A routine press photo-op in 1937 ended up recording the explosion of the greatest airship ever built.
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Special thanks to David Fowler, who generously allowed us to use his drawing of the plan of the Hindenburg (00:13 of the video). See more of his work here:
In May 1937, the airship Hindenburg burned up while approaching Lakehurst, New Jersey, on its first flight to the US that year. A flying symbol of pride for Nazi Germany, the Hindenburg was the biggest and most elaborate zeppelin ever built. At a time when airplanes were only carrying one or two people across the Atlantic Ocean, the Hindenburg was flying paid passengers, who enjoyed its dining room, reading room, passenger lounge, and even smoking room. It was an iconic luxury vessel, but it was filled with hydrogen, a flammable gas. And when it rushed its landing in New Jersey, it ended up exploding in front of a waiting group of newsreel cameras and becoming the first aviation disaster filmed as it was taking place. Sam Shere’s photo of the moment just before the ship was entirely engulfed is now an iconic snapshot that manages to perfectly frame the entire disaster.
Darkroom is a new series from Vox producer Coleman Lowndes that digs into stories of the past, one photograph at a time. Watch all the episodes here:
Note: The headline for this video has been updated since publishing.
Previous headline: The first disaster caught on film
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This is the second episode of Darkroom, our new series from producer Coleman Lowndes that digs into stories of the past, one photograph at a time.
If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch the first episode here: http://bit.ly/2SAsmQL
Happy Friday!
If this was flown in modern time with a damn swastika on the fins! Sure it would’ve been controversial but for the reasons of history but wouldn’t be hydrogen due to the disaster
Why do we think we have such a mastery over gravity. In the 20s they were flying in a floating bomb thousands of feet above the ground. Y'all trippin
wow. how did 2/3 of the passengers survive that?!?!?!?!?
The beta version of 9/11
3:57 man watching tv: bloody ell Aussies watching tv: CRICKY Germans watching tv: NEEEEEIIIIIiIiIiIiNNNN
Something the size of the Titanic that could only carry the same amount of people as a bus.
This is one of my favourite vox videos
Then comes 9/11
Looks like a pretty cool way to travel , minus the fire and brimstone
Am I the only one that wishes these would return? I want to take a cruise in the sky.
it was bound to have terrible problems you can't fly blimps in anything but perfect weather too much wind they are useless and helium is a finite resource and hydrogen well look what happened
You mean the big explosive balloon didn’t worry anyone?
We should use hydrogen balloons for little kid's birthday parties.
Or we can just use helium
Ah a classic led zeppelin album
Us: embargoes Helium so only they can use it
Also Us: makes airship out of Hydrogen anyways and blows it up
But actually that is so sad and terrifying
Charles Lindberg before he crossed the atlantic: "swedish lunatic"
After he did it: "American hero"
2:31 cowboy
I like your videos 😀
Now I kinda want to make a helium one
Communication breakdown it’s always the same…
4:06 "Oh, the humanity."
Nice VSauce ending
Found an error in the video: Amelia did not conquer the Atlantic. The Atlantic conquered her ☹️
Sex
OH THE HUMANITY
FEW YEARS LATER:
Bombs every city in german they can
Fun fact, they wanted to use helium but the USA didnt exported it to germany during that time
I always thought the airship was a science fiction thing. Would be cool to see one myself.
Research proved that the explosion was caused by the airship’s painted outer skin: virtually “solid rocket fuel” (a mixture containing aluminum and propellant!) The hydrogen did ignite, but the tragedy was caused by the paint. Furthermore, the “entire era of airships” didn’t end because of this tragedy. Newer faster air travel was starting, and the gigantic airship was already outdated … and could not compete with the new class of ocean liners (cargo and passenger).
Great stories with amazing content to the point. Thanks for taking us back in history. Keep up the good work👍
This video says hydrogen has been used "to lift aircraft, like hot air balloons".
Hot air balloons use hot air. Not hydrogen. Thus the name "hot air" balloon. If it has a lifting gas like hydrogen, it is not a hot air balloon anymore.
On an interesting sidenote, In 1928 Amundsen the South Pole explorer from your last video died in a rescue mission, when he and others tried to locate the crash site of the Italian airship, Italia.
Named after a monster
USA: produces helium
We have a super safe gas that can carry passengers without the danger to blow up?
LET'S EMBARGO IT!
I have memories of being here when it happened.