Transcript

10.16.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is Radio Eye's History Show, and
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Speaker 1: I'm your host and reader today, Joseph Bolt. So happy
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Speaker 1: to be with you for this time, and before we begin,
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Speaker 1: we always need to remind you that Radio Eye is listener-driven,
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Speaker 1: so that means you. And if you have comments, suggestions,
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Speaker 1: or just want to talk about anything we do, please
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Speaker 1: call us, and the number's 859- 422-6390. Let us know
0:36
Speaker 1: what you are thinking. As you know, Radio Eye is
0:40
Speaker 1: a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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Speaker 1: have other disabilities and make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: I'll cite the sources later on in the program. So,
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Speaker 1: let's get to reading. Although the airplane had been invented
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Speaker 1: in 1903 and saw rapid adoption by the world's militaries
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Speaker 1: during World War I, air travel was far from luxurious
1:11
Speaker 1: during the 1930s. However, a class of luxurious lighter than
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Speaker 1: aircraft known as zeppelins captured the world's attention. They were quiet,
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Speaker 1: relatively stable, and gave passengers a far more stately way
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Speaker 1: to travel. As the world struggled out of the Great Depression,
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Speaker 1: would fleets of Zeppelins become the new wave of air travel? Well, tragically,
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Speaker 1: a single disaster on May 6, 1937, doomed this method
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Speaker 1: of transportation. Filled with flammable hydrogen, the luxurious Hindenburg airship
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Speaker 1: caught fire and was quickly ablaze as it attempted to
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Speaker 1: dock over Manchester Township in New Jersey. World War I
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Speaker 1: showed that airplanes were highly versatile and they were quickly
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Speaker 1: put into use to carry both passengers, and cargo after
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Speaker 1: the war. Post-World War I airplanes delivered the mail and
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Speaker 1: were popular in barnstorming shows where the public could watch aerobatics.
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Speaker 1: These early civilian flights were often dangerous, and there were
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Speaker 1: many casualties. In 1914, the first passenger was flown in
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Speaker 1: the United States, having to sit next to the pilot
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Speaker 1: in the open-air cockpit. By the 1920s, enclosed passenger compartments
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Speaker 1: had been developed, and the Ford tri-motor was becoming popular
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Speaker 1: with the public. The late 1920s and early 30s saw
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Speaker 1: further improvements of passenger airplanes. Development of airliners and closed
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Speaker 1: passenger planes was hindered by the Great Depression, which hurt
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Speaker 1: the revenue of early airlines. Some airlines, such as Delta,
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Speaker 1: had emerged only months before the infamous 1929 stock market crash.
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Speaker 1: Despite Ford Trimotors and German-made planes of the 1920s being
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Speaker 1: more comfortable than the open-air cockpits of the 1910s, air
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Speaker 1: travel up through the early 1930s was still noisy, leaky, shaky,
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Speaker 1: and not especially fast. Air travel was intriguing but many
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Speaker 1: who could afford to travel long distances wanted luxury. Roads
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Speaker 1: and trains were significantly improved during the 1920s raising the
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Speaker 1: expectations of comfort in traveling. The wealthy therefore were less
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Speaker 1: inclined to travel by air if it would mean a
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Speaker 1: substantial downgrade in comfort and luxury from a passenger train.
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Speaker 1: For overseas travel, luxury liners provided deluxe amenities, at least
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Speaker 1: for first-class passengers. And during the Gilded Age, the wealthy
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Speaker 1: classes were accustomed to traveling in style. By 1930, crossing
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Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean still took at least four days by
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Speaker 1: luxury liner. Improvements in air travel that could provide comparable
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Speaker 1: comfort but allow for much faster travel than ships could
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Speaker 1: make significant revenue. In 1927, An airplane piloted by American
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Speaker 1: pilot Charles Lindbergh had famously flown nonstop across the Atlantic
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Speaker 1: for the first time. What if passengers could also enjoy
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Speaker 1: nonstop transatlantic flights, all the while surrounded by comfort? While
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Speaker 1: the public mostly focused on airplanes, there were other forms
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Speaker 1: of aerial transportation. The first crewed flight actually occurred in
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Speaker 1: 1783 in, guess what, a hot air balloon, with heated
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Speaker 1: air providing enough buoyancy to raise a heavy basket. Although
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Speaker 1: novel and initially very exciting, hot air balloons had some
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Speaker 1: major weaknesses they were difficult to control. In the 1950s,
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Speaker 1: Henry Gifford of France pioneered the first true powered airships,
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Speaker 1: which could be controlled on calm days. During the Civil War,
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Speaker 1: hydrogen-filled balloons were for aerial reconnaissance, carrying Union soldiers aloft
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Speaker 1: to scout for Confederate movements and signal resistance. their compatriots
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Speaker 1: on the ground to respond. In 1884, the first flights
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Speaker 1: occurred where a powered airship was controlled throughout the entire flight.
