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Zeppelins lead the way once…will they do so again?

By Dr Garth Cambray

The Zeppelin, that gracious mode of transport made infamous by the Hindenberg's fiery demise on 6 May 1937, is making a comeback in Botswana as a platform for remote sensing and geological survey operations for De Beers Diamonds for Development programme.

But before we go into that next month, a little about the concept of a Zeppelin. If one fills a big light container with a gas lighter than air, the container will float. A Zeppelin is essentially a big streamlined bag of lighter than air gas with a cabin and engine rooms attached to its lower portions. The Hindenberg was an example of how sometimes science can get too hasty for its own good and destroy a good technology. The Hindenberg's predecessor, the Graf Zeppelin flew for 10 years covering a total distance of more than 1.6 million kilometres and transported a total of 13 110 passengers. This was in a time when most aircraft had a working life of less than half that period and would normally cease operating in a crash caused by engine failure.

The Hindenberg was an overconfident expansion on the success of the very safe Graf Zeppelin. Most of the technology of the Zeppelin was changed, including the material which coated the outside of the craft. This was to be the downfall of the Hindenberg, as has recently been confirmed by NASA scientists. The aluminium based paint applied to the exterior of the Zeppelin was highly flammable - and also static prone - this is a particularly bad combination if one considers that the inside of the Hindenberg was filled with 200 000 cubic meters of highly flammable hydrogen gas! The Zeppelin was however originally supposed to have been filled with helium gas, which does not burn, but political problems surrounding differences in opinion about politics between the USA and Germany resulted in the Zeppelin company substituting hydrogen for helium as it was unable to purchase this gas from the USA. And so the future of Zeppelins went up in flames.

The Hindenberg was a luxurious vehicle. It was 246 meters long and had a diameter of 41.15 meters. It was powered by 4 diesel motors each with an output of 895 kilowatts. The cabin was held within the gas bladder of the airship offering less wind resistance. Only the flight control room and engines were externally situated. The Hindenberg had cabins for passengers, complete with showers. It had entertainment areas complete with an aluminium piano, a library and a dining room. Due to the flammable nature of hydrogen, the passengers were all searched prior to boarding to check for matches and cigarette lighters. Once on board, passengers could however smoke in special gas tight smoking rooms where one effective cigarette lighter was carefully attached to a table by means of a chain.

70 years later the Zeppelin is making a comeback in Southern Africa. In next months edition, we will look at how this remarkable new, yet very old, technology is being used to explore the mineral wealth creation potential of our continent.

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