The legendary era of airships (1900 - 1937), when people could live long and travel in the sky

Описание: In this video you will see archival footage from the deck of deridables of the 30s.

In the 1930s, rigid airships were giant airships with a non-stop flight range of 10,000–15,000 km, with a payload of up to 90 tons (total weight of about 200 tons). Compared to airplanes, airships have one advantage - the ability to stay over a certain area for a long time, since in calm weather they can stay in the air without consuming fuel by stopping the engines.

Airships were expediently used for long-range reconnaissance over the oceans, for escorting caravans of ships, etc. The use of airships is currently very limited due to their low speed and poor maneuverability, as well as due to the complexity of managing them and operating them in the air and on earth.

The creators of airships neglected elementary safety measures, filling them with unsafe, but cheap hydrogen instead of inert, but expensive and inaccessible helium.

In March 1936, the successor to the aging Graf Zeppelin was created - the airship LZ 129 Hindenburg, designed to use safe helium. However, only the United States had the required quantities of helium at that time, which banned the export of helium since 1927. I had to fill the Hindenburg cylinders with available hydrogen.

The incessant series of accidents and disasters seriously undermined faith in the reliability and expediency of using airships. On May 6, 1937, in front of the audience, the Hindenburg exploded and burned down completely, killing 35 people on board and one on the ground. In peacetime, the American rigid airships Shenandoah (14 out of 43 on board), Akron (73 out of 76) and Macon (2 out of 83), British R. 38" (44 out of 49) and "R.101" (48 out of 54), French "Dixmünde" (50 out of 50), USSR-B6 (13 out of 19). While dealing with the causes of disasters, further progress in aviation left the era of airships behind.

Among the experts who studied the causes of the death of large airships, in particular the Akron and the Hindenburg, an opinion was expressed about the destruction of the shell or gas tanks that led to the catastrophe, which occurred during the maneuver with a small circulation radius.