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Speaker 1: Thirteen years later, the internal combustion engine was used to
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Speaker 1: power airships for the first time, greatly increasing the amount
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Speaker 1: of control. A few years later, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
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Speaker 1: revolutionized airships with his rigid frame design. His first powered airship,
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Speaker 1: the Luftschiff, or the Zeppelin LZ, which was also called
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Speaker 1: the LZ-1, was the first test flown in 1900. Future
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Speaker 1: airships quickly took on count Zeppelin's design of a long, tapered,
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Speaker 1: rigid frame covered by fabric to enclose lighter-than-air gases. Well, quickly,
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Speaker 1: Zeppelin-style airships were improved for greater stability and maneuverability. In 1911,
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Speaker 1: the first passenger Zeppelin, the LZ-10, Schwaben, began service. Passenger
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Speaker 1: service by Zeppelins was halted by the outbreak of World
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Speaker 1: War I in 1914, with the airships being transferred into
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Speaker 1: wartime service. During the war, German Zeppelins proved far more
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Speaker 1: effective than French dirigibles. with the German airships almost doubling
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Speaker 1: the speed of their Allied rivals. Zeppelins could be used
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Speaker 1: for aerial reconnaissance and were considered successful. Some 60 were
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Speaker 1: put into German service during the war. One set a
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Speaker 1: record of 95 hours in flight on a mission to
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Speaker 1: resupply German troops in East Africa. After the war, passenger
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Speaker 1: service returned in 1919, and newer Zeppelins saw further technical improvements.
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Speaker 1: LZ-120 Bodeci, equipped with four powerful engines, could reach 80
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Speaker 1: miles an hour, making Zeppelins a close rival to airplanes
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Speaker 1: of the era. However, Zeppelins were soon transferred to France
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Speaker 1: under the Treaty of Versailles, which stripped Germany of its
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Speaker 1: war-making equipment. Since Zeppelins had been used on or rather
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Speaker 1: to bomb France and England from the air, they were
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Speaker 1: seized as reparation payments. Only in 1926 was Germany allowed
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Speaker 1: to resume building airships, which it did. The success of
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Speaker 1: the German-made Zeppelin, both in civilian transportation and as a
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Speaker 1: military craft, was quickly noticed by the Allies of World
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Speaker 1: War I. including the United States. In 1923, the first
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Speaker 1: American-made Zeppelin was launched, with its design obtained by reverse
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Speaker 1: engineering a downed German Zeppelin that had dropped bombs on
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Speaker 1: England in 1917. Around the same time, an American airship
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Speaker 1: was inflated with non-flammable helium though most still used cheaper
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Speaker 1: and more available hydrogen. In 1924, the first use of
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Speaker 1: vertical mooring masks allowed Zeppelins to dock without having to land,
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Speaker 1: increasing ease of use. Later that same year, flights began
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Speaker 1: between New Jersey and Germany, with Zeppelins traveling some 5,000 miles.
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Speaker 1: In 1928, Graff Zeppelin was completed, named after the deceased
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Speaker 1: Count Zeppelin himself. On October 11, 1928, the airship completed
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Speaker 1: the first transatlantic passenger service by flying passengers from Germany
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Speaker 1: to New Jersey. The initial journey was harrowing, with Graff Zeppelin,
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Speaker 1: damaged by storms and having to be repaired in flight
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Speaker 1: by a team of four crewmen. When it landed on
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Speaker 1: October 15, the craft was met with cheers. It had
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Speaker 1: reduced by half the amount of time it took all
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Speaker 1: previous passengers to cross the Atlantic by ship. The success
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Speaker 1: of Graf Zeppelin, including a 19- round-the-world journey led to
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Speaker 1: the creation of more passenger Zeppelins. A new class of
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Speaker 1: airship was developed, the Hindenburg class, which would contain over
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Speaker 1: 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen. The choice to use
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Speaker 1: hydrogen was made despite the catastrophic and fatal loss of
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Speaker 1: a British airship, the R-101, due to its hydrogen envelope
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Speaker 1: catching fire in 1930. Additionally, Germany could not get enough helium,
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Speaker 1: as the United States controlled all the known major deposits
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Speaker 1: in the world. As the Hindenburg was under construction, the
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Speaker 1: Nazi government of Germany decided to help fund the project
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Speaker 1: to showcase German technological prowess. By 1935, civilian control had
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Speaker 1: largely been removed from the construction and operation of the Hindenburg.
