The Hindenburg's Interior

[AdamSmith]

Re: the thread on air travel, here's a mode of travel I long to see brought back.

 

Plus one proton.

 

The Hindenburg’s Interior: Passenger Decks

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Dining Room of Airship Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

 

The interior spaces on the Hindenburg were divided into three main areas:

 

• Passenger Decks
  
• Control Car: Flight instruments and controls
  
• Crew Areas (inside the hull)
  

The passenger accommodation aboard Hindenburg was contained within the hull of the airship (unlike Graf Zeppelin, whose passenger space was located in the ship’s gondola).

 

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Passenger Decks: profile view. (Drawing courtesy of David Fowler)

 

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Passenger accommodations on Hindenburg.

 

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Cutaway Views Of Hindenburg Passenger Area

 

The passenger space was spread over two decks, known as “A Deck” and “B Deck.”

 

“A” Deck on Hindenburg

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Deck plan of LZ-129 Hindenburg showing “A” Deck, from 1936 DZR brochure. (Airships.net collection)

 

Hindenburg’s “A Deck” contained the ship’s Dining Room, Lounge, Writing Room, Port and Starboard Promenades, and 25 double-berth inside cabins.

 

The passenger accommodations were decorated in the clean, modern design of principal architect Professor Fritz August Breuhaus, and in a major improvement over the unheated Graf Zeppelin, passenger areas on Hindenburg were heated, using forced-air warmed by water from the cooling systems of the forward engines.

 

Dining Room

 

Hindenburg’s Dining Room occupied the entire length of the port side of A Deck. It measured approximately 47 feet in length by 13 feet in width, and was decorated with paintings on silk wallpaper by Professor Otto Arpke, depicting scenes from Graf Zeppelin’s flights to South America.

 

The tables and chairs were designed by Professor Fritz August Breuhaus using lightweight tubular aluminum, with the chairs upholstered in red.

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-dining-room21-550x389.jpg

Dining Room of Airship Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

 

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Dining on the Hindenburg

 

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Dining Room of Hindenburg, with Port Promenade (Airships.net collection)

 

Lounge

 

On the starboard side of A Deck were the Passenger Lounge and Writing Room.

 

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Passenger Lounge (Airships.net collection)

 

The Lounge was approximately 34 feet in length, and was decorated with a mural by Professor Arpke depicting the routes and ships of the explorers Ferdinand Magellan, Captain Cook, Vasco de Gama, and Christopher Columbus, the transatlantic crossing of LZ-126 (USS Los Angeles), the Round-the-World flight and South American crossings of LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, and the North Atlantic tracks of the great German ocean liners Bremen and Europa. The furniture, like that in the dining room, was designed in lightweight aluminum by Professor Breuhaus, but the chairs were upholstered in brown. During the 1936 season the Lounge contained a 356-pound Blüthner baby grand piano, made of Duralumin and covered with yellow pigskin.

 

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Two views of the Lounge, showing portrait of Hitler and the ship’s duralumin piano. (The stewardess is Emilie Imhoff, who was killed at Lakehurst in 1937.) (LZ Archiv)

 

The piano was removed before the 1937 season and was not aboard Hindenburg during it’s last flight. [Read more about the piano aboard the Hindenburg.]

 

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Passenger Lounge (Airships.net collection)

 

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Passenger Lounge (Airships.net collection)

 

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Passenger Lounge on the Airship Hindenburg, showing promenade windows. (Airships.net collection)

 

Writing Room

 

Next to the lounge was a small Writing Room.

 

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Writing Room (Airships.net collection)

 

The walls of the Writing Room were decorated with paintings by Otto Arpke depicting scenes from around the world:

 

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Some of the Otto Arpke paintings aboard Hindenburg

 

Passenger Cabins on Hindenburg

 

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Passenger Cabin aboard Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

 

Hindenburg was originally built with 25 double-berthed cabins at the center of A Deck, accommodating 50 passengers. After the ship’s inaugural 1936 season, 9 more cabins were added to B Deck, accommodating an additional 20 passengers. The A Deck cabins were small, but were comparable to railroad sleeper compartments of the day. The cabins measured approximately 78″ x 66″, and the walls and doors were made of a thin layer of lightweight foam covered by fabric. Cabins were decorated in one of three color schemes — either light blue, grey, or beige — and each A Deck cabin had one lower berth which was fixed in place, and one upper berth which could be folded against the wall during the day.

