THE ZEPPELIN’S:

This Auction is for ONE Zeppelin Stamp in lightly to moderately cancelled condition in Green or
Blue!! It is also available in MINT UNCANCELLED Condition for $29.95!
First Gallery Scan shows an uncancelled example while second scan shows typical light to
moderate cancellations. Winner may buy 2nd color for only $7.99 with free shipping! (Please email
prior to payment) Closed at auction for up to $25. Starting Price: $9.99 with No Reserve!!
HISTORY TAKES FLIGHT!!!
On this pre-disaster stamp showing the Airship that would be destroyed in the World's Most
Horrendous Aviation Disaster!!!!!!

     This very rare and historic stamp has it all. It was issued by the Nazi German Government in
1936, the year of the Berlin Summer Olympics, to commemorate the maiden voyage from Germany to
the U.S.A. of the majestic, legendary and ill-fated Luftschiff Zeppelin (Zeppelin Airship) LZ 129 aka
The Hindenburg!! The Hindenburg was destined to become the most dramatic Aviation Disaster in
history!!
     As any stamp collector will tell you, original 1930's Zeppelin stamps are among the most
coveted philatelic treasures. An example showing the magical Hindenburg floating alone yet
determined above a turbulent Atlantic Ocean in the middle of nowhere is truly special.
     The stamp, which is watermarked, remains in clean and undamaged postally used condition.
It has a light rubber stamp cancellation (possibly a very rare one) and/or a hinge remnant on back.
Cancellations (if any) will be from Cities in Nazi Germany or in Nazi-Occupied Lands.  If you want an
ultr rare Mint Never Hinged example, please email us right away. As mentioned above we have a
large supply of standard cancelled examples for the lowest price anywhere.
      Color may vary. It will be the green 75 Pfennig shown or the blue 50 Pfennig. Both have
exactly the same design, and both have the same value. The winner of this lot has the option to buy
the second color for $2 LESS with FREE shipping. Please email for B.I.N. information before making
payment.
      Fly away on the wings of this historic Zeppelin.....while you still can. Supply for this offer is very
limited!!
      Note: This stamp was not flown on the first Zepellin flight to the U.S. It commemorates that
event. We do have Zeppelin-flown covers!
LZ 129 Hindenburg

Hindenburg at Lakehurst Naval Air Station

Type Zeppelin
Manufacturer Luftschiffbau Zeppelin
Designed by Ludwig Dürr
Maiden flight 4 March 1936
Produced 1936
Number built 1

LZ 129 Hindenburg was a German zeppelin. Along with its sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, it
was the largest rigid aircraft ever built. During its second year of service, it went up in flames and was
destroyed while landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, U.S., on
6 May 1937. Thirty-six people died in the accident, which was widely reported by film, photography
and radio media.
The Hindenburg was named after Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), the President of Germany
(1925–1934).
Design and construction
The Hindenburg was built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1931 to a new, all-duralumin design. The
man who headed the design team was Doctor Ludwig Dürr, who had headed the design of all
Zeppelins except LZ-1 (on which he was a crew member), under the overall direction of Hugo
Eckener, the head of the company. It was 245 m (804 ft) long and 41 m (135 ft) in diameter, longer
than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, longer than four Goodyear Blimps end-to-end, and only 24
m (79 ft) shorter than the Titanic. It was originally equipped with cabins for 50 passengers and a crew
complement of 40, though on the last flight there were an additional 21 crew members in training.
Though construction began in 1931, it was suddenly stopped when the Zeppelin Company
became bankrupt. This led Dr. Eckener to make a deal with the Nazi Party. He needed money to build
the airship, but in return he was forced to display the swastikas on the tailfins. Construction then
resumed in 1935.
The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, a gas which is lighter than air but
which is not flammable. Most of the world's supply of helium comes from underground fields in the
United States, but the United States had imposed a military embargo on helium against Germany.
Eckener expected this ban to be lifted and modified the design to have double gas cells (an inner
hydrogen cell protected by an outer helium cell). However, Dr. Eckener was told this ban was not lifted
after all. This led the Germans to modify the design of the airship to use hydrogen as the lift gas,
despite the fact that hydrogen, unlike helium, is extremely flammable. It contained 200,000 m³
(7,000,000 ft³) of gas in 16 bags or cells, with a useful lift of 1.099 MN (247,100 pounds).
 Germany had extensive experience with hydrogen as lifting gas. Hydrogen-related fire accidents
had never occurred on civil zeppelins, so the switch from helium to hydrogen did not cause much
alarm. Hydrogen also gave the craft about 8% more lift capacity.
Four reversible 890 kW (1,200 hp) Daimler-Benz diesel engines gave the airship a maximum
speed of 135 km/h (84 mph).
The duralumin frame was covered by cotton varnished with iron oxide and cellulose acetate
butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder. The aluminum was added to reflect both ultraviolet,
which damaged the fabric, and infrared light, which caused heating of the gas. This was an innovation
with the LZ-126 which was operated by the US Navy from 1924 on. The LZ-130 fabric coating was
changed to include bronze powder which is less flammable.
It officially made its first flight on 4 March 1936, though several test flights were made the previous
year. The cost of a ticket from Germany to Lakehurst was US$400 (about US$5900 in 2008 dollars),
which was quite a considerable sum for the Depression era. Hindenburg passengers were generally
affluent, including many leaders of industry.
