LZ-129 Hindenburg statistics:
- Length: 245 m / 803.8 feet
- Diameter: 41.2 m / 135.1 feet
- Gas capacity: 200,000 cubic meters / 7,062,000 cubic feet
- Lift: 511,500 lbs
- Cruising Speed: 125 km/h (76 mph)
- Maximum Speed: 135 km/h (84 mph)
- Main Powerplant: 4 Daimler-Benz 16-cylinder LOF 6 (DB 602) Diesels
- Crew: 40 flight officers and men; 10-12 stewards and cooks
- Passengers: 50 sleeping berths (1936); 72 sleeping berths (1937)
- First flight: March 4, 1936
- Final flight: Crashed, May 6, 1937
Additional specifications and technical details are available on the following pages of this website:
- Hindenburg Flight Operations
- Control Car, Flight Instruments, and Flight Controls
- Hindenburg Design and Technology
Size comparison: Hindenburg and Boeing 747-400
Size comparison: Hindenburg and Goodyear Blimp
Size comparison: Hindenburg and earlier zeppelins
Relative sizes of LZ-11 Viktoria Luise, LZ-120 Bodensee, LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin. and LZ-129 Hindenburg
Hindenburg profile, showing major elements and numbering system for gas cells and frames. Drawing courtesy David Fowler. (click to enlarge)
A lot of people seem to be going on about helium being a safer gas for rigid airships.
The down fall of this is
1 it is a heavier gas than Hydrogen
2 It gives 25 percent less lift at the same volume as Hydrogen.
3 It is very costly to manufacture compared to Hydrogen
4 If the Hydenberg had used Helium it would have never got off the ground.
5 The Hindenburg engineers were going to use Helium as a fire preventive enclosing the Hydrogen bags,but the U.S.A. had the monopoly on its manufacture and prevented foreign buyers from using it .
6 You must be a grand master at understanding Boyles Law. Also as the gases become less dense they expand and give greater lift,so that when a rigid airship wishes to land it has to dump some of its gases so that the airship becomes heavier and sinks to the ground. The dumped Hydrogen then had to be replaced to enable the airship to lift off once more.Ballast has to be put on board to prevent the airship taking off while the Hydrogen is replenished and the passengers embark and supplies a fuel are loaded.
When the airship is ready to lift off the mooring ropes are slackened while the ballast is dumped and the the mooring ropes are released so the airship rises and gets it under way.
The interesting shape of the airship is also its shape which in someway creates lift in its forward motion like a aircrafts wing
One other thing I had thought of is the build up of static electricity by friction as the airship moves through the air. Connections of fuel lines ,control rods other parts have to have wire fitted be tween these connections so that static electricity does not build up in one area and create a large electric spark as it jumps across a joined pipe or control rod. This is called bonding and is used on aircraft today to maintain electrical continuity so the static electricity flows through the air craft and dissipates through the static wicks on the wing tips.
Also before the Airship can connect with it’s pylon a static line is dropped from the airship so the electricity earths to the ground and does not create a spark Could poor bonding have created a spark in or near the Helium bags which might have leaked creating the explosion
Modern day aircraft have away of dissipating the electricity on landing possibly by wire integrated into the aircraft tyres.
Airships are not a practical form of transportation or shipping and with many US Navy airships having crashed, The USS Shenandoah killing 14 officers and sailors, USS Akron crash killing 73 officers and sailors, USS Macon killing two. The US Navy gave up on airships.
Yes, because they used older downed German airships as a blueprint, immediately “dating” the technology, repeating possible structural mistakes.
Just wanted to ask if anyone knows of an excellent biography of Hugo Eckener { in English, or, GERMAN }; also excellent book on the LZ–129, and LZ–130. One other query, what was the cost of both Zeppelins from the Reichsmarks to U.S. Dollars—-Thanx a bunch! ! !
Here’s a suggestion for an Eckener bio: “Ein Deutscher namens Eckener” by Rolf Italiaander, Verlag Stadler, 1981. Whether it is indeed “excellent” or not, I cannot say (don’t read German), but at 561 pages in length, one is not likely to find a longer treatment. It is currently available from: https://www.zeppelin-museum.de/de/shop/artikel.php?aid=400 . On the LZ-129, a real gem (although OOP) is Douglas Robinson’s “LZ-129 Hindenburg”, Famous Aircraft Series, Ace Printing Company, Dallas, TX, 1964. Another is “The Largest Giants” by Thomas R. Bullard, privately published, 1989 (also OOP). While I don’t have a copy of this tome, it looks pretty good, too: https://www.zeppelin-museum.de/de/shop/artikel.php?aid=395 . As for the LZ-130, the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen used to carry a title dedicated to that ship, but unfortunately mention of the book makes no appearance on its website as of this writing. (When my copy once again surfaces, I’ll post the details here.)
