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Hindenburg: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''Oh, the humanity!''|Herbert Morrison}}
On May 6, 1937, the German airship LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' was about to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, [[Joisey|New Jersey]], after a trans-Atlantic flight from Frankfurt, Germany with 70 passengers aboard. The gigantic airship was a zeppelin -- a lighter-than-air craft like a blimp, but with a rigid internal frame -- and was filled with hydrogen rather than the usual helium.<ref>Helium was only available in the United States at the time, and that country wasn't selling it to any European power.</ref> It was the largest flying machine ever built at 263m in length, about four times the length of a Boeing 747 (and looking especially ''big'' considering since it was usually seen at a much lower altitude in flight), and was used as a commercial craft, like a luxury liner.
One cannot overstate the appeal of these magnificent airships. People would drop what they were doing and rush outside to see one pass overhead. They would take pictures. It was the kind of thing you told your grandchildren about, especially if you got to tour one while it was landed or -- OMG! -- ride in one. Cross the technological sophistication of the "Concorde" and the grandeur of "RMS Titanic" and you'll have some idea.
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