 

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Passenger Cabin aboard Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

 

Each cabin had call buttons to summon a steward or stewardess, a small fold-down desk, a wash basin made of lightweight white plastic with taps for hot and cold running water, and a small closet covered with a curtain in which a limited number of suits or dresses could be hung; other clothes had to be kept in their suitcases, which could be stowed under the lower berth. None of the cabins had toilet facilities; male and female toilets were available on B Deck below, as was a single shower, which provided a weak stream of water “more like that from a seltzer bottle” than a shower, according to Charles Rosendahl. Because the A Deck cabins were located in the center of the ship they had no windows, which was a feature missed by passengers who had traveled on Graf Zeppelin and had enjoyed the view of the passing scenery from their berths.

 

Promenades On either side of A Deck were promenades, featuring seating areas and large windows which could be opened in flight.

 

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Starboard Promenade aboard LZ-129 Hindenburg, next to the Lounge. (Airships.net collection)

 

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Passenger decks of Hindenburg, showing promenade windows (Airships.net collection)

 

http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/interiors

[AdamSmith]

“B” Deck on Hindenburg

B Deck on Hindenburg, located directly below A Deck, contained the ship’s kitchen, passenger toilet and shower facilities, the crew and officers’ mess, and a cabin occupied by Chief Steward Heinrich Kubis (containing a door to the keel corridor, which was the only connection between passenger and crew spaces).

 

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Passenger Decks before 1936-1937 refit (Drawing courtesy of David Fowler)

 

During the winter of 1936-1937, while the ship was laid up in Frankfurt, additional passenger cabins were also added in Bay 11, just aft of ring 173. The new cabins had windows offering an outside view, and were slightly larger than the cabins on A Deck. The additional weight of these new cabins was made possible by the unexpected (and unwelcome) need to operate the ship with hydrogen, which has greater lifting power than the helium for which Hindenburg had been designed.

 

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B Deck, showing 1937 cabins. (Drawing courtesy Patrick Russell, “Faces of the Hindenburg” blog, based on 1937 DZR brocure.)

 

The Smoking Room

 

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Smoking Room aboard LZ-129 Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

 

Perhaps most surprising, aboard a hydrogen airship, there was also a smoking room on the Hindenburg. The smoking room was kept at higher than ambient pressure, so that no leaking hydrogen could enter the room, and the smoking room and its associated bar were separated from the rest of the ship by a double-door airlock. One electric lighter was provided, as no open flames were allowed aboard the ship. The smoking room was painted blue, with dark blue-grey leather furniture, and the walls were decorated with yellow pigskin and illustrations by Otto Arpke depicting the history of lighter-than-air flight from the Montgolfiers’s balloon to the Graf Zeppelin. Along one side of the room was a railing above sealed windows, through which passengers could look down on the ocean or landscape passing below.

 

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Smoking Room aboard LZ-129 Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

 

The smoking room was perhaps the most popular public room on the ship, which is not surprising in an era in which so many people smoked.

 

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Pressurized Smoking Room aboard LZ-129 Hindenburg, showing door to the bar, with the air lock doors beyond. (Airships.net collection)

 

The Bar

 

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Hindenburg Bar (LZ Archiv)

 

The Hindenburg’s bar was a small ante-room between the smoking room and the air-lock door leading to the corridor on B-Deck. This is where Hindenburg bartender Max Schulze served up LZ-129 Frosted Cocktails (gin and orange juice) and Maybach 12 cocktails (recipe lost to history), but more importantly, it is where Schulze monitored the air-lock to ensure that no-one left the smoking room with burning cigarattes, cigars, or pipes. Schulze had been a steward and bartender aboard the ocean liners of the Hamburg-Amerika Line and was well liked by Hindenburg passengers, even if he was surprisingly unfamiliar with basic American cocktails such as the Manhattan. The bar and smoking room were also the scene of a raucous party on the Hindenburg’s maiden voyage to America, where passenger Pauline Charteris improvised a kirschwasser cocktail after the ship ran out of gin for martinis.

 

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Cocktails aboard the Hindenburg (LZ Archiv)

 

For the interior of Hindenburg’s hull, where crew spaces were located, and the inside of the ship’s control car, visit:

 

• Crew Areas
  
• Control Car
  

[AdamSmith]

Control Car, Flight Instruments, and Flight Controls

An overview of the Hindenburg’s flight instruments and flight controls.

 

[To learn how the ship was flown, visit the Flight Operations page.]

