The Hindenburg's Interior

[AdamSmith]

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.

 

But here it would just have its common meaning of "guide" or "leader" in the sense that this is the place where the ship was steered. Nein?

[Lookin]

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

 

The F word was unfortunately bandied about quite a bit in those days . . .

 

As was the G word. The largest one I ever saw in person was hanging out in some bushes in the Tiergarten one summer about fifty years ago. I spoke very little German in those days and, until that evening, never im Falsett. http://emoticonhq.com/images/ICQ/ICQ6.0/yelling.gif

[+ sync]

I'm curious about turbulence. I would think it was much worse than for a plane, or were there factors like altitude and speed that dampened it?

[rguer]

I'm sorry I never got a chance to ride this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship_Ventures

 

My impression was that owning a private airship would make a private jet look cheap. But what a great way to travel that would be if you weren't in a hurry.

[AdamSmith]

Apparently one appeal of resurrecting leisure travel by airship, at least overland, is their ability to fly low enough to view much detail in the land being traveled over.

[AdamSmith]

Here is that site's description of the disaster: http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster

[Lookin]

Apparently one appeal of resurrecting leisure travel by airship, at least overland, is their ability to fly low enough to view much detail in the land being traveled over.

 

I thought I'd read somewhere that the windows in the Graf Zeppelin's lounge could be opened, but perhaps not. There were times the ship flew just a few hundred feet above the ground, and it was easy for passengers to watch farmers below tilling their fields, among other things.

 

Lady Grace Drummond Hay described it thus but was not clear how extensively she was able to drape herself over the window ledge:

 

We have a million cubic feet of gas but no heat. . . . Merciless cold driving through the canvas walls of this flying tent. … I have visualized myself gracefully draped over a saloon window ledge romantically viewing the moonlit sky. The men . . . have reminded each other not to forget evening jackets and boiled shirts in their baggage. We have drawn ourselves lovely pictures of dining elegantly in mid-air with Commodore Eckener at the head of a flower-decked table . . . but . . . leather coats, woollies and furs will be our evening dress. Hot soup and steaming stew more welcome than cold caviar and chicken salad.

 

http://40.media.tumblr.com/16859fc2ff713bac271637804e2fac3a/tumblr_ml5vtkSbZL1s1vg7oo3_1280.jpg

[Guest]

 

Apparently, the U. S. had the lock on helium which, unlike hydrogen, was not flammable.

 

You know, I think helium still isn't flammable!

http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/5663675/3/stock-illustration-5663675-single-emoticon-tongue-out.jpg

[AdamSmith]

Hear & see the Hindenburg's aluminum piano being played onboard:

 

http://www.airships.net/blog/sound-hindenburg-aluminum-piano

[AdamSmith]

The Airship and Futurism: Utopian Visions of the Airship

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/solar-landing-field-cover-706x1024thumb.jpg

Modern Mechanix magazine. October, 1934.

 

Airships have often served as the symbol of a brighter tomorrow.

 

Even before the first zeppelin was invented, airships featured prominently in utopian visions of the future. This 1898 poster advertised a musical comedy on the New York stage:

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/airship-futurism-1898-thumb.jpg

Musical theater poster. 1898.

 

And these German and French postcards predicted air travel in the year 2000:

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/german-postcard-550x354.jpg

German postcard, circa 1900

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/futurist-airship-1910thumb.jpg

French postcard. 1910.

 

Mixing the Airship and the Airplane: The View from the 1930’s

Futurists of the early 20th Century often combined lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air technology, as in this urban skyscraper airport and solar-powered aerial landing field:

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/skyscraper-airport-1024x743thumb.jpg

Popular Science magazine. November, 1939

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/solar-landing-field1-364x550.jpg

Modern Mechanix magazine. October, 1934.

 

Goodyear and the Future of Zeppelin Travel

Sometimes futurist airship visions were promoted by companies which were actually involved in the lighter-than-air business.