Passenger accommodation
To reduce drag, the passenger rooms were contained entirely within the hull, rather than in the
gondola as on the Graf Zeppelin. The interior furnishings of the Hindenburg were designed by
Professor Fritz August Breuhaus, whose design experience included Pullman coaches, ocean liners,
and warships of the German Navy. The upper A Deck contained small passenger quarters in the
middle flanked by large public rooms: a dining room to port as well as a lounge and writing room to
starboard. Paintings on the walls of the dining room portrayed the Graf Zeppelin's trips to South
America. A stylized world map covered the wall of the lounge. Long slanted windows ran the length of
both decks. The passengers were expected to spend most of their time in the public areas rather than
their cramped cabins. The lower B Deck contained washrooms, a mess hall for the crew, and a
smoking lounge. Recalled Harold G. Dick, an American representative from the Goodyear Zeppelin
Corporation, "The only entrance to the smoking room, which was pressurized to prevent the admission
of any leaking hydrogen, was via the bar, which had a swivelling air-lock door, and all departing
passengers were scrutinized by the bar steward to make sure they were not carrying out a lighted
cigarette or pipe."
First year of service
During its first year of commercial operation in 1936, the Hindenburg flew 308,323 km (191,583
miles) carrying 2,798 passengers and 160 tons of freight and mail. It made 17 round trips across the
Atlantic Ocean, with 10 trips to the U.S. and seven to Brazil. In July 1936, the Hindenburg also
completed a record Atlantic double crossing in five days, 19 hours and 51 minutes. After defeating Joe
Louis, the German boxer Max Schmeling returned home on the Hindenburg to a hero's welcome in
Frankfurt.
On 1 August, the Hindenburg was present at the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer
Olympics in Berlin. Moments before the arrival of Adolf Hitler, the airship crossed over the Olympic
stadium, trailing the Olympic flag from its gondola.
During its first year of service, the airship had a special aluminium Blüthner grand piano placed on
board in the music salon. It was the first piano ever placed in flight and helped host the first radio
broadcast "air concert." The piano was removed after the first year to save weight.
The Hindenburg's success encouraged the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Company to plan the expansion
of its airship fleet and transatlantic services.
During the winter of 1936–37, several changes were made. The greater lift capacity allowed 10
passenger cabins to be added, nine with two beds and one with four beds, increasing the total
passenger capacity to 72.
Last flight
On the night of 3 May 1937, the Hindenburg left Frankfurt for Lakehurst. This was the first
transatlantic trip of the 1937 season.
The crossing was uneventful, except for strong headwinds. The airship was half full, with 36
passengers and 61 crew members (including 21 training crew members), but the return flight was fully
booked by people attending the coronation of King George VI of the United Kingdom, which would
take place on 12 May, at Westminster Abbey, London.
The low number of passengers was probably because of concerns of a bomb on board. A letter
was sent to the German Ambassador predicting that the airship would be destroyed by a bomb after
flying over New York City.
 On 6 May, the airship arrived in the United States. The airship was already late, and the landing
was further delayed because of bad weather. Captain Max Pruss took passengers on a tour through
New York City, and the seasides of Boston and New Jersey.
Landing timeline
Around 7:00 p.m. local time, at an altitude of 650 feet (200 m), the Hindenburg approached the
Lakehurst Naval Air Station. This was a to be a high landing, known as a flying moor, because the
airship would be moored to a high mooring point, and then winched down to ground level. This type of
landing maneuver would reduce the number of ground crew, but would require more time.
7:08: the airship made a sharp full speed left turn to the west around the landing field because the
ground crew was not ready.
7:11: the airship turned back toward the landing field and valved gas. All engines idled ahead and
the airship began to slow.
7:14: at altitude 394 feet (120 m), Captain Pruss ordered aft engines full astern to try to brake the
airship.
7:17: the wind shifted direction to southwest, and Captain Pruss was forced to make a second,
sweeping sharp turn, this time towards starboard.
7:19: the airship made the second sharp turn and valved 300, 300, and 500 kg of water ballast in
successive drops because the airship was stern heavy. Six men (three were killed in the accident)
were also sent to the bow to trim the airship. None of these attempts to correct the problem worked
and the airship seemed to sink even more, but Pruss was now permitted to land.
7:21: at altitude 295 feet (90 m), the mooring lines were dropped from the bow, the starboard line
being dropped first. At this point, the cameramen who were filming the lines being caught by the
ground crew stopped rolling film altogether, and missed what was about to happen.
First hints of disaster
At 7:25, a few witnesses had seen the fabric ahead of the upper fin flutter as if gas were leaking.
At the same time another witness saw what looked like static electricity moving up the hull from the
bottom.
Immediately after this, witnesses started to report a small flame ahead of the upper fin.
Commander Rosendahl testified it being "mushroom-shaped" and knew at once that the airship was
doomed. One witness on the starboard side reported a fire beginning lower and behind the rudder on
that side (however this may have happened after the initial fire on the port side).
The disaster

The Hindenburg, moments after catching fire.

At 7:25 p.m. local time, the Hindenburg caught fire and quickly became engulfed in flames. Where
the fire started is controversial; witnesses on the port side saw yellow, red flames first just forward of
the top fin, around the vent of cell 4. One, with views of the starboard side, saw flames beginning
lower and farther aft, near cell 1. No. 2 Helmsman Helmut Lau also testified seeing the flames
spreading from cell 4 into starboard.
Wherever it started, the flames quickly spread forward. Almost instantly, a water tank and a fuel
tank burst out of the hull, as seen in the picture on the right. At the same time, a crack appeared
behind the passenger decks. The airship's back broke, and the section from the nose to the aft engine
cars lurched upwards, while the stern stayed in trim.