 

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Hindenburg control car (click all images to enlarge)

 

The Control Car

Hindenburg was navigated and conned from the ship’s control car (“Führergondel”), which was located toward the bow of the airship, at Ring 203.

 

The control car was divided into three sections; a control room or “bridge” at the front, a navigation room at the center, and a observation room or lounge used for relaxation and conferences.

 

(The rear portion of the gondola is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a radio room, but the ship’s radio room was actually located just above the gondola, inside the hull, along the keel.)

 

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Hindenburg control car, profile view (click to enlarge) Drawing courtesy David Fowler

 

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Hindenburg control car, plan view (click to enlarge) Drawing courtesy David Fowler

 

Flight Instruments and Flight Controls

• Flight controls
  
• Engine telegraph
  
• Rudder wheel
  
• Elevator wheel
  
• Elevator panel
  
• Automatic pilot
  
• Ballast control
  
• Hydrogen control (gas board)
  
• Echolot (sonar altimeter)
  
• Navigation instruments
  

Flight Controls

The Hindenburg’s principal flight controls were the rudder and elevator wheels for controlling heading and pitch, the gas board for valving hydrogen, and the ballast board for releasing water ballast. An engine telegraph transmitted orders to mechanics stationed in each of the four engine cars.

 

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Hindenburg Control Room (Ludwig Felber at helm, possibly Knut Eckener to his right). At far left is ballast board, then rudder station with gyro compass repeater, to right of tall figure is the eyepiece of a drift measuring telesope, and to the right is the engine telegraph, axial corridor speaking tube, altimeter, and engine instruments; to the far right is a variometer. (click to enlarge)

 

Engine Telegraph

 

 

Orders regarding engine speed and direction were transmitted to the engineering room along the keel and to the four power cars from an engine telegraph located at the starboard side of the control car; the telegraph had toggles to alert mechanics in each of the four engine cars and the engineer’s room of changes in power settings, and could transmit orders for four forward speeds (idle, slow, half, and cruise), two reverse speeds (idle and full), and stop.

 

Adjacent to the engine telegraph was a tachometer, an altimeter, and a variometer (or vertical speed indicator).

 

There was also a speaking tube to communicate with riggers along the axial catwalk. (Communication throughout the ship was normally by telephone, but to avoid the risk of sparks, no electrical equipment was placed along the axial catwalk.)

 

Rudder Wheel

 

Hindenburg’s heading was controlled by the ship’s rudders. The helmsman, or rudderman, stood at the front of the control room, facing forward, and steered by reference to a gyro compass repeater in front of the wheel. (The repeater, or “daughter compass” as it was called by the Germans, was controlled by the master gyroscopic compass located on the ship’s electrical room.) The rudderman also had a magnetic compass and pointers indicating the angles of the upper and lower rudders.

 

The rudder wheel was considered an easier position to master than the elevator wheel, and airshipmen began their training on the helm, and only advanced to the elevators after gaining sufficient experience on the rudders.

 

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Hindenburg

 

Elevator Wheel

 

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Elevator Wheel, Elevator Panel, and Ballast Board (click to enlarge)

 

Hindenburg’s pitch was controlled by the ship’s elevators. Operating the elevators was much more challenging than operating the rudders, and the position was assigned only to the more experienced crew members.

 

The elevatorman stood “sideways,” facing port, with the elevator wheel and control panel in front of him. While he could watch the horizon from the side windows of the control car, the elevatorman was expected to control the elevators primarily by reference to the instruments on the panel in front of him, combined with a feel of the ship that could only be acquired through experience.

 

Elevator Panel

 

The elevator panel contained various instruments to keep the elevatorman constantly aware of the position of the elevators, the pitch of the ship, and the factors which could influence pitch and altitude. The panel’s equipment included:

 

• Pointers, indicating the angle of deflection of the port and starboard elevators, and both elevators together (graduated up to 20 degrees deflection)
  
• Two inclinometers (curved tubes similar to a carpenter’s spirit level), one with a rough scale showing plus or minus 20 degrees of pitch, and the other with a fine scale showing plus or minus 5 degrees of pitch
  
• Thermometers, indicating ambient air temperature and the temperature in gas cells 5 and 13
  
• Thermohygrometer, indicating air temperature, relative humidity, and absolute humidity
  
• Statoscope, indicating changes in barometric pressure (and thus altitude)
  
• Variometer (or vertical speed indicator) indicating the ship’s rate of climb or descent
  
• Altimeter
  
• Clock
  
• Stop watch
  

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Hindenburg's Elevator Panel

 

Automatic Pilot

 

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Autopilot Servo Motor

 

An automatic pilot made by the Anschütz Company of Kiel utilized servo motors to control the rudder and elevators. The auto-pilot was used only in calm conditions, and if rough or bumpy weather were encountered, the system was disengaged and the elevators and rudders were shifted back to hand control.