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Speaker 1: The completed airship was the largest craft ever to fly,
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Speaker 1: powered by four 1,200-horsepower engines. In 1936, the Hindenburg was
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Speaker 1: displayed to the public, including at the 1936 Olympic Games
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Speaker 1: in Berlin. In addition to passenger service, the Hindenburg was
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Speaker 1: intended to be a propaganda tool for Adolf Hitler's regime.
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Speaker 1: In May of 1936, the Hindenburg began passenger service, carrying
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Speaker 1: 51 passengers across the Atlantic. One year later, the sight
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Speaker 1: of a giant airship was still a novelty, and its
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Speaker 1: two-and-a-half-day trips across the Atlantic were legendary. On August 10, 1936...
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Speaker 1: the Hindenburg set its speed record for a 43-hour flight
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Speaker 1: between Frankfurt, Germany and New Jersey. Tragically, its 1937 season
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Speaker 1: would be its last. On May 6, 1937, disaster struck.
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Speaker 1: At 7.25 p.m., while attempting to dock at Naval Air
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Speaker 1: Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Hindenburg burst into flames while
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Speaker 1: cameras were filming. Around 180 feet above the ground, the
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Speaker 1: entire envelope of the aircraft was engulfed in flames, and
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Speaker 1: within 40 seconds, it plummeted to the ground. The Hindenburg
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Speaker 1: was carrying 61 crew and 36 passengers. In all, 36
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Speaker 1: people were killed, and radio news coverage of the disaster
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Speaker 1: coined the phrase, quote, Oh, the humanity, end quote. There
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Speaker 1: were hundreds of onlookers, including a massive crew needed to
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Speaker 1: handle a landed Zeppelin, plus U.S. Army military personnel were
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Speaker 1: quickly on the scene to help with rescues. Amazingly, a
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Speaker 1: majority of the Hindenburg's passengers survived, but the dramatic news coverage,
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Speaker 1: including video footage, was sensational. Security would be needed afterward
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Speaker 1: to secure the crash site and keep away souvenir seekers
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Speaker 1: of the downed Zeppelin's frame. The public was horrified by
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Speaker 1: the sudden disaster, and the emotional coverage of the event
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Speaker 1: by reporters on the scene added to the drama. Although
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Speaker 1: the previous airship disasters had not dented public support for
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Speaker 1: Zeppelin travel, the Hindenburg was the first such disaster caught
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Speaker 1: on film, and as a result, millions of people in
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Speaker 1: Europe and North America quickly learned about the disaster and
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Speaker 1: came to view hydrogen-filled airships as potential death traps. The
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Speaker 1: day after this horrible tragedy occurred, the paper started speculating
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Speaker 1: about the cause of the disaster. Many theories were talked
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Speaker 1: about and investigated, possible sabotage to harm Hitler's regime, sabotage
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Speaker 1: theories centered on a bomb of some sort being placed
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Speaker 1: aboard the Hindenburg and later detonated, or some other sort
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Speaker 1: of sabotage performed by someone on board. Many of the
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Speaker 1: ground crew later interviewed in the investigation indicated that the
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Speaker 1: Hindenburg was coming in too fast. They believed that the
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Speaker 1: airship was thrown into a full reverse to slow the craft.
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Speaker 1: The speculation arose that this may have caused a mechanical
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Speaker 1: failure which sparked a fire causing the hydrogen to explode.
