Disasters

The first airship filled with helium was the Goodyear C7 (1921). Helium is safer than hydrogen, because it does not burn in air and cause explosions. Helium became standard on U. S. airships, for example the Shenandoah (1923). Accidents still occurred, usually caused by bad weather. Airships did not fly high enough to travel above a storm, and their slow speed made them diffi­cult to control in high winds. The Shenandoah was destroyed in a storm over Ohio in 1925. The British R-101 crashed over France in 1930 on its first flight to India, killing forty-eight of its fifty-four passengers and crew. After this crash, Britain abandoned its airship program.

The U. S. Navy ordered two Goodyear rigid airships that used helium, the Akron (1931) and the Macon (1933). The Akron carried 207 people in November 1931, a record for an airship. These eight-engine airships were flying aircraft carriers—each was equipped to carry four small fighter planes. The two were identical in size: 785 feet (239 meters) long, and they were the largest airships operated by the United States.

GRAF ZEPPELIN

Gas capacity: 3,708,040 cubic feet (105,000 cubic meters)

Length: 776 feet (236.6 meters)

Speed: about 68 miles per hour (about 110 kilometers per hour)

The most successful passenger airship was the German Graf Zeppelin, which was named for Ferdinand von Zeppelin (Graf, meaning "Count," was von Zeppelin’s title). Between 1928 and 1937 the airship carried more than 13,000 passengers without a single accident. Whenever it flew low over a city, excited crowds gathered to see the long, gray – colored shape pass slowly overhead. In 1928, piloted by Hugo Eckener, the Graf Zeppelin set a record by cruising almost

4,0 miles (6,436 kilometers). In 1929, it flew around the world in 21 days, 5 hours, and 31 minutes. The journey, cov­ering a distance of approximately 20,000 miles (about 32,000 kilometers), began and ended

Both giant airships were wrecked in accidents within two years of entering service, however. The Akron went down during a storm in the Atlantic Ocean in 1933, killing seventy-three men. Two years later, in February 1935, the Macon crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

The Zeppelins and most other big air­ships were filled with hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas gives more lift than other gases, but it catches fire easily when mixed with air. Although hydrogen was
known to be dangerous, its lightness and cheapness made it attractive to air­ship designers.

The German airship Hindenburg, sister ship of the Graf Zeppelin, began passenger flights between Germany and the United States. On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg exploded and caught fire while docking at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The cause was the ignition of the hydro­gen gas by sparks. Of the ninety-seven people on board, thirty-five were killed.

The terrible end of this great aircraft destroyed passengers’ faith in airship travel. Commercial use faded as airships were replaced by airplanes.