 

Ballast Board

 

The ballast board, located just to the right of the elevator panel, allowed officers to reduce the static weight of the ship by using toggles to release water ballast.

 

The ballast board indicated how much water was present in each of the ship’s seven main 2,000 kg (4,400 lbs) ballast tanks, and had red and green indicators for the eight 500 kg (1,100 lbs) emergency ballast bags (four located at Ring 47 toward the tail, and four located at Ring 218 toward the bow). The ballast board also had weigh off indicators for the bow or stern, indicating up to 2000 kg (4,400 lbs) heavy or light.

[AdamSmith]

Gas Board

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Gas Board and Echolot Indicator

 

The gas board controlled the ship’s lifting gas, and allowed officers to release hydrogen to increase the static weight of the ship.

 

Toggles controlled the ship’s 14 maneuvering valves, and could be used to release gas from individual cells. (Hindenburg had 16 gas cells, but the two cells at the stern of the ship, Cells 1 and 2, were interconnected and shared one maneuvering valve, as did the two cells at the bow, Cells 15 and 16.) A large wheel could also be turned, valving 11 of the large cells simultaneously (Cells 3-11, 13, and 14).

 

To indicate the inflation of the gas cells, the board had a diagram of the ship’s cells, each containing a red light which was illuminated when the cell (or pair of cells) was at 100% fullness. Beneath the diagram were indicators showing the pressure within each cell.

 

Echolot

 

Hindenburg was equiped with a sonic altimeter known as an Echolot (sometimes referred to as an echolade by U.S. Navy observers) which used the principle of active sonar to measure the ship’s height above the ground. The Echolot consisted of a compressed air siren located near the bow, which gave off a whistling sound that bounced off the ground and was picked up by a receiver located behind the control car; the time it took for the signal to hit the ground and return was measured and indicated the distance above the ground.

 

The Echolot had a clock-style indicator with a pointer to indicate the ship’s actual height over the ground, up to 500 meters. It was observed to operate with high a high level of accuracy at various altitudes and airspeeds.

 

The Echolot was used at least once per watch to calibrate the ship’s aneroid altimeters, which became inaccurate as the ship passed through areas of varying barometric pressure. The Echolot system itself was calibrated when the ship was over an object of known height, such as the hangar at Frankfurt.

 

Navigation Room

Hindenburg was navigated from the navigation room, which contained work tables for the officers, cases for charts and maps, and navigation equipment including gyro compass repeaters, an optical drift indicator, radio direction finding equipment, an altimeter, and a clock and stop watches.

 

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Hindenburg's Navigation Room

 

Drift Measuring Equipment

 

Hindenburg was primarily navigated by dead reckoning during trans-oceanic passenger flights, and the officers’ ability to accurately measure the ship’s angle of drift was the key to their precise navigation.

 

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Navigator's Desk

 

Hindenburg’s primary drift indicator was a Carl Zeiss instrument located in the Navigation room (visible in this photo, below Ernst Lehmann’s shoulder), which featured a large telescope extending through the floor of the control car. The telescope provided a view of the surface below and the lens had a series of black parallel lines etched upon it; at the appropriate level of magnification for the ship’s altitude, ripples on the ocean or objects on land would pass through the field of view so rapidly as to appear as a series of parallel streaks, which were aligned with the etched lines to indicate the ship’s angle of drift. The eyepiece was located slightly above the navigator’s desk, and the telescope could be adjusted for magnification between four and twenty power. A gyro compass repeater (or “daughter compass”), controlled by the ship’s master compass, was placed next to the optical drift meter, allowing drift measurements to be taken with one eye on the compass so that accurate course headings could be determined and relayed to the helmsman.

 

Hindenburg had another optical drift indicator in the control room (visible to the right of this photo), but it was not considered satisfactory by the ship’s officers and the Zeiss drift indicator in the navigation room was much preferred.

 

At night, the ship’s 5.7 million candlepower Hefner searchlight, located in the electrical room aft of the control car, illuminated the surface and made drift measurements as simple and as accurate as observations made during the day.