Everybody needs to think plastic. All those Space ship movies have the space ships looking like steel. Think of them as Plastic. I have found a piece of honey combed plastic. If the whole “ship” was designed with the honey combed plastic in mind, it would be a very light and aerodynamic ship. think of it this way: a Steel battle ship weighs in at multi-tons of metal.
Invert the equation: that much steel floats that many men-fuel-weapons. How big an “Airship” to “float” men, weapons, fuel?
hi Tom, please contact me: [email protected]
carbon fiber is better than plastic
The Hindenburg is so amazing. I wish I was there in 1930’s to witness it magnificence. Thanks to this article. Very interesting!
I know it’s not the same but you can see the almost as amazing Graf zeppelin. This one is particularly good. https://youtu.be/tpSPEc3ZTKE
Hi Karen.
My grandmother lived near Atlantic City at the time. She spoke of seeing the Hindenburg pass over on one of its trips. To her, it was awesome!
Just a thought, consider the ramifications of using several airships in tandem with a platform and selling the idea to NASA or the military as a platform for space travel. This moves the public safety factors due to a different set of regulations that the Military and NASA use and it will drasticly reduce the amount of fuel to leave the earth’s gravity. My thoughts are based on 1940-1950 sci-fi, but the theory is still sound. Add that to the fact that only the government will spend $2500 on a toliet seat.
At sea level every liter of helium is about 1 gram lighter then the air it replaces. As you get higher, the air is thinner and thus weighs less. If you gain only half a gram since the air your replacing is lighter, you wont have enough lift to lift the ship. You still have to factor in the weight of the ship. As you get higher it becomes harder to lift the ship. The good year blimps have a service ceiling of 10,000 feet and cruise at 3000. To make a space ship would be almost impossible.
You are missing the point. If you can lift a rocket to 18000 feet for example, you are above 50 percent of the mass of the atmosphere. SO you use dramatically lees fuel.
Hi Martin,
What kind of altitude are you expecting to achieve by this method, and what would be on the platform?
That very idea has been studied in the US and USSR multiple times over multiple decades. It is very hard to do with a useful sized booster rocket. Among other issues ground handling remains an immense problem for any large airship and making the airships rigid enough to withstand the stress concentrations involved in hanging large suspended live loads. Airships also only give you height, and only then perhaps 20,000-25,000ft with a reasonable airship with a reasonable payload to justify bothering trying, they do not give you velocity like an air launch plane does at potentially much greater heights. Sure you can build balloons to go much higher, but this runs into its own worlds of pain. If you want crack smoking nonsense taking to the extreme, look up the ‘Ascender airship’. It was never going to work but the concept is comical awesome.
Overall space access is one of the most studied and least built topics in scientific history, and the reason is simply that nothing actually works that much better then large multiple stage rockets with present day technology.
It is not that simple.First, the gas must be very light second of all, rockets and space shuttles travel at 23,000 +km so that it can escape gravity so airships must travel at a speed that they will soon burn up so uh,that is not possible
Dan,
Please don’t forget to add the height of the Hindenburg: I found it the ship was 149 feet tall.
Best Regards,
Francisco
Remember this old airships was running weekly between europe-south ameica and europe-new york for a decade without any crash before hindenburg burn up in new york with dangerous gas, now days they use safe gas. So why should it happen something .a crash, now days. People flying ballons all over the world wish are much more dangerous, with few incidents.
Yes,now they use helium
Helium does not have as much lift potential as Hydrogen.
If they could build a Hindenburg for 80 years ago, of course you can do better and cheaper nowdays.They were using animal skins to cover the balloon, aluminium was a problem,old engines etc…. Forget cabins and long hauls flights between newyork and london.There is nothing to see. But short trips between london and paris and paris to milano over the alps will be something very special, cruising in around 150km per hour with no noise and calm. Or travelling over the mediterranien for a week with cabins. champagne , nice lunch etc…I think it can happen very soon.
Dear Sir I remember the airship going over my house in Brecon I was 9 year old my father and me coould hear music in it. it was very large there was a large wood by my home and the air ship was bigger.it was a lovely evening about 9pm. Youre Truly Douglas
Mr. Prosser,
I was just viewing a program on television on the Hindenburg. When I saw your post I found it quite intriguing that you have so accurately described the sheer size of the airship as well as being able to hear music as it flew over. I’m sure that was a very special evening for you and your father.
Best Regards,
Dan Bissett