 

For example, the Goodyear-Zeppelin company, which built the American airships Akron and Macon, and which had a financial interest in the promotion of the passenger dirigible, frequently offered alluring illustrations of future airship travel.

 

Goodyear president Paul Litchfield and publicist Hugh Allen included the following pictures in their 1945 book, WHY? Why has America no Rigid Airships?:

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/why-has-america-cabin-web-WM-385x249.jpg

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/why-has-america-lounge-web-WM-385x253.jpg http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/why-has-america-dining-web-WM-385x241.jpg

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/why-has-america-deck-plans-luxury-economy-385x211.jpg

 

These drawings from Hugh Allen’s The Story of the Airship (1931) imagined an Art Deco dining salon, promenade, and even a lounge with a fireplace.

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/story-of-airship-dining-promenade-web-WM-385x210.jpg

 

 

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/story-of-airship-lounge-web-WM-385x234.jpg

 

The Airship and the Soviet Future

Under the illusion that communism was the way of the future, Soviet propagandists loved images of modernity and enlisted the airship in their cause.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lenin-airships.jpg

Soviet poster, 1931. (“We Are Building a Fleet of Airships in the Name of Lenin.” Azeri text)

 

Unflyable Airship Fantasies

Sometimes illustrators got so carried away depicting lavish interiors that they neglected to leave room for much lifting gas, as in this illustration from The American Magazine.

 

The article described future airships to be built by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Company, which would be “fitted up as sumptuously as a Palm Beach winter hotel”:

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/American-Magazine-web-2000-1024x779thumb.jpg

The American Magazine. May, 1930.

 

This illustration of an atomic dirigible from a Soviet magazine in the 1960’s left no room for lifting gas at all:

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/soviet-atomic-dirigible1-1024x678thumb.jpg

Soviet Atomic Dirigible

 

The Iron Airship

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/modern-mechanics-july-1931-668x1024thumb.jpg

Modern Mechanics. July, 1931.

[Rod Hagen]

"plus one proton" :-)

[William]

This the most amazing and educational thread I have ever read on the Message Board. +++++

[bigvalboy]

This the most amazing and educational thread I have ever read on the Message Board. +++++

 

http://images.wikia.com/glee/images/f/f2/Leo-Toast.gif

"Here here.......to Mr. Smith"

[Kippy]

Thanks so much for posting all this great info. Pictures and all...I feel like I've taken a college course just by reading this!

 

Peace,

 

Kipp

[AdamSmith]

Test at 11.

[Diverdan]

Thanks for this post and all the additional comments... really enjoyed this today. It reminded me of a program on TV the other night that featured a story on the recent renovation of Donald Trump's private jet. It is amazing what a billionaire can spend on redoing his private jet, which is a large Boeing, not a small plane !!! They interviewed the pilot, the company redoing the interior, the company doing the inspections of the engines, and other FAA required service.

 

I guess the next closest thing to these comforts would be Air Force One. Again, there was a recent TV documentary on Air Force One that revealed, for me at least, the first I had ever heard about the ability of that particular 747 to fly nearly as fast as some of our fighter jets and that it has a lot of defensive capabilities that, while never revealed, indicate that it is a very special plane indeed.

 

For luxury for the more common folks, however, our only alternative is to spend an ungodly amount of money and fly one of the new "bedroom" suites in the A380 with one of the UAE sponsored airlines.

 

Thanks again, Mr. Smith, for this wonderful post.

DD

[AdamSmith]

For the engineering nerds that walk among us.

 

Hindenburg Design and Technology

Hindenburg’s Basic Design

The basic design of LZ-129 Hindenburg was conventional, and based on time-tested technology used by chief designer Ludwig Dürr and the Zeppelin Company for decades. The ship was built with triangular duralumin girders (bright blue from protective lacquer) forming 15 main rings, connecting 36 longitudinal girders, with a triangular keel at the bottom of the hull, an axial corridor at the center of the ship, and a cruciform tail for strength.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-profile21-1024x221.jpg

Hindenburg profile, showing major elements and numbering system for gas cells and frames. Drawing courtesy David Fowler. (click to enlarge)

 

(Hindenburg’s main rings — also called frames — were numbered by their distance in meters from a reference point located roughly at the ship’s tail. Hindenburg’s gas cells were numbered from 1 through 16, aft to forward.)