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Speaker 1: Another theory of cause and Perhaps the most outlandish involved
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Speaker 1: the dirigible being shot from the sky. The investigation focused
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Speaker 1: on reports of a pair of tracks found near the
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Speaker 1: back of the airfield in a restricted area. However, there
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Speaker 1: were numerous people on hand to watch the amazing event
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Speaker 1: of the Hindenburg landing, so these footprints could have been
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Speaker 1: made by anyone. In fact, the Navy had caught a
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Speaker 1: couple of boys who had sneaked into the airfield from
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Speaker 1: that direction. There were also reports of farmers shooting at
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Speaker 1: other dirigibles because they passed over their farms. Some people
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Speaker 1: even claim that joystickers shot down the Hindenburg. Most people
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Speaker 1: dismiss these accusations as nonsense, and the formal investigation never
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Speaker 1: substantiated the theory that the Hindenburg was shot from the sky.
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Speaker 1: Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
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Speaker 1: said the incident would not dissuade her from flying. Despite
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Speaker 1: tensions between the United States and Nazi Germany, President Roosevelt
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Speaker 1: sent a message of condolence to German dictator Adolf Hitler,
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Speaker 1: who responded with thanks. The disaster effectively ended the airship era,
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Speaker 1: with Hindenburg's sister ship LZ-130 Graf Zeppelin, the only one
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Speaker 1: completed after the crash. It had been near completion on
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Speaker 1: May 6, 1937 and was modified to use helium instead
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Speaker 1: of hydrogen to prevent a reoccurrence of the deadly crash.
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Speaker 1: Increasing tensions between the United States and Nazi Germany meant
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Speaker 1: Graf Zeppelin never received the necessary helium and reverted to
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Speaker 1: using hydrogen. Its final flight occurred on August 20, 1939,
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Speaker 1: less than two weeks before the start of World War
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Speaker 1: II in Europe. Airships designed for passenger use were all
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Speaker 1: declared scrapped by the German military in March of 1941.
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Speaker 1: and were dismantled to have their parts used for military equipment.
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Speaker 1: The United States, by contrast, increased the use of airships
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Speaker 1: during World War II. Airships were used to patrol shipping
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Speaker 1: lanes in coastal areas to detect enemy submarines. These were
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Speaker 1: not true Zeppelins, which had a rigid inner frame, but
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Speaker 1: rather blimps, which were non-rigid and inflatable. Unarmed blimps could
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Speaker 1: spot enemy actions and report them to armed vessels that
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Speaker 1: could respond effectively. Unlike World War I, airships were not
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Speaker 1: used as offensive weapons due to their slow speed and
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Speaker 1: unwieldy profile. They were easy targets for fighter planes and
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Speaker 1: ground-based guns. After the war, the U.S. maintained a smaller
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Speaker 1: number of blimps, which were permanently retired in 1962. In
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Speaker 1: terms of speed, airships are no match for modern airliners. Obviously,
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Speaker 1: the environmental movement has brought back some support for the
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Speaker 1: idea of using lighter-than-air craft. Airliners using a tremendous amount
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Speaker 1: of fuel and emit significant amounts of pollutants. Some analysts
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Speaker 1: feel that helium-filled airships could be greener than airliners. Although
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Speaker 1: they would not be as fast, they could land on
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Speaker 1: more surfaces and thus save money on the need for
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Speaker 1: expensive airport infrastructures. Combining the new helium pollutants Filled airships
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Speaker 1: with electric motors, perhaps even solar-powered, would make them an
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Speaker 1: attractive investment for environmentally conscious companies. Some argue that hydrogen,
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Speaker 1: which is much cheaper to use than helium, could be
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Speaker 1: safely used today. Another avenue for airships is transporting non-perishable cargo,
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Speaker 1: which could travel slower to areas that are difficult to
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Speaker 1: access by road or train. Whether or not the late
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Speaker 1: 2020s will see a return of commercially viable airships remains
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Speaker 1: to be seen, but it could be an exciting development.
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Speaker 1: That story came from TheCollector.com, The Hindenburg Disaster, Oh the Humanity,
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Speaker 1: written by Owen Rust in September of 2024, and from ThoughtCo.com,
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Speaker 1: The Hindenburg Disaster, written by Martin Kelly, in July of 2019.
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Speaker 1: And finally, from the website mentalfloss.com, 15 Facts About the Hindenburg,
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Speaker 1: written by Mark Mancini, January of 2020. Now let's finish
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Speaker 1: up by reading from the website history.com, The Hindenburg Disaster, Non-Surprising,
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Speaker 1: Nine Surprising Facts. written by Christopher Klein in April of 2026.
