Excerpt of the Lakehurst Naval Air Station log from May 6, 1937:
(click to enlarge)
Signed by Cmdr. Charles Rosendahl.
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Film footage of the British dirigible R101, which crashed in the early morning hours of October 5, 1930 in Beauvais, France during its first commercial flight. The crash and ensuing hydrogen fire killed 48 of the 54 passengers and crew.
The immediate cause of the accident was the deterioration of defective fabric covering the ship’s bow, but the ship was overweight, poorly designed, and insufficiently tested.
R101 was known as the “Socialist Ship,” since it was built by the British government in competition with the so-called “Capitalist Ship,” R100, built by the private firm of Vickers.
Duralumin salvaged from the wreckage of R101 was used in the construction of the Hindenburg.
More information about R101, R100, and other British airships is available at the website of the Airship Heritage Trust.
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Boxer Max Schmeling aboard the Hindenburg in 1936, passing over Philadelphia, in an image by photographer Max Haas.
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A Zeppelin NT named Eureka, owned and operated by Airship Ventures, has been temporarily branded with the Farmers Insurance name as part of the company’s most recent promotional arrangement.
Eureka is a semi-rigid zeppelin built by a descendant of the same company that created the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg.
For more information about the airship itself, read The Farmers Blimp is not a Blimp.
Airship Ventures has not disclosed how long the Farmers name will remain on the side of their ship. Eureka has previously advertised the personal genetics company 23andMe and the Disney film UP.
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The Hindenburg's Piano (click all photos to enlarge). Photo courtesy Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik.
The Hindenburg featured the first piano ever to be carried on a passenger aircraft.
To meet the strict weight limits of a lighter-than-air dirigible, the Zeppelin company commissioned the renowned piano making firm of Julius Blüthner to create a lightweight aluminum alloy piano, and the Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik created a small grand piano that weighed only 162 kg (356 lbs). The frame, rim, fallboard, and top lid were made of duralumin, and the legs, back bracing, and lyre were made of hollow duralumin tubing.
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Memorial service for victims of the Hindenburg disaster, held on May 11, 1937 at Pier 86 in New York City.
Pier 86 was the Hamburg-Amerika Line pier in 1937; today it is the home of the USS Intrepid Museum.
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The LZ-126 departing Friedrichshafen, Germany on October 12, 1924 for its flight across the Atlantic. Upon its arrival in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the ship entered the United States Navy as ZR-3 USS Los Angeles.
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Goodyear’s vision of the future of air travel.
Illustrations from the 1945 book WHY? Why Has America No Rigid Airships, written by Goodyear president Paul W. Litchfield and publicist Hugh Allen.
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The gadget blog Gizmodo recently published a wonderful photograph of an airship under construction, asking: “Ever wondered how a beast like the Hindenburg zeppelin—a gigantic 803 feet in length and 130 feet in diameter structure—was built in the 1930s? Here’s the answer: With the biggest ladders you can possibly imagine.”
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