As the Hindenburg's tail crashed into the ground, a burst of flame came out of the nose, killing
three of the six crew members in the bow. As the airship kept falling with the bow facing upwards
(because there was more lifting gas still in the nose), part of the port side directly behind the
passenger deck collapsed inward (where the "dent" was), and the gas cell there exploded, erasing the
scarlet lettering "Hindenburg" while the airship's bow lowered. The airship's gondola wheel touched
the ground, causing the airship to bounce up once more. At this point, most of the fabric had burned
away. At last, the airship went crashing on the ground, bow first.
The time it took for the airship to be completely destroyed has been disputed. Some believe it took
34 seconds, others say it took 32 or 37 seconds. Since none of the newsreel cameras was running
when the fire started, the time of the start of the fire can only be estimated from various eye witness
accounts, and will never be known accurately. One careful analysis of the flame spread, by Addison
Bain of NASA, gives the flame front spread rate across the fabric skin as about 49 ft/s (15 m/s).
The incident is widely remembered as one of the most dramatic accidents of modern time. The
cause of the accident has never been determined, although many theories, some highly controversial,
have been proposed.
Historic newsreel coverage
The disaster is well recorded because of the extraordinary extent of newsreel coverage and
photographs, as well as Herbert Morrison's recorded, on-the-scene, eyewitness radio report from the
landing field. Heavy publicity about the first transatlantic passenger flight of the year by Zeppelin to the
U.S. attracted a large number of journalists to the landing. (The airship had already made one round
trip from Germany to Brazil that year.) Morrison's recording was not broadcast until the next day. Parts
of his report were later dubbed onto the newsreel footage, giving the impression to many modern
viewers, more accustomed to live television reporting, that the words and film were recorded together
intentionally. Morrison's broadcast remains one of the most famous in history. His plaintive words, "Oh,
the humanity!" resonate with the impact of the disaster, and have been widely used in culture. Part of
its poignancy is due to its being recorded at a slightly slower speed to the disk, so when played back
at normal speed seeming to be at a faster delivery and higher pitch; when corrected, his account is
less frantic sounding, though still impassioned.
Spectacular movie footage and Morrison's passionate recording of the Hindenburg fire shattered
public and industry faith in airships and marked the end of the giant, passenger-carrying dirigibles.
Also contributing to the Zeppelins' downfall was the arrival of international passenger aeroplane travel
and Pan American Airlines. Aircraft regularly crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans much faster than
the 130 km/h (80 mph) of the Hindenburg. The one advantage that the Hindenburg had over aircraft
was the comfort it afforded its passengers, much like that of an ocean liner.
Incredibly, despite there being four newsreel cameramen and one spectator filming at the time of
the fire, none of the five film cameras was rolling at the moment the airship caught fire. The four
newsreel cameras were aiming at the ground crew, possibly expecting ground crewmen to be pulled
off the ground as had happened to the USS Akron on 10 May 1932, with two men falling to their
deaths.
There had been a series of other airship accidents, none of them Zeppelins, prior to the
Hindenburg fire. Many were caused by bad weather, and most of these accidents were dirigibles of
British or U.S. manufacture. Both nations' techniques for dirigible manufacture were primitive
compared to the expertise of the Germans. Zeppelins had had an impeccable safety record. The Graf
Zeppelin had flown safely for more than 1.6 million km (1 million miles), including the first
circumnavigation of the globe. The Zeppelin company prominently featured the fact that no passenger
had been injured on one of their airships.
Death toll
Despite the violent fire, most of the crew and passengers survived. Of the 36 passengers and 61
crew, 13 passengers and 22 crew died. Also killed was one member of the ground crew, Navy
Linesman Allen Hagaman. The two dogs on board the airship also died. Most deaths were not caused
directly by the fire but were from jumping from the burning airship. Those passengers who rode the
airship on its descent to the ground survived. Some deaths of crew members occurred because they
wanted to save people on board the airship. In comparison, almost twice as many perished when the
helium filled USS Akron crashed.
Some of the survivors were saved by luck. Werner Franz, the 14 year-old cabin boy, had been
saved from the fire by a shower of water. A water ballast tank burst open, and he was soaked. He then
made his way to the hatch and turned around and ran the other way, because the flames were being
pushed by the wind towards the starboard side. Franz is one of the two people aboard who are still
alive as of 2007. When the control car crashed on the ground, the officers had run, but became
separated. First Officer Captain Albert Sammt found Captain Max Pruss rescuing passengers, Pruss's
face was badly burned, but he would survive.
 Captain Ernst Lehmann survived the crash, but though his burns were not as severe as those of
Pruss, he seemed to have lost his will to live. He died the next day.
When the passenger Joseph Spah saw the first sign of trouble he smashed the window with his
movie camera (the film survived the disaster) and hung onto a nearby landing line (a parody to his
stage acts; he was an acrobat) and jumped down when the airship was closer to the ground. He broke
his ankle, but survived. His dog Ulla, one of the two dogs on board during the flight, died in the fire.
Of the six people in the bow of the airship, three survived; the flames shot through the nose like a
blowtorch and the airship tilted upwards. Most of the people had fallen into the fire but the three hung
on tight.
The four crew members in the tail fin all survived; they were closest to the origin of the fire but
escaped when the tail hit the ground.
Cause of ignition
Sabotage theory
At the time of the disaster, sabotage was commonly put forward as the cause of the fire, in
particular by Hugo Eckener, former head of the Zeppelin company and the "old man" of German
airships. (Eckener later publicly endorsed the static spark theory — see below.)
