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Why was hydrogen used to fill the lift cells on the LZ 129 Hindenburg?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
The largest source of natural helium (a nonreactive lighter than air gas) at the time was in America. Germany was having difficult relations with America so did not have a ready supply of helium. They chose instead hydrogen (a reactive lighter than air gas) that they could produce themselves.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
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What was the total weight of the Hindenburg?
I work it out to be 130.1 tones. I worked this out thus:- Hindenburg carried a gas volume of 7,062,000 cubic feet of Hydrogen. This volume of hydrogen, would produce 242.2 tons of gross lift and as Hindenburg's useful lift (the lift left after you subtract the weight of the structure from the gross lift) is documented at 112.1 tons. Thus 242.2-112.1 = 130.1 tones (the weight of the craft).
Both hydrogen gas and helium gas are lighter than air. Why is helium used to lift blimps instead of hydrogen?
Hydrogen is higly explosive ! Remember the Hindenburg disaster.
Why was the Hindenburg filled with gas?
The Hindenburg was a Zeppelin (a German made lighter-than-air airship), similar to a modern day blimp. It was filled with hydrogen gas that gave it enough lift to allow it to get off the ground. Modern day blimps & balloons use helium gas. Helium has less lift capacity than Hydrogen, however it is not flammable. Hydrogen is flammable.
Did the explosion of the Hindenburg lead to the creation of the hydrogen bomb?
no!!!!!the Hindenburg did not explode. its aluminum painted skin caught fire from an electrostatic discharge. that fire ignited ordinary chemical hydrogen/oxygen fires as the lift gas bladders breached.no nuclear fusion was involved. not even a chemical explosion occurred.
How did hydrogen make the Hindenburg rise?
The Hindenburg was a giant balloon airship filled with hydrogen gas for buoyancy.Hydrogen is the lightest of all gasses and has a mass of only half the mass of helium gas, so it worked well to lift the mass of the airship. The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, and part of the disaster was due to the hydrogen gas catching fire. Helium would not catch fire since it is an inert gas.
Why was hydrogen balloons dangerous?
because hydrogen is flammable and can catch on fire!!! and you don't want a airship that is on fire!!
What can hydrogen gas make or burns?
it can make water(h20)when mixed with oxygen it is an extremly flamable gas for example the Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen gas to make it lift off but the designers miss calculated so it caused a horrendess effect
Why was hydrogen filled balloons not used now?
Hydrogen gas is flammable. Hydrogen has been used in the past as it has much greater lift capacity than Helium but H2 flamability was made all too apparent when the Hindenburg burned in New Jersy in 1937 killing 35 of the 97 on board.
What element was once used in the Hindenberg?
The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, but a United States military embargo on helium forced the Germans to modify the design of the ship to use highly flammable hydrogen as the lift gas. (At the time the USA was the only country that could produce helium in the amounts required.) The Germans had considerable experience with using hydrogen and implemented necessary safety measures to preempt an accident. Prior to the Hindenburg disaster, their safety record was impressive.
Why are airships safer than today they were in the past?
Modern airships use Helium for lift which is non-combustible whereas in the past airships such as the Hindenburg used Hydrogen for lift which is highly combustible. In addition, modern airships take advantage of new alloys and polymers which give them a much stronger airframe.
Why did the airship in the hindenburg disaster use helium?
Helium was initially selected for the lifting gas because it was the safest to use in airships, as it is not flammable. At the time it was extremely expensive, and was only available from natural gas reserves in the United States. Hydrogen, by comparison, could be cheaply produced by any industrialized nation and had more lift. American rigid airships using helium were forced to conserve the gas at all costs and this hampered their operation. While a hydrogen-filled ship could routinely vent gas as necessary, a helium-filled ship had to resort to dynamic force if it was too light to descend, a measure that took a toll on its structure.Despite a U.S. ban on helium exports, the Germans designed the ship to use the gas in the belief that the ban would be lifted; when the designers learned that the ban was to remain in place, they were forced to re-engineer the Hindenburg to use hydrogen for lift. Despite the danger of using flammable hydrogen, no alternative gases that could provide sufficient lift could be produced in sufficient quantities. One beneficial side effect of employing hydrogen was that more passenger cabins could be added. The Germans' long history of flying hydrogen-filled passenger airships without a single injury or fatality engendered a widely held belief they had mastered the safe use of hydrogen. The Hindenburg's first season performance appeared to demonstrate this.
Did the Hindenburg blow up in lakehurst New Jersey?
Yes and no. The Hindenburg caught on fire just outside Lakehurst, NJ when it attempted to dock at its mooring station on May 6, 1937. It did not "blow up" or explode, although many stories describe this. What did occur was a very rapid fire that engulfed the airship that was started by the ignition of the hydrogen gas used inside for lift. The disaster was eventually blamed on the fabric covering its structure more than the use of the hydrogen gas used to provide lift.