 

When visibility conditions prevented continuous observation of the ground, and allowed only momentary sightings of the land or water, less accurate but still usable drift measurements could be taken taken with a simple device consisting of several wires mounted in a V-shape through which glimpses of the surface could be observed.

 

Radio Navigation

 

The navigation room also contained radio direction-finding equipment, which used loop antennas (seen in the photo the top of this page) to could take bearings on radio stations on land or aboard ships at sea.

 

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Ernst Lehmann with Navigation Radios

 

Other Equipment

 

In addition to equipment relating strictly to navigation, the navigation room also housed a 14-station telephone with connections to various stations around the ship; controls and indicators for the control car landing wheel and spider lines; and a pneumatic tube to convey messages between the control car and the radio room along the keel.

 

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Hindenburg main telephone station (click to enlarge)

[+ Funguy]

Wowzer!

Thanks Adam - I always wondered what the interior was like. Wonder if they had any "floating" poker games!

[bigvalboy]

OK...absolutely wonderful Adam Smith. Thoroughly enjoyed this...however, not to be a 'negative Nancy' but seriously, no bathrooms in the staterooms, and communal only with one shower.. ...AND, they ran out of Gin on the maiden voyage? http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/frantics.gif ......Positively primitive.

[AdamSmith]

P.S. You can click on all those images for nice enlarged views.

 

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/peter_sellers_pink_panther.jpg

[mike carey]

Plus one proton.

The extra proton is of critical importance!

[bigvalboy]

Larger and more clear....

[Lookin]

http://cruiselinehistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GZDD.jpeg

 

My fantasy has always been a flight from Hamburg to Rio on the Graf Zeppelin (LZ127), the predecessor of the Hindenburg (LZ129). It would have cost $475 one-way in the early thirties, equivalent to about $6500 today, and nearly the price of a Ford Model A. Still.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oZUd26wNz1U/UMDrQ-YnnPI/AAAAAAAAILs/2x1P5ch8le0/s1600/1.jpg

 

Apparently, the U. S. had the lock on helium which, unlike hydrogen, was not flammable. We would have made them jump through hoops to get it, and the Germans weren't about to grovel.

 

From what I recall, the U. S. had disaster after disaster with its own (Navy) dirigible program, mostly because of weather-related failures. The Germans seem to have figured that part out. If we had somehow been able to cooperate, I can't help wondering if these awesome airships would be with us today. http://www.smiley-channel.com/images/facebookSmileys/daydreaming.png

[AdamSmith]

Indeed that site has links to several descriptions of observing operations on board the Hindenburg by U.S. officers presumably once connected with our dirigible program. They kept expressing surprise at how roughly the Hindenburg crew would sometimes operate the steering and trim controls, with no apparent worry about stressing the structure of the ship.

[gallahadesquire]

http://cruiselinehistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GZDD.jpeg

 

My fantasy has always been a flight from Hamburg to Rio on the Graf Zeppelin (LZ127), the predecessor of the Hindenburg (LZ129). It would have cost $475 one-way in the early thirties, equivalent to about $6500 today, and nearly the price of a Ford Model A. Still.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oZUd26wNz1U/UMDrQ-YnnPI/AAAAAAAAILs/2x1P5ch8le0/s1600/1.jpg

 

Apparently, the U. S. had the lock on helium which, unlike hydrogen, was not flammable. We would have made them jump through hoops to get it, and the Germans weren't about to grovel.

 

From what I recall, the U. S. had disaster after disaster with its own (Navy) dirigible program, mostly because of weather-related failures. The Germans seem to have figured that part out. If we had somehow been able to cooperate, I can't help wondering if these awesome airships would be with us today. http://www.smiley-channel.com/images/facebookSmileys/daydreaming.png

 

Probably not. They'd have to use helium, and more-than-double density makes any commercial use difficult. I am not sure how much of the "Goodyear blimp" is habitable

[AdamSmith]

In fact the Hindenburg was originally designed to operate with helium. But then global disagreements cut off their supply, forcing them to use hydrogen. The site above goes into that a little bit.

[+ Funguy]

OK...absolutely wonderful Adam Smith. Thoroughly enjoyed this...however, not to be a 'negative Nancy' but seriously, no bathrooms in the staterooms, and communal only with one shower.. ...AND, they ran out of Gin on the maiden voyage? http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/frantics.gif ......Positively primitive.