Another proponent of the sabotage hypothesis was Max Pruss, commander of the Hindenburg
throughout the airship's career. Pruss flew on nearly every flight of the Graf Zeppelin until the
Hindenburg was ready. In a 1960 interview conducted by Kenneth Leish for Columbia University's Oral
History Research Office, Pruss said early dirigible travel was safe, and therefore he strongly believed
that sabotage was to blame. He stated that on trips to South America, which was a popular destination
for German tourists, both airships passed through thunderstorms and were struck by lightning but
remained unharmed.
In 1962, A. Hoehling published Who Destroyed the Hindenburg?, a book that rejects all theories
but sabotage. It even names the likely saboteur — Eric Spehl, a rigger on the Hindenburg who died in
the fire. Ten years later, Michael MacDonald Mooney's book, The Hindenburg, also identified Spehl as
the saboteur. Mooney's book was made into the movie The Hindenburg, whose producers were sued
by Hoehling for plagiarism, but Hoehling lost.
The historians and researchers putting Spehl forward as a saboteur, cite:
His girlfriend's anti-Nazi connections; she reportedly was a communist.
The fire's origin near Gas Cell 4, Spehl's duty station.
Rumours that in 1938 the Gestapo was investigating Spehl's involvement.
Spehl's interest in amateur photography, making him familiar with flashbulbs that could have
served as an igniter. A dry cell battery that might have powered a flashbulb was found in the
wreckage.
A flash or a bright reflection that crew members near the lower fin had seen just before the fire.
Since it is very unlikely that Spehl wanted to kill people, proponents of this sabotage theory say
that he wanted the airship to explode after the landing (already over 12 hours late) but was too busy to
reset the bomb.
During the landing maneuver, rigger Hans Freund dropped a landing line in front of the lower fin.
The line became caught in the bracing wires of the airship, so No. 2 helmsman Helmut Lau climbed up
from the lower fin to release it. When both men looked up toward the front of the airship, they were
surprised by what they saw.
Freund described a flash like a flashbulb's, and Lau said he saw a brilliant reflection between cells
4 and 5. They then heard a muffled detonation and a thud as the Hindenburg's back broke. Some
believe that this is evidence for sabotage. Others believe Freund was actually looking rearward, away
from cells 4 and 5, but that Rudolf Sauter, another crew member in the lower fin had seen the flash.
Another suspect was a passenger, a German acrobat named Joseph Spah, who survived the fire.
He brought with him a dog, a German shepherd named Ulla, as a surprise for his children. (Ulla did
not survive.) He often made unaccompanied visits to the stern to feed, talk and play with the dog.
Some, noting that Spah told many anti-Nazi jokes, and that he was an acrobat who could climb into
the airship's rigging, accuse him of planting a bomb when he was with his dog.
It has even been suggested that Adolf Hitler himself ordered the Hindenburg to be destroyed in
retaliation for Eckener's anti-Nazi opinions.
However, opponents of the sabotage hypothesis argued that only speculation supported sabotage
as a cause of the fire, and no credible evidence of sabotage was produced at any of the formal
hearings.
 Eric Spehl died in the fire and was unable to refute the accusations. The FBI investigated Joseph
Spah and reported finding no significant evidence of sabotage.
Neither the German nor the American investigation endorsed any of the sabotage theories.
Proponents of the sabotage theory argue that any finding of sabotage would have been an
embarrassment for the Nazi regime, and they speculate that such a finding by the German
investigation was suppressed for political reasons.
Eckener believed that the reason why Pruss, Lehmann, and Rosendahl all supported sabotage
was because they may have felt guilty for their acts. Pruss made the sharp turn, Lehmann pressured
Pruss to make it, and Rosendahl called the airship in.
Static spark theory
Another theory posits that the fire was started by a spark caused by a build up of static electricity
on the airship. Whether the spark ignited hydrogen or the outer skin has been disputed.
Proponents of the static spark theory point out that the airship's skin was not constructed in a way
that allowed its charge to be evenly distributed throughout the craft. The skin was separated from the
duralumin frame by non conductive ramie cords, in effect electrically insulating the skin from the frame
and allowing a difference in potential to form between them.
In order to make up for a delay of more than 12 hours in its transatlantic flight, the Hindenburg
passed through a weather front of high humidity and high electrical charge. This made the airship's
mooring lines wet and thus conductive and may have given its skin an electrical charge. When the
mooring lines, which were connected to the frame, touched the ground, they would have grounded the
frame but not the skin. Though they were dry, they could have gotten wet as the light rain fell. This
could have caused a sudden potential difference between skin and frame (and the airship itself with
the overlying air masses) and set off an electrical discharge — a spark. The spark would have jumped
from the skin onto the metal framework. At the same time, hydrogen was leaking, and was ignited by
the spark.
Some witnesses reported seeing a glow consistent with St. Elmo's fire along the tail portion of the
airship just before the flames broke out, but these reports were made after the official inquiries were
completed.
Harold G. Dick was Goodyear Zeppelin's representative with Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the
mid-1930s. He flew on test flights of the Hindenburg and its sister ship, the Graf Zeppelin II. He also
flew on numerous flights in the original Graf Zeppelin and 10 round trip crossings of the north and
south Atlantic in the Hindenburg. In his book The Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships Graf
Zeppelin & Hindenburg, he observes:

“ There are two items not in common knowledge. When the outer cover of the LZ 130 [the
Graf Zeppelin II] was to be applied, the lacing cord was prestretched and run through dope as
before, but the dope for the LZ 130 contained graphite to make it conductive. This would
hardly have been necessary if the static discharge theory were mere cover up. The use of
graphite dope was not publicized and I doubt if its use was widely known at the Luftschiffbau
Zeppelin. ”
In addition to Dick's observations is the fact that during the Graf Zeppelin II's early test flights,
measurements were taken of the airship's static charge. It is clear that Dr. Ludwig Durr and the other
engineers at Luftshiffbau Zeppelin took the static discharge theory seriously and considered the
insulation of the fabric from the frame to be a design flaw in the Hindenburg.
