Greek Scientist Solves Mystery of Hindenburg Disaster

Greek Reporter ^ | May 6, 2024 | Tasos Kokkinidis

[nickcarraway]

Manatees are highly flammable.

[SpaceBar]

Sparks from the mooring cables has been a theory for years.

[God luvs America]

Well- it made a great album cover for a great band!!!

[one guy in new jersey]

The huger they are, the brighter they burn...

[SamAdams76]

The band supposedly got their name from an early critic that predicted they'd go over like a "lead zeppelin".

Maybe the same critic that told The Beatles that guitar bands were on their way out.

[Bayard]

Right, I remember hearing about static electricity working to destroy the Hindinburg long ago.

Maybe he conjured up more info about how the buildup ignited the hydrogen? But electic charges are a known danger in aviation already.

[Skywise]

Right, but he at least posited a working theory that can be tested.

Although I saw the movie, so I know the real reason was a bomb set by Germans against Nazis!

[sonova]

He produced another theory. I don’t think that counts as “Solves the Mystery of”

Plus no mention of the aluminum flake paint on the fabric, although it does contribute to his capacitive discharge theory.

It is said that the majority of the combustion came from the burning aluminum, more so than the hydrogen combustion..

[Revel]

Yes- I have heard a lot of this before.

[Delta 21]

[ClearCase_guy]

[Fester Chugabrew]

Years ago I pinpointed the exact location of this tragic event. Not hard to do. It was planet earth.

[God luvs America]

Not true.

There was talk of Jimmy Page starting a band with Keith Moon and a few others after the Yardbirds broke up. It was Keith Moon who said the proposed line-up which he was part of would “go over like a lead balloon.”

[bosco24]

A large capacitor?

I’m not buying it. I don’t think you could build the Hindenburg without the hydrogen bladder being grounded to the frame, intentionally or not, and therefor, no capacitor.

[bk1000]

“7,000,000 cubic feet of explosive hydrogen”

Greater question is, how would it NOT explode!

[Repeal The 17th]

This does not sound like anything new.

[TexasGator]

“I don’t think you could build the Hindenburg without the hydrogen bladder being grounded to the frame, intentionally or not, and therefor, no capacitor.”

The capacitor was the frame and skin.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

The key but long-unanswered question was how the fire even began. The Greek scientist built a model of a portion of the zeppelin’s outer surface in his laboratory on the Caltech campus in his attempt to gain insights.

The Hindenburg flying over New York City just before disaster struck. Building a model of the airship The Greek scientist attests that after the ship was grounded, it became more electrically charged. When the mooring ropes were dropped, electrons from Earth’s surface spread to the frame, giving the ship a positively-charged skin and a negatively-charged frame.

In other words, by grounding the frame with the mooring ropes, the landing crew had inadvertently made more “room” for positive charge to gather on the ship, setting the stage for the disaster.

Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with his theory, mainly because the Hindenburg was not the first hydrogen-filled dirigible the Zeppelin company built.

The Graf Zeppelin, sister ship to the Hindenburg, was built in 1928 and was in regular service until 1937 (590 flights) and used the exact same mooring system. If his theory were true, disaster would have struck much sooner.

[SpaceBar]

Greater question is, how would it NOT explode!

Pure hydrogen burns, it only explodes when mixed with the proper (2:1) stoichiometric ratio with oxygen.

[bosco24]

“The capacitor was the frame and skin.”

My problem is I don’t see how you can’t ground the frame and the skin together. When they attach the carrage to the blimp it is touching the outer skin and is bolted to the frame therefor, no capacitor.

That is one place and I can think of a lot more.