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-main-rings-1024x563.jpg

Hindenburg Main Ring 92 (at left), and Main Ring 33.5 (at right) showing sturdy, cruciform structure of the tail. Drawings courtesy David Fowler. (click all images to enlarge)

 

Hindenburg was originally designed to be operated with helium but the United States had a monopoly on the non-flammable gas, and the Helium Control Act of 1927 prohibited American export of helium to any foreign nation.

 

Hindenburg Flight Technology

For a discussion of LZ-129’s flight instruments and flight controls, visit the sections on Hindenburg’s Control Car and Hindenburg Flight Operations.

 

Hindenburg Technological Innovations

Hindenburg’s Size and Shape

 

One importance technological advance was the ship’s very shape and dimensions; although only about 30 feet longer than Graf Zeppelin, Hindenburg carried about twice the volume of lifting gas, due to its larger diameter and “fatter” profile. Hindenburg’s thicker shape also gave it greater structural strength against bending stresses, as compared to the thinner profile of Graf Zeppelin.

 

The ability to build a ship with a much thicker profile was due to the construction of a new, larger shed at Friedrichshafen in 1929-1930 (see photograph below), which had been financed by the German national government and the State of Württemberg.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/friedrichshafen-sheds181-385x246.jpg

The construction sheds at Friedrichshafen. The older Factory Shed II, whose height limited the dimensions of Graf Zeppelin, is on the left, and the new larger shed which allowed construction of Hindenburg is on the right.

 

The height of the previous construction shed had limited the dimensions of Graf Zeppelin (resulting in that ship’s thin profile and the very forward placement of Graf Zeppelin’s passenger gondola, to maximize use of the ship’s diameter). The new shed allowed the construction of much larger airships, which could carry the greater volume of gas necessary to lift the payload required for profitable scheduled transatlantic passenger service.

 

Hindenburg’s Gas Cells

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/gas-cell-axial-385x290.jpg

Hindenburg under construction, showing the axial catwalk passing through the center of a gas cell, and the outline of the passenger compartment at lower right. (click to enlarge)

 

One innovation aboard Hindenburg was the use of a new material for the construction of the gas cells. While gas cells for earlier German zeppelins were made of goldbeater’s skin (the outer membrane of cattle intestines) the cells aboard Hindenburg used a new material, similar to that used by the Americans, which was made by brushing layers of gelatine onto a sheet of cotton; this gelatine film was sandwiched between two layers of cotton to create the fabric for the cells.

 

Hindenburg’s gas cells had 14 manually-controlled maneuvering valves located just above the axial walkway, which could be operated from the main gas board in the control car; electric meters measured the fullness of each cell and could be monitored in the control car. Hindenburg was also equipped with 14 automatic valves which released gas whenever cell pressure became too high, to avoid damage to the cells themselves or to the framework of the ship.

[AdamSmith]

Hindenburg’s Engines

 

Hindenburg’s Daimler-Benz engines were also rather advanced, based on the MB-502 engine designed for German E-boats (high-speed motor torpedo boats) as part of the Nazi’s rearmament program.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-diesel-web-385x274.jpg

16-cylinder Daimler Airship Engine

 

Each of Hindenburg’s four LOF-6 (DB-602) 16-cylinder engines had an output of 1320 hp @ 1650 RPM (maximum power), and 900 hp @ 1480 RPM.

 

The normal cruise setting was 1350 RPM, generating approximately 850 hp, and this setting was usually not adjusted during an ocean crossing. The engines were started with compressed air, and could be started, stopped, and reversed in flight.

 

Using 2:1 reduction gearing, each engine drove a 4-bladed, fixed-pitch, 19.7′ diameter metal-sheathed wooden propeller (created from two 2-bladed props fused together).