A variant of the static spark theory, presented by Addison Bain, is that a spark between
inadequately grounded fabric cover segments of the Hindenburg itself started the fire, and that the
spark had ignited the highly flammable outer skin. The Hindenburg had a cotton skin covered with a
finish known as "dope". It is a common term for a plasticised lacquer that provides stiffness, protection,
and a lightweight, airtight seal to woven fabrics. In its liquid forms, dope is highly flammable, but the
flammability of dry dope depends upon its base constituents, with butyrate dope being far less
flammable than cellulose nitrate, for example. When the mooring line touched the ground, a resulting
spark could have ignited the dope in the skin.
Lightning theory
A. J. Dessler, former director of the Space Science Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center and a critic of the incendiary paint theory (see below), favors a much simpler explanation for
the conflagration: natural lightning. Like many other aircraft, the Hindenburg had been struck by
lightning several times. This does not normally ignite a fire in hydrogen-filled airships, because the
hydrogen is not mixed with oxygen. However, many fires started when lightning struck airships as they
were venting hydrogen in preparation for landing, as the Hindenburg was doing at the time of the
disaster. The vented hydrogen is mixed with air, making it readily combustible.
However, Dr. Eckener believed that the way the fire appeared was not consistent with that of a fire
caused by lightning. Witnesses described the fire appearing in a wave motion. Eckener believed that
the shape of the fire was consistent with that of a static spark.
Engine exhaust sparks theory
On the 70th anniversary of the accident, The Philadelphia Inquirer carried an article with yet
another theory, based on an interview of ground crew member Robert Buchanan. He had been a
young man on the crew manning the mooring lines.
The excessively stormy day had not only delayed the dirigible's arrival but also soaked him and
many of the other mooring crew. As the airship was approaching the mooring mast, he noted that one
of the engines, thrown into reverse for a hard turn, backfired, and a shower of sparks was emitted. He
and others think that this was the trigger that ignited the craft, not static electricity, as the official
version goes.
When the Hindenburg ignited, instead of an explosion there were just three sequential plumes of
flame on the outer shell. Another ground crewman named Robert Shaw saw what looked like a blue
ring behind the tail fin. He too had seen sparks coming out of the engine. The cotton cover with its
coating, was quite flammable (this is disputed), and the heat and sparks from the backfiring engine
may have been the ignition source.
However, it is unknown if sparks could ignite the doping compound, and Dr. Eckener rejected that
hydrogen could be ignited when the theory was mentioned at an unofficial inquiry at night. This was a
chat with crew members. He believed that the hydrogen could not have been ignited by any exhaust
because the temperature is too low to ignite the hydrogen. The ignition temperature for hydrogen is
700 °C, but the sparks from the exhaust only reach 250 °C. The Zeppelin Company also carried out
extensive tests, and hydrogen could never be ignited. Additionally, the fire was first seen at the top of
the airship, not near the bottom.
Fire's initial fuel
Most current analysis of the fire assumes that ignition due to some form of electricity was the
cause. However, there is still controversy over whether the fabric covering of the airship or the
hydrogen used for buoyancy was the initial fuel for the fire.
The incendiary paint theory
The incendiary paint theory asserts that the major component in the fire was the skin because of
the doping compound used on it.
Proponents point out that the coatings on the fabric contained both iron oxide and aluminum-
impregnated cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB). These components are potentially reactive, even after
fully setting. In fact, iron oxide and aluminum are sometimes used as components of solid rocket fuel
or thermite. The propellant for the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster includes "aluminum (fuel, 16%),
(and) iron oxide (a catalyst, 0.4%)."
Addison Bain received permission from the German government to search its archives and
discovered that during the Nazi regime, German scientists concluded that the dope on the
Hindenburg's fabric skin was the cause of the conflagration. Bain interviewed the wife of the
investigation's lead scientist, and she confirmed that her husband had told her about the conclusion
and instructed her to tell no one, presumably because it would have embarrassed the Nazi
government.
The paint theory is limited to the source of ignition and to the flame front propagation, not to the
source of most of the burning material as that was clearly the hydrogen.
Critics point out that port side witnesses on the field, as well as crew members stationed in the
stern, saw a glow inside Cell 4 before any fire broke out of the skin, indicating that the fire began
inside the airship (or that it was a hydrogen fire feeding on the whole cell). Newsreel footage supports
this. Proponents of the paint theory claim that the glow can be explained. They claim that what
witnesses saw was the fire on the starboard side (another proponent claims that a witness saw the fire
start from the starboard side) through the structure, looking like a glow. However, photographs of the
early stages of the fire show the gas cells of the Hindenburg's entire aft section fully aflame. Burning
gas spewing upward from the top of the airship was causing low pressure inside, allowing atmospheric
pressure to press the skin inwards. It should also be noted that not all fabric on the Hindenburg
burned. The fabric on several of the tail structures was not completely consumed. That the fabric not
near the hydrogen fire extinguished itself is not consistent with the "explosive" dope theory.
The hydrogen theory
Those who believe hydrogen was the initial fuel discount arguments for the incendiary paint theory
as not credible. They point out that cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) varnish is rated within the plastics
industry as combustible but nonflammable. That is, it will burn when placed in a fire but is not readily
ignited by itself. In fact, it is considered to be self extinguishing. That many pieces of the Hindenburg's
skin survived despite such a fierce fire is cited as proof. In his experiment, Addison Bain used a high
energy ignition source (a spark) to make it burn.
