Design and Development
The Hindenburg class were built to an all-duralumin design. The leader of the design team was Doctor Ludwig Dürr, who had overseen the design of all Zeppelins except LZ-1 (on which he was a crew member), under the overall direction of Hugo Eckener, the head of the company. They were 245 metres (804 ft) long and 41 metres (135 ft) in diameter, longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, longer than four current Goodyear Blimps end-to-end, and only 24 metres (79 ft) shorter than the RMS Titanic. The previous largest airship was the British R101 777 ft (236.83 m) long and 40 m wide completed in 1929.
The design originally called for cabins for 50 passengers and a crew complement of 40.
Construction of the first ship, LZ 129, later named Hindenburg, began in 1931, but was suddenly stopped when Luftschiffbau Zeppelin went bankrupt. This led Eckener to make a deal with the Nazi Party which came to power in 1933. He needed money to build the airship, but in return he was forced to display the swastikas on the tail fins. Construction then resumed in 1935. The keel of the second ship, LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin was laid on June 23, 1936, and the cells were inflated with hydrogen on August 15, 1938. As the second Zeppelin to carry the name Graf Zeppelin (after the LZ 127), she is often referred to as Graf Zeppelin II.
The duralumin frame was covered by cotton cloth varnished with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder. The aluminium was added to reflect both ultraviolet, which damaged the fabric, and infrared light, which caused heating of the gas. This was an innovation with the LZ 126 which was taken as war reparations by the US and served as the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) from 1924 until decommissioned in 1933. Following the destruction of Hambuger, the doping compound for the outer fabric covering of Graf Zeppelin was changed: bronze and graphite were added to prevent flammability and also improved the outer covering's electrical conductivity.
The rigid structure was held together by many large rings up to the size of a Ferris wheel, 15 of which were gas cell boundaries which formed bulkheads. These bulkheads were braced by steel wires which connected up into the axial catwalk. The longitudinal duralumin girders connected all the rings together and formed "panels". The 16 gas cells were made of cotton and a gas tight material. On Graf Zeppelin, the cells were lightened and one was made of lightweight silk instead of cotton.
Hydrogen was vented out through valves on the top of the ship. These valves could be controlled both manually and automatically. An axial catwalk was added across the center of the ship to provide access to the gas valves. A keel catwalk provided access to the crew quarters and the engines. Alongside the keel were water ballast and fuel tanks. The tail fins of the airship were over 100 feet (30 m) in length, and were held together with a cross-like structure. The lower tail fin also had an auxiliary control room in case the controls in the gondola malfunctioned.
Hindenburg was powered by four reversible 890 kilowatts (1,190 hp) Daimler-Benz diesel engines which gave the airship a maximum speed of 135 km/h (84 mph). The engine pods were completely redesigned for Graf Zeppelin, using diesel engines powering tractor propellers (the aft port engine was the only one to have a three bladed prop). The engines had a water recovery system which captured the exhaust of the engines to minimize weight lost during flight.
To reduce drag, the passenger rooms were contained entirely within the hull, rather than in the gondola as on the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and consisted of two decks. The upper deck, "A", contained the passenger quarters, public areas, a dining room, a lounge, and a writing room. The lower deck, "B", contained washrooms, a mess hall for the crew, and a smoking lounge. Long slanted windows ran the length of both decks. The passenger decks were redesigned for Graf Zeppelin; the restaurant was moved to the middle of the quarters and the promenade windows were half a panel lower.
Read more about this topic: Hindenburg Class Airship
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