“The Hindenburg: The Fiery Crash of a German Airship”
by Kathleen W. Deady
Capstone High-Interest Books, Mankato, Minnesota, 2003, 32 pages, Grades 3-5.
At every Super Bowl, fans get many pictures and visual images from the Goodyear Blimp. The Goodyear Blimp is so well known that sometimes people call any blimp, “The Goodyear Blimp.”
The proper names for blimps are zeppelins or dirigibles. But where do zeppelins come from? What has been their use in aviation history? What famous disaster is most associated with blimps? Kathleen Deady tells the compelling story of the Hindenburg, the most famous zeppelin in history. Its tragic explosion over New Jersey is one of the most famous accidents in airship history.
In the early 1900s, two German engineers began building dirigibles. The first German, Hugo Eckener, felt that huge balloons filled with hot air or some type of vapor could lift an airship into the sky. He soon met Count von Zeppelin, another hot air balloon enthusiast. The two joined together and began producing blimps. The first years were filled with many failures but the men eventually built fine dirigibles that were widely used for travel in Germany before World War I.
After Zeppelin’s death, Eckener continued to design dirigibles and built the world famous Graf Zeppelin which flew around the world in 1929. Now renowned, Eckener designed the world’s largest zeppelin, the Hindenburg. This massive aircraft was 804 feet long, 135 feet wide, 147 feet high and weighed 242 tons. It was filled with hydrogen and could fly fast enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean in three days. The Hindenburg was designed to be a pleasure aircraft in which people could travel in luxury across the Atlantic Ocean. Its dining room was large and quite refined, allowing the passengers to view the ocean and coasts in comfort.
On May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg began its trip to the United States with 97 people aboard. In three days, it had reached North America and casually flew over Boston and New York City. On the night of May 6, the huge zeppelin approached its landing site at the Lakehurst Naval Station in New Jersey. The event had become widely anticipated and was being filmed and broadcast over the radio. A storm had just passed through the area. The German commander, Max Pluss, slowed the giant airship and mooring ropes were dropped.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happened. A gigantic explosion blew through the tail section of the Hindenburg. In 34 seconds the great ship crashed to the ground in a fiery inferno. What had happened?
Why did the Hindenburg explode? What legendary radio broadcast occurred during the catastrophe? What photographs of the tragedy became world famous? How many people died in the accident? What was learned through this deadly incident? To find out, go to the library and check out this captivating book, “The Hindenburg: The Fiery Crash of a German Airship” by Kathleen Deady.
The text and photographs of this book will ensure its popularity. Deady writes well and the photographs are well integrated in the text. Excerpts from the famous radio broadcast are included in the pages describing the crash. Energetic third- to fifth-graders will be drawn to this book as it is exciting to read. I enjoyed the book and think you will as well.