Fe2O3 + 2Al ? Al2O3 + 2Fe (aluminum and iron oxide reaction)
They point to pictures that show the fire burning along straight lines coinciding with the boundaries
of gas cells. This suggests that the fire was not burning along the skin, which was continuous. Crew
members stationed in the stern reported actually seeing the cells burning.
Although the hydrogen was odorised with garlic, nobody reported smelling the odor. Odorised
hydrogen would have been detected only in the area of a leak. The fire started near the top of the
airship far from any crew or passengers. Once the fire was underway, more powerful smells would
have masked any garlic odor. There is however, no official document that the hydrogen was even
odorized.
Support that any leak happened was that the airship remained stern heavy for the last few
minutes. Though Pruss believed that this stern heaviness was normal, attempts to correct it had failed
and the airship seemed to get even heavier after the second and last sharp turn. This suggests a
massive leak of gas occurred and it started to fill up the space in between the outer skin and the cells.
How gas could have leaked remains debatable. Many believe it was that a bracing wire cracked
(see below), while others believe that a vent was stuck open and gas leaked through the vent. During
a trip to Rio a gas cell was nearly emptied when a vent stuck open; gas had to be transferred from
other cells.
Puncture theory
A variant of the theory above cites the newsreels of the landing approach. Newsreels show the
Hindenburg making sharp turns towards port, and then starboard just before bursting into flames.
Some speculate that one of the many bracing wires within the airship snapped and punctured at least
one of the internal gas cells. Gauges found in the wreckage showed the tension of the wires was much
too high. Some of the wires may have been substandard. One bracing wire tested after the crash
broke at only 70% of its rated load. A punctured cell would have freed hydrogen into the air and could
have been ignited by a static discharge (see above).
It is also possible that the broken bracing wire then whipped a girder, causing sparks to ignite the
leaking hydrogen.
A ground crew member, R.H. Ward, reported seeing a piece of the airship fluttering, perhaps
providing an opening for a spark to reach escaping hydrogen inside the airship, or vice versa. He said
that the fire began there, but that no other disturbance occurred at the time when the fabric fluttered.
Another man on the top of the mooring mast had also reported seeing a flutter too. People on board
the airship also reported hearing a muffled sound, and another ground crew member on the starboard
side reported hearing a crack. Some speculate the sound was from a bracing wire snapping.
Advocates of this theory believe that the hydrogen began to leak approximately five minutes
before the fire.
Dr. Eckener was the one to conclude that the puncture theory was the most likely cause of the
disaster. After this, he believed that Captains Pruss and Lehmann, and Charles Rosendahl were to
blame for the whole disaster. He believed that Lehmann told Pruss to make the sharp turn, and that
Pruss and Rosendahl were concerned more about the time delay than the weather, because an
unobserved storm front occurred just when the Hindenburg approached. But in his heart, he found
himself to blame, for a decision eight years earlier, which was a close secret.
Eckener concluded that the fire was caused by the ignition of hydrogen by a static spark:

“ I believe that the fire was not caused by an electrical spark, but by a static spark. A ”
thunderstorm front had passed before the landing maneuver. However if one observes more
closely one can see that this was followed by a smaller storm front. This created conditions
suitable for static sparks to occur. I believe spark had ignited gas in the rear of the ship.
It may seem strange that the fire did not occur the moment the landing ropes had touched
 the ground, because that is when the airship would have been earthed. I believe there is an
explanation for this. When the ropes were first dropped they were very dry, and poor
conductors. Slowly however they got dampened by the rain that was falling and the charge
was slowly equalized. Thus the potential difference between the airship and the overlying air
masses would have been sufficient enough to generate static electricity. The Hindenburg
would have acted as a giant kite, close to the storm clouds, collecting a static spark.
I am convinced, that a leak must have occurred in the upper rear section of the ship. My
assumption is confirmed by the remarkable observations by one of the witnesses. He
described seeing a peculiar flutter as if gas were rising and escaping. If I were to be asked to
explain what had caused this abnormal build up of gas, I could only make to myself one
explanation.
The ship proceeded in a sharp turn during its landing maneuver. This would have
generated extremely high tension in the sections close to the stabilizing fins, which are braced
by shear wires. I suspect that under such tension one of these wires may have broken and
caused a rip in one of the gas cells. The gas then filled up the space between the cell and the
outer cover, which is why the airship sank at the rear. This accumulated amount of gas was
then ignited by a static spark. This was not lightning but a small static spark, enough to ignite
free gas in the rear.
One must know that the airship actually proceeded in two sharp turns. The first turn was towards
port at full speed as the airship circled the landing field. After circling the landing field, the wind shifted
direction towards southwest, and a sharper turn towards starboard was ordered near the end of the
landing maneuver. After the last turn the airship seemed to drop even more at the stern, though a
slight stern heaviness was already noticed before this turn. One or both of these turns towards
opposite directions could also have weakened the structure.
Other controversial hypotheses
Structural failure
Captain Pruss believed that the Hindenburg could withstand tight turns without significant damage.
Others believe that the airship would have been weakened by being repeatedly stressed. Even a 10
meter, full scale replica of the Hindenburg's passenger quarters, displayed in the Zeppelin Museum in
Friedrichshafen, has developed some metal fatigue.
The airship did not receive much routine inspection, even though there was evidence of some
damage on previous flights. It is not known if damage was repaired and if all the failures had been
found. The Hindenburg once lost an engine and almost drifted over Africa, where it could have
crashed. Dr. Eckener was furious and ordered all section chiefs to inspect the airship during flight.
