Kalispell native takes part in Hindenburg commemoration
It was 80 years ago today the Hindenburg — the largest airship ever to grace the skies — erupted in a ball of fire and in less than a minute fell to Earth, killing 36 people.
“Oh, the humanity,” radio commentator Herb Morrison exclaimed in a recording made that long-ago night. “All the passengers are screaming around it. I can’t talk, ladies and gentlemen, honest, it’s just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage … This is the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
Kalispell native Addison Bain will lay a memorial wreath at a ceremony today at the Lakehurst, New Jersey, airfield, commemorating the anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster. And he’ll use the occasion to once again reiterate his longstanding assertion that it was not the hydrogen that caused the German airship to catch fire, as has been long touted, but rather was the combination of the shiny paint that covered the outside of the dirigible and the never before attempted high landing at the New Jersey airfield.
Bain, a Flathead County High School graduate, spent 30 years as a NASA scientist, working on rocket propellants and propellant support before retiring in 1994. He also set up supply contracts for all the hydrogen used by the agency.
Now in his early 80s, Bain spent well over two decades researching the Hindenburg disaster, an exhaustive probe that resulted in him writing two related books: “Hindenburg — Exploring the Truth,” and “The Freedom Element—Living with Hydrogen.”
His Hindenburg book was revised especially for the 80th anniversary and is dedicated to the last known survivor of the accident, Werner Doehner, with whom Bain has corresponded.
He is donating proceeds from his book sales at today’s commemoration events to the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society.
In a press release issued this week, Bain said his assertions about the accident are still questioned even today, that “even some of the scientific folks and airship aficionados continue to challenge my findings.
“Let me make it clear; I do not have a ‘theory,’” Bain stressed. “After 23 years of research all I did was connect the dots.”
Built in Germany between 1931 and 1936, the spectacular Hindenburg was 804 feet long and as tall as a 15-story building. Much of the interior was taken up by 16 sealed gas cells that contained the roughly 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas that provided the airship with its buoyancy.
The zeppelin made 10 transatlantic trips in 1936, transporting close to 50 passengers each way. Another 18 flights were scheduled in 1937. The fateful final flight left Germany on May 3, 1937, carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew members. It reached the Lakehurst Naval Air Station three days later, on May 6.
During a 2004 Daily Inter Lake interview, Bain said he talked to a number of people who rode in the Hindenburg. It was considered luxurious at the time — two decks with room to sit at a table and walk around. Passengers had their own cabins.
Because of his extensive knowledge about how hydrogen behaves in a fire, Bain said he knew from all the pictures he saw of the Hindenburg conflagration that there was something other than hydrogen that started the fire and fueled the burn.
Hydrogen is only flammable when it’s mixed with air or oxygen — but the Hindenburg bridge crew later testified that there had been no indication of a gas leak prior to the fire, Bain told the Inter Lake during the 2004 interview. That being the case, there wouldn’t have been any free hydrogen available to “explode.” Bain felt there had to be another cause.
“I started looking through the archives from the two boards of inquiry [that were held immediately after the fire],” he said. “They never questioned the envelope, but when I found out what chemical concoctions it was painted with, I became more and more suspicious.”
The fabric used to cover the Hindenburg’s frame was made of pure cotton. It was coated with an acetate-based iron oxide layer, and then topped with aluminum-impregnated cellulose acetate butyrate.
Bain had swatches tested by NASA. He said the butyrate in the top layer made the overall coating less flammable, but it also made the fabric non-conductive — meaning static electricity would continue to build. Technicians also found areas where the aluminum had bled down through the iron oxide to form small “thermite hot spots.”
Thermite is a compound that’s used to weld heavy metals. It’s used in some solid rocket fuels as well.
It was a deadly combination, Bain asserted. All that was lacking was a spark. He believes the fire started just as the Hindenburg was approaching the mooring mast, when the rear starboard engine backfired and sent a negatively charged plume of exhaust particles up and over the airship stern.
Bain continues to stick by his rationale.
“There are those who will grudgingly stick to the hydrogen/air mixture and spark idea or tout sabotage allegations,” Bain said in a statement this week. “Clearly they are naïve about the properties of hydrogen. Additionally, they are unable to construct a sequence of events that can be backed with evidence from credible sources.”
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.