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Speaker 1: Anyone who has seen the graphic newsreel footage of the
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Speaker 1: Hindenburg plunging to earth in flames may be amazed to
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Speaker 1: know that of the 97 passengers and crew on board,
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Speaker 1: 62 survived, two of which were its captain, Max Pruss,
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Speaker 1: and professional acrobat Joseph Spa, who escaped through a window.
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Speaker 1: The disaster's 36 deaths included 13 passengers, 22 crew members,
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Speaker 1: and one worker on the ground. Many survivors jumped out
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Speaker 1: of Zeppelin's windows and ran away as fast as they could.
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Speaker 1: Despite being filled with 7 million cubic feet of highly
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Speaker 1: combustible hydrogen gas, the Hindenburg featured a smoking room. Passengers
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Speaker 1: were unable to bring matches and personal lighters aboard the Zeppelin,
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Speaker 1: but they could buy cigarettes and Cuban cigars on board
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Speaker 1: and light up in a room pressurized to prevent any
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Speaker 1: hydrogen from entering. A steward admitted passengers and crews into
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Speaker 1: the smoking lounge through a double-door airlock. The lounge had
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Speaker 1: a single electric lighter, and the crew made sure no
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Speaker 1: one left with a lit cigarette or pipe. The Hindenburg's owners,
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Speaker 1: seeking to outfit their airborne luxury liner, tasked the renowned
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Speaker 1: piano maker firm of Julius Bluthner with building a special
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Speaker 1: lightweight baby grand piano to meet the airship's strict weight standards.
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Speaker 1: The piano, which was made mostly of aluminum alloy and
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Speaker 1: covered in yellow pigskin, weighed less than 400 pounds. It
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Speaker 1: was only used during the Hindenburg's first flying season, so
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Speaker 1: it wasn't aboard the ill-fated voyage. Although the Hindenburg was
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Speaker 1: in development before the Third Reich came to power, members
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Speaker 1: of the Nazi regime viewed it as a symbol of
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Speaker 1: German might. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordered the Hindenburg
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Speaker 1: to make its first public flight in March of 1936
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Speaker 1: as part of a joint 4,100-mile aerial tour of Germany
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Speaker 1: with the Graf Zeppelin to rally support for a referendum
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Speaker 1: ratifying the reoccupation of the Rhineland. For four days, the
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Speaker 1: airship blared patriotic tunes and pro-Hitler announcements from specialty-mounted loudspeakers,
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Speaker 1: and small parachutes and propaganda leaflets enshrined swastika flags were
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Speaker 1: dropped on German cities. Later in 1936, the Hindenburg, sporting
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Speaker 1: Olympic rings on its side and pulling a large Olympic
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Speaker 1: flag behind it, played a starring role in the opening
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Speaker 1: of the summer games in Berlin. The airship, which had
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Speaker 1: swastikas emblazoned on its tail fins, was such a sight
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Speaker 1: of Nazi power that it was subjected to constant bomb threats,
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Speaker 1: including some before its final flight. Hindenburg designer Hugo Echner
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Speaker 1: was no fan of the Third Reich, so he named
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Speaker 1: his airship for the late German president, Paul van Hindenburg,
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Speaker 1: and refused Goebbels' request to name it after Hitler. The
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Speaker 1: Führer never enthralled by the great airships in the first place,
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Speaker 1: was ultimately glad that the Zeppelin had crashed into a
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Speaker 1: fireball and did not bear his name. Zeppelin's pioneered airmail
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Speaker 1: service across the Atlantic and the Hindenburg carried approximately 17,000
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Speaker 1: pieces of correspondence on its final voyage. Amazingly, 176 pieces
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Speaker 1: stored in a protective container survived the crash and were
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Speaker 1: postmarked four days after the disaster. The pieces, charred but
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Speaker 1: still readable, are among the world's most valuable philatelic articles. Well,
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Speaker 1: that about does it for today's chapter of Radio Eye History.
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Speaker 1: I thank you for listening and giving me your time.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Joseph Bolt, and I'll be back next
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Speaker 1: time with another chapter Radio Eye History. Until then, happy
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Speaker 1: trails to you.