 

I guess you've never been on the original Orient Express trains! Took from Paris to Venice overnight (just about exactly 24 hours). Just a sink/mirror in the stateroom. Everybody lines up at the ends of each car, in our silk robes, etc. at night or in the AM for the toilet. Don't remember if there was a shower at all! Everyone in elegant "evening dress" (read tux for the men) for dinner in the dining car. Have to say, "What Fun!" Must say, tho, they did NOT run out of anything,esp. the Vodka for martinis.

[gallahadesquire]

Ethical Airlines, known both for Showers in First Class and the three-room Residence, has been known to run out of food in First Class.

[gallahadesquire]

Oh: GREAT post! Is there anything like it on the Graf Zeppelin?

[Tonyko]

Wow fascinating post!! (I also remember reading re that smoking room that passengers had to turn in their matches and lighters none were allowed on the ship, and ALL had to use a single permanently mounted lighter to smoke)

[+ Gar1eth]

Wow fascinating post!! (I also remember reading re that smoking room that passengers had to turn in their matches and lighters none were allowed on the ship, and ALL had to use a single permanently mounted lighter to smoke)

 

I remember in the movie Anne Bancroft using the lighter in the smoking room.

 

Gman

[whipped guy]

Great thread Herr Smith!

 

I recall the movie and the smoking room!! My mom used to tell me how everyone was amazed as the über-sized airship made its way to the NJ landing area. She also recalled the Hindenberg disaster as her first "I remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news" experience as a teen.

[AdamSmith]

Great thread Herr Smith!

 

I love that the control car was called the "Führergondel."

[AdamSmith]

Oh: GREAT post! Is there anything like it on the Graf Zeppelin?

 

Yes! That same site has a section devoted to the Graf Zeppelin. Here's the subsection on its interiors: http://www.airships.net/lz127-graf-zeppelin/interiors

 

P.S. And slightly irrelevantly except harking back to recent yuks here over Philatelists, what is every collector's wet dream but...

 

http://www.millerstamps.com/images/stamps/C13-15-21.jpg

[AdamSmith]

Indeed that site has links to several descriptions of observing operations on board the Hindenburg by U.S. officers presumably once connected with our dirigible program. They kept expressing surprise at how roughly the Hindenburg crew would sometimes operate the steering and trim controls, with no apparent worry about stressing the structure of the ship.

 

Here is that material from the site:

 

Sharp turns were occasionally made without significant concern for possible strain on the ship, and rudder angles up to and exceeding 15 degrees were observed. For example, a memo by U.S. Navy observer Lt. Cdr. Francis Reichelderfer described a flight on Hindenburg in August, 1936, and noted:

 

During the flight over Washington Captain Lehmann was asked by a passenger to change course to pass over a spot which was close aboard. In response to Captain Lehmann‘s orders to the steerman full rudder angle was applied with maximum possibly speed with no apparent questions by any of the officers in the control car. The air at the time was very rough…. My impression from that observation is that the ship was turned in the rough air typical of a summer afternoon overland, as sharply as a turn could be made and that the maneuver which appeared to me to be undesirably rough use of the controls was taken as a matter of course by the several Hindenburg officers in the control car.

 

The elevators were also frequently put hard over when necessary to keep the ship level, and Hindenburg’s officers believed (perhaps erroneously) that steep angles of pitch placed more strain on the ship than the hard maneuvering sometimes required to avoid them.

 

Applying sufficient elevator input to keep the ship in trim often required great physical effort, and a U.S. Navy observer, Lt. (j.g.) M. F. D. Flaherty, reported:

 

On several occasions the elevatorman was seen to change elevator angle from fifteen degrees up to fifteen degrees down just as fast as he could spin the wheel. Flying under bumpy conditions required a great deal of physical exertion…. After about twenty minutes on the elevator the operator became soaked with perspiration… In order to reach eighteen degrees up elevator angle to counteract a down inclination of the ship it seemed to take all the strength that the operator could apply… The maximum angle of inclination the ship assumed…was about five degrees up by the bow.”

[Lookin]

In fact the Hindenburg was originally designed to operate with helium.

 

If I'm not mistaken, during early trial runs, Horst the cabin boy would happily poke his head into Cell Number 9 and return to convulse the crew with a series of Teutonic Pee-wee Herman impressions until such time as the ship docked in Rio.

 

 

Of course, I may be misremembering. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

[AdamSmith]

[whipped guy]

I love that the control car was called the "Führergondel."

The F word was unfortunately bandied about quite a bit in those days all the way from Der Führer to Unterführer with all sorts in between.