In March 1936, the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg made three-day flights to drop leaflets and
broadcast speeches via loudspeaker. Before the airship's takeoff on 26 March 1936, Captain
Lehmann chose to launch the Hindenburg with the wind blowing from behind the airship, instead of
into the wind as per standard procedure. During the takeoff, the airship's tail struck the ground, and
part of the lower fin was broken. Many spectators' cameras were confiscated to prevent negative
publicity, but Harold G. Dick concealed his camera and took pictures of the damaged fin. Dr. Eckener
was very upset and rebuked Captain Lehmann:
How could you, Herr Lehmann, order the ship to be brought out in such wind conditions. You had
the best excuse in the world for postponing this idiotic flight; instead, you risk the ship, merely to avoid
annoying Herr Goebbels. Do you call this showing a sense of responsibility towards our enterprise?
Though the damage was repaired, the force of the crash may have already forced up the fin and
caused internal damage.
Only six days before the disaster, there was a plan assisted by the U.S. Navy to make the
Hindenburg have a hook on her hull to carry aircraft in a similar way to what the Navy did with the USS
Akron and the USS Macon. However, the trials were unsuccessful; the biplane had bashed the hook
several times. This could have also caused an amount of damage weakening the structure.
Photographs and Newsreels of the disaster show that the stern section of the airship collapsed
inward in a similar way to an eggshell. with an inward dent directly behind the passenger decks, which
appeared the moment the airship burned. When the airship collapsed with the bow facing upwards,
this part collapsed inward, causing another plume of fire to start.
This theory of the cause of the fire has not been very popular, because it does not explain exactly
why the fire started, instead supporting the puncture theory.
 Fuel leak
The 2001 documentary Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause suggested that 16-year-old Bobby
Rutan, who said he had smelled "gasoline" when he was standing below the Hindenburg's aft port
engine, had detected a diesel fuel leak. The day before the disaster a fuel pump had broken during the
flight. A crew member said this was fixed but it may not have been. The resulting vapor would have
been highly flammable and could have self combusted. The film also suggested that overheating
engines may have played a role.
During the investigation, Commander Charles Rosendahl dismissed the boy's report.
Critics say the documentary is misleading, because it misconstrued the statements by the
crewmen in the Hindenburg's lower fin. The crewmen said they saw a flash in the axial catwalk, but
the film placed the flash in the keel catwalk closer to the passenger areas.
Luger pistol among wreckage
Some more sensational newspapers at the time said that a person on board committed suicide
because a Luger pistol with one shell fired was found among the wreckage. Yet, there is no such
evidence suggesting an attempted suicide. It is important to note that the Luger pistol is an automatic
pistol which, while famously prone to jam, automatically extracts each spent cartridge.
Rate of flame propagation

Fabric of the Hindenburg, held in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Regardless of the source of ignition or the initial fuel for the fire, there remains the question of what
caused the rapid spread of flames along the length of the airship. Here again the debate has centered
on the fabric covering of the airship and the hydrogen used for buoyancy.
Proponents of the incendiary paint theory also contend that the fabric coatings were responsible
for the rapid spread of the fire. They point out that the combustion of hydrogen is not usually visible in
daylight, because most of its radiation is not visible. Thus what can be seen burning in the
photographs cannot be hydrogen. The motion picture films show the fire spreading downward along
the skin of the airship.
Proponents claim that in 1935, a helium filled blimp with an acetate aluminium skin burned near
Point Sur in California with equal ferocity. Proponents also claim that even the USS Macon burned.
Opponents point out that these two incidents had nothing to do with the dope. The small blimp burned
because of a fuel leak, and the Macon burned because it was firing flares.
Those skeptical of the incendiary paint theory cite recent technical papers which claim that even if
the airship had been coated with actual rocket fuel, it would have taken many hours to burn — not the
32 to 37 seconds that it actually took.  Proponents claim that this criticism does not take into account
the conditions that lead to firestorms, such as convection and ignition from radiant energy.
Also, while hydrogen tends to burn invisibly, the materials around it would be combustible and
change the color of the fire. While fires generally tend to burn upward, including hydrogen fires, the
enormous radiant heat from the blaze would have quickly spread fire over the entire surface of the
airship, thus explaining the downward propagation of the flames. Falling, burning debris would appear
as downward streaks of fire.
The most conclusive proof against the fabric theory is in the photographs of the actual accident as
well as the many airships which were not doped with aluminum powder and still exploded violently.
When a single gas cell explodes, it creates a shock wave and heat. The shock wave tends to rip
nearby bags which then explode themselves. In the case of the Alhorn disaster during World War I,
explosions of airships in one shed caused the explosions of others in sheds nearby, wiping out the
airships at the base.
The photos of the Hindenburg disaster clearly show that after the cells in the aft section of the
airship exploded and the combustion products were vented out the top of the airship, the fabric on the
rear section was still largely intact, and air pressure from the outside was acting upon it, caving the
sides of the airship inward due to the reduction of pressure caused by the venting of combustion
gases out the top.
The loss of lift at the rear caused the airship to nose up and the back to break (the airship is still in
one piece), at that time the primary mode of spread for the fire was along the axial gangway which
acted as a chimney conducting fire which burst out the nose right when the airship's tail touched the
ground, as seen in one of the most famous pictures of the disaster. As the flames burst from the nose,
the fabric on most of the forward part of the airship was still intact, showing that the propagation of the
fire was via hydrogen, not the fabric.
