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- [Jared] The Hindenburg is the famous airship
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that met its fiery death in the year 1937.
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Surprisingly, more than half of the people on board
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actually survived the crash.
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In this video, I want to take you on a detailed tour
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of the inside of the Hindenburg.
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We'll talk about airships in general
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and why they are mostly a thing of the past.
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(electricity crackling)
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This video is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
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The earliest airship that we know of
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was in the year 1783 in France.
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These primitive balloons were unstable,
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and steering was near impossible at first.
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A man by the name of Count Zeppelin created his own company
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and helped perfect the design of airships.
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At the time, passenger air travel was not commonplace yet,
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so this was the fastest way to travel across the ocean.
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It was about twice as fast as an ocean liner.
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Construction of the Hindenburg was completed in 1936.
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To this day, it's still the largest flying object
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ever to be built.
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It was built in Germany and funded by the Nazis,
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which is why the swastika is on the tail.
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Most of the space inside the ship
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is taken up by 16 large gas cells.
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If we remove these, you can see the frame of the ship.
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The passenger areas are down here.
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There are two decks.
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The top one is the A deck,
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and then below is the B deck.
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The B deck is where the passengers board the airship.
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There's angled windows to get a panoramic view
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of the scene below, bathrooms, areas for the crew,
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the kitchen, and the officers' mess.
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This room is the smoking room.
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It was pressurized so that there was no chance
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of any hydrogen leaking in.
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And yes, hydrogen is flammable.
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We'll talk more about this gas later in the video.
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The stair here take us up to the A deck,
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which is where the passengers spent most of their time.
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There are more windows on both sides of the ship.
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Here's the reading and writing room,
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and the lounge area, complete with a grand piano.
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Normally, grand pianos can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds,
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but that's a lot of weight to put in an airship.
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This piano is made out of aluminum,
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and it only weighs about 356 pounds.
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The passenger cabins have two bunks each,
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and the dining room was on the other side.
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So now we've seen all the areas where passengers can go.
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Let's see where the crew members could go.
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Ont the B deck, this hallway is called
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the keel corridor, which led to a walkway
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through the entire bottom of the ship.
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Towards the front of the ship
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is the mail room and the radio room.
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Right below here is the control car.
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This is the command center of the ship,
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which you can see from below.
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This is the rudder wheel, which helps move the ship
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to the left or right by controlling the rudders
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on the very back of the ship.
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This is the elevator wheel,
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which controls the pitch of the ship.
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Ideally, we want the ship as level as possible
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to keep the passengers comfortable.
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This is done by the elevators on the very back.
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The officers' quarters are here,
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so that they are close to the control car.
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Along the keel catwalk, you'll find
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plenty of these fuel and water tanks.
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Here's the crew quarters, cargo areas,
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and this is the electrical room.
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There's more cargo areas here,
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and a few more down here.
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And then crew quarters for those
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that work towards the back of the ship.
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Along the side of the ship are four engine cars
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with propellers to help move the ship forward.
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There was always a crew member stationed at each engine car
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at all times of the journey.
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This walkway is how the crew could get to the engine car.
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Along the keel corridor are several shafts with ladders
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so the crew members could climb up higher.
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These shafts were also used to ventilate gas.
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This walkway through the center of the ship
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is called the axial corridor.
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These 16 gas cells are what hold the ship up in the air.
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The cells were originally intended to be filled with helium,
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but instead were filled with hydrogen.
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If we look at the periodic table of elements,
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hydrogen is the lightest element,
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which means it will provide the most lift.
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Unfortunately, it's also highly flammable,
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so the intent with the Hindenburg was to actually
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use helium, slightly heavier, but also much safer.
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At the time, the United States
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had the best supply of helium
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but would not sell it to other countries,
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which means that Germany was out of luck.
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So the Hindenburg had no other choice but to use hydrogen.
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Previous to the Hindenburg,
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there had been quite a few airship accidents.
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Other countries had already decided that
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hydrogen-filled airships were just too dangerous.
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Germany, however, had a flawless record so far.
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No passengers had ever been killed in an airship accident.
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During the year 1936, the Hindenburg
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had many successful passenger flights,
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to the United States and to Brazil.
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The year 1937 didn't go so well.
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May 3rd, the Hindenburg begins its journey
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from Frankfurt, Germany.
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It was a three-day journey to get to Lakehurst, New Jersey.
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The ship was only halfway full at this time.
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Only 97 people were onboard.
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The landing was originally scheduled
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for the early morning of May 6th, but it was delayed
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because of strong headwinds, rain, and thunderstorms.
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This is the Lakehurst station.
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It has a hangar to park the airship when it's not flying.
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This is the mooring mast.
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For a normal landing, the nose of the ship
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will be attached here while it's on the ground.
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On the evening of May 6th, there were many people
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on the ground, including spectators, news reporters,
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and crew member ready to help bring the ship in.
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At 7:00 p.m., the ship made a first pass
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over the landing site and slowly circled around
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for the final landing.
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At this point, the ship was 12 hours late,
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so there was an urgency to land,
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as there were many passengers waiting to board
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for the return trip back to Germany.
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For some reason, the tail of the ship was low,
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a possible hydrogen leak.
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At 7:21 p.m., the ship released the handling lines
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for the ground crew below.
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Four minutes later, the ship bursts into flames
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at the top, in between gas cells number four and five.
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(explosion)
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It took less than a minute
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for the ship to be completely destroyed
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and in ruins on the ground below.
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Of the 97 people on board, 62 of them survived the crash.
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Let's take a look at the explosion again.
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Right after it happens, the tail begins to fall.
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The flames travel through the axial corridor
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and out the nose of the ship.
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Everyone on board is thrown off their feet
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with a sudden jolt.
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Since they're about to land, most passengers
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are already at the windows, and it's a good thing, too.
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As the ship gets closer to the ground,
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many were able to jump and run away from the burning ship.
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Others were not so lucky.
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No one knows for sure what caused the ship to catch on fire.
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Unfortunately, most of the evidence was burned up.
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The likely cause is from static electricity buildup
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right before the disaster.
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One small spark is all it would take.
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The Hindenburg wasn't the worst airship disaster.
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It was just the first to be caught on film
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and widely seen by the public.
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Because of this, airship travel
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as a means of transportation was brought to an end.
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Any airships that are still in use today
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will definitely use helium and not hydrogen.
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(intriguing music)