George sent telegrams of condolence to Hitler. ...
Here's another story from The Guardian:Rest of articleI haven't seen any mention of a theory discussed on a documentary I saw a few years back, that the "skin" was particuarly flammable because how it was painted.
