Answer Fast PLS! The Hindenburg Disaster

Airships are flying vehicles, most familiar to us as blimps that are inflated with either hydrogen gas or helium gas. Airships rise like hot air balloons, but they are powered by engines to move through the air instead of relying only on wind. Until the late 1930s, airships were used in military and civilian transport. Today, we still use blimp airships for advertising and aerial coverage of sporting events.

In class, you have observed balloons filled with hydrogen gas being exploded with a flame. In May of 1937, a giant German airship filled with hydrogen gas, the Hindenburg, was docking in order to complete its journey when, suddenly, it caught fire and exploded. It was destroyed within 30 seconds. Amazingly, 62 of the 97 people on board survived the tremendous explosion. Many were able to escape through windows onto the soft sand below.

What caused the explosion? Although it remained a mystery for some time, recently a team of scientists led by Jem Stansfield, a British aeronautical engineer based at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, created and performed experiments on scale models of the airship. They established that the fabric that covered the frame of the airship became charged as the airship passed near an electrical storm (thunderstorm with no rain), and in the process of the landing, a spark was produced. In addition, hydrogen was leaking from the airship, perhaps due to a valve that was stuck. As the hydrogen leaked, it combined with oxygen in the air. Thus, when the spark was produced, the airship exploded similarly to the hydrogen-filled balloon you observed in class.

It was not the first explosion of a hydrogen-filled airship, but it is famous because it was the only one caught on film and in photographs. Also, because it was the subject of a live radio broadcast, people could hear an announcer describe the disaster as it occurred. These recordings made the tragedy far more accessible to the general public than the previous accidents had been, and the use of airships decreased sharply. Today, blimps are filled with helium, a much more expensive alternative to hydrogen, to avoid the possibility of disasters such as the Hindenburg.

According to the article, what are the causes of gas station fires and the Hindenburg disasters?

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