Luke wrote:



The whole thing was a flying tinder box imho... But as to the
cause of the disaster, I have a hard time seeing how nitrate dope
alone can be ignited buy a static spark. I've not done my own
"mythbusters" review of the events, but it seems that to me, (as an
engineer and an A&P) that the hydrogen gas was what would be easiest
part of the pile to ignite, followed, albiet very closely, by the
dope covered fabric. Hydrogen gas burns with an invisible flame and
we have all seen the motion pictures of that day... The glaring lack
of other dope and fabric covered aircraft burting into flames should
be anecdotal evidence to support the established scenario that the
hydrogen gas was the real culprit. The dope, iron and aluminum just
made it more spectacular.

Luke



Far be it for me to refer anyone to Wikipedia, it seems to be regarded here
as the Sesame Street reference library. However, the Hindenberg
article is quite interesting and goes into enough depth on the popular
Hindenberg crash theories, to be worth a 5 minute read.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg



Interestingly, after several German and American investigations, no
official cause has been definitively identified (discounting the Nazi's
conclusions for political reasons).




--

Cheers

Dave Kearton (this post was brought to you by the letters L & Z and
the numbers 1, 2 and 9)