Now Playing
34 Seconds: The Hydrogen Decision That Destroyed the Hindenburg
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The 1937 Hindenburg crash was decided not at Lakehurst but in Washington D.C., years earlier — when the U.S. helium embargo forced Zeppelin engineers onto hydrogen. This episode traces that fatal political choice and the 34 seconds that ended the airship era.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Before May sixth, nineteen thirty-seven, the Hindenburg was proof that humanity had mastered the sky. After May sixth, it was proof of something else entirely.
To understand what was lost, you need to understand what the Hindenburg actually was. Not in abstract terms.
The Hindenburg was designed to fly on helium. That's the detail that changes everything once you understand it.
Hydrogen works. As a lifting gas, it's actually more efficient than helium.
The Hindenburg was approaching its mooring at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. The approach had been delayed by weather.
There's a dimension to this story that runs alongside the technical one, and it can't be separated from it. The Hindenburg flew with a large swastika on its tail fin.
The Hindenburg wasn't even the deadliest airship disaster in the years before it. In April nineteen thirty-three, the USS Akron, an American helium-filled military airship, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast during a storm.
Morrison was a reporter for WLS Chicago. He was at Lakehurst to cover what was supposed to be a routine arrival.
Public confidence in airship travel collapsed. Not gradually.
Here's the thread that runs through all of this. The decision to deny Germany access to helium was made for defensible reasons.
The Hindenburg disaster didn't just end an industry. It established something new.
Chapter summary auto-generated from the verified script. Listen to the full episode for the complete content.