Also supporting the fact that hydrogen was burning was that a few seconds after the fire burst out
the nose a fire started in the cell behind the passenger decks when the airship bent on the side due to
a crack in the side just behind the passenger decks.
Modern experiments that recreated the fabric and coating materials of the Hindenburg seem to
discredit the incendiary fabric theory. They conclude that it would have taken about 40 hours for the
Hindenburg to burn if the fire had been driven by combustible fabric. Two additional scientific papers
also strongly reject the fabric theory.
Even if the fire was started by the fabric, it would have set off the leaking hydrogen. Hydrogen
would still be required to increase the burn speed of the fire, regardless of what was ignited first. If the
Hindenburg was filled with helium and still burned, the fire would be slower and most people, if not all,
would survive.

Television investigations
The Discovery Channel series MythBusters explored the incendiary paint theory (IPT) and the
hydrogen theory in an episode that aired 10 January 2007. The show's hosts, Adam Savage and
Jamie Hyneman, demonstrated that when set alight with a blowtorch a 1:50 scale model of the
Hindenburg burnt twice as fast in the presence of diffused hydrogen as without it. A thermite reaction
was observed in the burning skin which would have accelerated the fire but they concluded that
hydrogen was the main fuel. The hydrogen filled model produced a fire with flames that came out of
the nose and resembled the newsreel footage of the Hindenburg disaster.
The program concluded that the IPT myth was "Busted".
The National Geographic program Seconds From Disaster had air crash investigator Greg Feith
study all of the available evidence, including eyewitness accounts, interviews with the last two living
survivors, newsreel footage, weather reports, & the Hindenburg blueprints. In the program Feith burns
a sample of doped cloth and it took one minute to burn the whole piece. He concludes that the skin
could not be the fatal accelerant. The program concludes that the puncture theory remains the most
probable cause, as the airship made two sharp turns.
Memorial

Current Marker at the disaster site, Shown with hangar one in background
The actual site of the Hindenburg crash at Lakehurst Naval Air Station (reestablished as Naval Air
Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Naval Air Engineering Station (NAES) Lakehurst, or "Navy
Lakehurst" for short) is marked with a chain outlined pad and bronze plaque where the airship's
gondola landed. It was dedicated on 6 May 1987; the 50th anniversary of the disaster. Hangar #1,
which still stands, is where the airship was to be housed after landing. It was designated a Registered
National Historic Landmark in 1968. Pre-registered tours are held through the Navy Lakehurst
Historical Society. Due to security concerns, no foreign nationals are permitted on the tours.
Popular culture
Audio
English rock group Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album has a picture of the Hindenburg disaster
on the front cover. The band's name itself is a reference to Keith Moon's quotation that the band would
"go over like a lead balloon." The album cover is in fact a pen and ink illustration of the famous UPI
photograph drawn with a Rapidograph pen by graphic artist George Hardie. Their 2007 compilation
album Mothership also has a picture of the Hindenburg on the album cover.
Folk/blues musician Huddie Ledbetter (AKA Leadbelly) wrote a two-part song about the
Hindenburg crash called "The Hindenburg Disaster".
Film and television

FromSky Captain and the World of Tomorrow:

The Hindenburg (1975 movie) is a speculative thriller based on the events leading up to and
including the disaster.
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indy and his father (Sean Connery) board the LZ 138
Zeppelin, Indy grabs a plane and flies away (apparently the Zeppelin Company tried to install a
trapeze-like hangar in the Hindenburg to hold planes with the help of the US Navy, but the project was
abandoned).
The movie The Rocketeer concludes with a final confrontation between hero and villain set in and
on the Zeppelin Luxembourg, which explodes Hindenburg-style over the hills of Hollywood.
The film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow opens with the Hindenburg III approaching the
Empire State Building to dock (the building was originally designed to serve this purpose).
Other
The Hindenburg is the primary motif of the first section of Three Tales by Steve Reich and Beryl
Korot.
The last flight of the Hindenburg is a major plot element in Allen Steele's science fiction fix up
novel Chronospace (the relevant part previously published as a stand alone novella "...Where Angels
Fear to Tread", winning the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1998). Two researchers from the future
travel to 1937 and replace Mr. and Mrs. Pannes, real passengers who were killed in the disaster, and
inadvertently prevent the Hindenburg from being destroyed until after the passengers and crew
disembark. The novel assumes that Eric Spehl planted a flashbulb-triggered bomb in gas cell 4.
In the novel The Never War by D.J. MacHale, the main character can choose to keep the
Hindenburg Disaster from happening, which he thought would keep World War II from starting.
However, he decides not to, since he discovers that the airship is carrying German spies that would
allow the Nazis to develop atomic weapons before the Allies.
Specifications
General characteristics
Capacity: 72
Length: 245 m (804 ft in)
Diameter: 41 m (135 ft in)
Volume: 200,000 m³ (7 million ft³)
Useful lift: 112,000 kg (247,100 lb)
Powerplant: 4 × Daimler-Benz diesel engines, 890 kW (1,200 hp) each each
Performance
Maximum speed: 135 km/h (84 mph)
See also
Crash cover Zeppelin
Hindenburg Disaster NewsreelHarold G. Dick was an American engineer who flew on most of the
Footage Hindenburg flights.
Herbert Morrison (announcer) The Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen displays a reconstruction of a
List of airship accidents 33 m section of the Hindenburg.
Hindenburg: The Untold Story was a docudrama aired on the 70th
anniversary of the disaster, 6 May 2007.
Second Gallery Scan shows a variety of cancellations. Cancellation on the stamp you receive may
vary. Condition of the stamp is not new. The stamp has been used and is lightly cancelled.