- [Jared] The Hindenburg
is the famous airship that met its fiery death in the year 1937. Surprisingly, more than
half of the people on board actually survived the crash. In this video, I want to
take you on a detailed tour of the inside of the Hindenburg. We'll talk about airships in general and why they are mostly
a thing of the past. (electricity crackling) This video is sponsored by ExpressVPN. The earliest airship that we know of was in the year 1783 in France. These primitive balloons were unstable, and steering was near impossible at first. A man by the name of Count
Zeppelin created his own company and helped perfect the design of airships. At the time, passenger air
travel was not commonplace yet, so this was the fastest way
to travel across the ocean. It was about twice as
fast as an ocean liner. Construction of the Hindenburg
was completed in 1936. To this day, it's still
the largest flying object ever to be built. It was built in Germany
and funded by the Nazis, which is why the swastika is on the tail. Most of the space inside the ship is taken up by 16 large gas cells. If we remove these, you can
see the frame of the ship. The passenger areas are down here. There are two decks. The top one is the A deck, and then below is the B deck. The B deck is where the
passengers board the airship. There's angled windows
to get a panoramic view of the scene below,
bathrooms, areas for the crew, the kitchen, and the officers' mess. This room is the smoking room. It was pressurized so
that there was no chance of any hydrogen leaking in. And yes, hydrogen is flammable. We'll talk more about this
gas later in the video. The stair here take us up to the A deck, which is where the passengers
spent most of their time. There are more windows on
both sides of the ship. Here's the reading and writing room, and the lounge area,
complete with a grand piano. Normally, grand pianos can
weigh as much as 1,000 pounds, but that's a lot of weight
to put in an airship. This piano is made out of aluminum, and it only weighs about 356 pounds. The passenger cabins have two bunks each, and the dining room was on the other side. So now we've seen all the
areas where passengers can go. Let's see where the crew members could go. Ont the B deck, this hallway is called the keel corridor, which led to a walkway through the entire bottom of the ship. Towards the front of the ship is the mail room and the radio room. Right below here is the control car. This is the command center of the ship, which you can see from below. This is the rudder wheel,
which helps move the ship to the left or right by
controlling the rudders on the very back of the ship. This is the elevator wheel, which controls the pitch of the ship. Ideally, we want the
ship as level as possible to keep the passengers comfortable. This is done by the
elevators on the very back. The officers' quarters are here, so that they are close to the control car. Along the keel catwalk, you'll find plenty of these fuel and water tanks. Here's the crew quarters, cargo areas, and this is the electrical room. There's more cargo areas here, and a few more down here. And then crew quarters for those that work towards the back of the ship. Along the side of the
ship are four engine cars with propellers to help
move the ship forward. There was always a crew member
stationed at each engine car at all times of the journey. This walkway is how the crew
could get to the engine car. Along the keel corridor are
several shafts with ladders so the crew members could climb up higher. These shafts were also
used to ventilate gas. This walkway through
the center of the ship is called the axial corridor. These 16 gas cells are what
hold the ship up in the air. The cells were originally
intended to be filled with helium, but instead were filled with hydrogen. If we look at the periodic
table of elements, hydrogen is the lightest element, which means it will provide the most lift. Unfortunately, it's also highly flammable, so the intent with the
Hindenburg was to actually use helium, slightly
heavier, but also much safer. At the time, the United States had the best supply of helium but would not sell it to other countries, which means that Germany was out of luck. So the Hindenburg had no other
choice but to use hydrogen. Previous to the Hindenburg, there had been quite a
few airship accidents. Other countries had already decided that hydrogen-filled airships
were just too dangerous. Germany, however, had a
flawless record so far. No passengers had ever been
killed in an airship accident. During the year 1936, the Hindenburg had many successful passenger flights, to the United States and to Brazil. The year 1937 didn't go so well. May 3rd, the Hindenburg begins its journey from Frankfurt, Germany. It was a three-day journey to
get to Lakehurst, New Jersey. The ship was only halfway
full at this time. Only 97 people were onboard. The landing was originally scheduled for the early morning of
May 6th, but it was delayed because of strong headwinds,
rain, and thunderstorms. This is the Lakehurst station. It has a hangar to park the
airship when it's not flying. This is the mooring mast. For a normal landing, the nose of the ship will be attached here
while it's on the ground. On the evening of May 6th,
there were many people on the ground, including
spectators, news reporters, and crew member ready to
help bring the ship in. At 7:00 p.m., the ship made a first pass over the landing site
and slowly circled around for the final landing. At this point, the ship was 12 hours late, so there was an urgency to land, as there were many
passengers waiting to board for the return trip back to Germany. For some reason, the
tail of the ship was low, a possible hydrogen leak. At 7:21 p.m., the ship
released the handling lines for the ground crew below. Four minutes later, the
ship bursts into flames at the top, in between gas
cells number four and five. (explosion) It took less than a minute for the ship to be completely destroyed and in ruins on the ground below. Of the 97 people on board, 62
of them survived the crash. Let's take a look at the explosion again. Right after it happens,
the tail begins to fall. The flames travel through
the axial corridor and out the nose of the ship. Everyone on board is thrown off their feet with a sudden jolt. Since they're about to
land, most passengers are already at the windows,
and it's a good thing, too. As the ship gets closer to the ground, many were able to jump and run
away from the burning ship. Others were not so lucky. No one knows for sure what
caused the ship to catch on fire. Unfortunately, most of the
evidence was burned up. The likely cause is from
static electricity buildup right before the disaster. One small spark is all it would take. The Hindenburg wasn't the
worst airship disaster. It was just the first to be caught on film and widely seen by the public. Because of this, airship travel as a means of transportation
was brought to an end. Any airships that are still in use today will definitely use
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Have any technologies been discovered which could mitigate the dangers of using hydrogen in airships? I'm just throwing ideas out there but could the envelope be electrified and fire resistant so if there's a leak, the gas would be ignited before too much of it escapes and leads to bigger explosion?