Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 20 views

    Hindenburg

    Uploaded by

    cehern1997
    The Hindenburg was a Nazi airship that caught fire while attempting to dock in New Jersey in 1937, killing 36 people. Filled with 200,000 cubic meters of highly flammable hydrogen due to helium export restrictions, the Hindenburg relied on less dense gases than air to remain aloft. A spark from static electricity likely ignited hydrogen leaks, exacerbated by the airship's fabric coating. Better research into hydrogen risks and additional safety precautions could have prevented this disaster.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Hindenburg

    Uploaded by

    cehern1997
    20 views1 page
    The Hindenburg was a Nazi airship that caught fire while attempting to dock in New Jersey in 1937, killing 36 people. Filled with 200,000 cubic meters of highly flammable hydrogen due to helium export restrictions, the Hindenburg relied on less dense gases than air to remain aloft. A spark from static electricity likely ignited hydrogen leaks, exacerbated by the airship's fabric coating. Better research into hydrogen risks and additional safety precautions could have prevented this disaster.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The Hindenburg was a Nazi airship that caught fire while attempting to dock in New Jersey in 1937, killing 36 people. Filled with 200,000 cubic meters of highly flammable hydrogen due to helium export restrictions, the Hindenburg relied on less dense gases than air to remain aloft. A spark from static electricity likely ignited hydrogen leaks, exacerbated by the airship's fabric coating. Better research into hydrogen risks and additional safety precautions could have prevented this disaster.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    20 views1 page

    Hindenburg

    Uploaded by

    cehern1997
    The Hindenburg was a Nazi airship that caught fire while attempting to dock in New Jersey in 1937, killing 36 people. Filled with 200,000 cubic meters of highly flammable hydrogen due to helium export restrictions, the Hindenburg relied on less dense gases than air to remain aloft. A spark from static electricity likely ignited hydrogen leaks, exacerbated by the airship's fabric coating. Better research into hydrogen risks and additional safety precautions could have prevented this disaster.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 1

    Sammy Atanga

    Hindenburg

    The Hindenburg was a Nazi airship that burst into flames whilst trying to dock at Naval Air station
    Lakehurst in New Jersey. It was the largest rigid body airship ever built and tragically 36 people died
    in the disaster. It relied on the principle of using gas that was less dense than the surrounding air to
    float, and the gas chosen was hydrogen, even though it was designed to be filled with helium.
    Hydrogen was used due to export restrictions on helium from the US to the Nazi occupied Germany.
    This meant that the 245-metre-long aircraft was filled with 200000 cubic metres of hydrogen when it
    was fully inflated.

    Reaching the end of its 63rd flight the Hindenburg was approaching the naval base at around 7pm
    reports say that flames appeared in a mushroom shape towards the rear of the aircraft, near the top
    vertical fin. This had set the disaster in motion and ultimately led to its demise. There is no clear
    belief about where the spark came from, but people believe that it was due to a potential difference
    between the air surrounding the ship and the metal framework of the ship itself. Further
    exacerbated by the fabric lining of the ship that allowed static charge to build up and arc (spark),
    igniting the hydrogen.

    From an engineering perspective I believe that the disaster was caused due to the lack of research
    into hydrogen as a fuel and the subsequent problems that could arise, mainly being accidental
    ignition. Hydrogen molecules are the smallest of any element and so leaks were bound to arise using
    the limited technology of the 1930s. Reports had found that leaked had occurred on previous flights
    and were overlooked so maybe they had become complacent in their testing and maintenance. I do
    think that upon changing plans from helium to hydrogen extra precautions should’ve been taken in
    order to avoid accidental sparks from being generated but the engineers and designers were
    probably under time constraints and so may have overlooked this.

    Titanic

    The titanic was a steamship that sank on the 15th of April in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg off
    the coast of Newfoundland. The incident was a huge tragedy as more than 1500 people died. It was
    called the “unsinkable” ship mainly due to 15 watertight bulkheads meant to maintain the flow of
    water into the ship allowing it to maintain buoyancy in the case of a hull breach. the bulkheads were
    structurally compromised by the additions of doors that went through the bulkheads for passengers
    to walk through and access parts of the ship with ease. These doors meant that water coming in
    could not be contained by the bulkheads.

    In addition to this the bulkheads were unfortunately placed along the length of the ship separating it
    into sixteen sections that ran horizontally, and no bulkheads were placed running vertically. This
    meant if any thing breached more than one section the buoyancy of the ship could be compromised,
    and the ship could sink if enough water entered. Tragically this is what happened as the ship collided
    with the iceberg and a 300ft hole was created, crossing through multiple sections of the ship.

    In addition, the human casualties could have been minimized by providing more lifeboats to carry
    the passengers and crew in case of emergencies. There was nearly 300 passengers and crew and
    enough lifeboats to carry around 1000. The lifeboats were also leaving underfilled which also
    contributed to the high death toll.

    You might also like