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-engine-car-385x241.jpg

Hindenburg engine car. (Drawing courtesy David Fowler.)

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/engine-car-interior-260x385.jpg

Interior of Hindenburg engine car, with Chief Engineer Rudolf Sauter (left) and Engineer Raphael Schädler (right)

 

The engines were mounted in four engine cars; two at Ring 92, and two at Ring 140. To protect the ship’s fabric covering, the engines which were angled slightly away away from the hull so that the their propeller wash would not directly strike the ship’s covering. The rear engine cars were mounted lower on the hull than the forward cars, so that the propellers of the rear cars would operate in clean air, undisturbed by the propwash from the forward engines. A mechanic was stationed in each engine car at all times to monitor the diesel and carry out engine orders transmitted from the control car.

 

There were plans, never implemented, to add a fifth engine car, containing a Daimler-Benz diesel adapted to burn hydrogen. The proposed installation would have been an experiment to improve the ship’s economy and efficiency by burning hydrogen which would otherwise have been valved. (Hindenburg valved between 1 and 1-1/2 million cubic feet of hydrogen on an average north Atlantic crossing.)

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-engine-car-mechanic.jpg

Mechanic entering an engine car

 

Auto-pilot

An innovative feature of the Hindenburg was the ship’s Anschütz “auto-pilot”, which used a gyroscopic compass to control the rudder and elevators, and keep the ship on its assigned course and altitude during cruise in stable weather.

 

Proposed Gas Preservation and Water Recovery Systems

 

But Hindenburg’s potentially most innovative features were never actually implemented. Hindenburg was originally designed for helium, which was too difficult to obtain and too expensive to be vented to compensate for the weight of fuel burned during flight. To avoid the need to valve helium, several innovative solutions were proposed. One involved a set of inner hydrogen gas cells to be installed at center of 14 of the ship’s 16 helium cells. The flammable hydrogen would be protected inside the larger cell containing inert helium, and when it was necessary to valve lifting gas, hydrogen, rather than helium, could be released. When it became obvious that helium would not be made available by the Americans, and that the ship would be inflated with hydrogen, the inner cells were abandoned, but Hindenburg did retain the axial catwalk at the center of the ship that was installed to provide access to the valves for these inner cells. The second proposed innovation involved a water recovery system which would have used silica gel to capture water from engine exhaust, obtaining water ballast to partly compensate for the fuel burned by the engines. This system, too, was abandoned when the Zeppelin Company was unable to obtain helium and it became necessary to inflate Hindenburg with hydrogen.

 

Consideration was also given to installing engines which could burn hydrogen, but tests indicated that such engines had a much more limited power output; the maximum power that could be obtained was approximately 300 hp. Plans were drawn to add a fifth engine gondola to compensate for the lower power of hydrogen-burning engines, but these plans were never implemented.

 

Proposed Launch and Recovery of Fixed-Wing Aircraft

 

One other innovation which was briefly attempted was a plan to recover and launch fixed-wing aircraft to speed the delivery of mail. Test were conducted in which famed German ace and Luftwaffe official Ernst Udet attempted to hook an aircraft onto Hindenburg in flight, but these attempts were not sucessful, and no such system was developed before Hindenburg’s crash in May, 1937.

[AdamSmith]

Hindenburg Statistics

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/US_Capitol-hindenburg-pinucci-550x290.jpg

 

LZ-129 Hindenburg statistics:

 

• Length: 245 m / 803.8 feet
  
• Diameter: 41.2 m / 135.1 feet
  
• Gas capacity: 200,000 cubic meters / 7,062,000 cubic feet
  
• Lift: 511,500 lbs
  
• Cruising Speed: 125 km/h (76 mph)
  
• Maximum Speed: 135 km/h (84 mph)
  
• Main Powerplant: 4 Daimler-Benz 16-cylinder LOF 6 (DB 602) Diesels
  
• Crew: 40 flight officers and men; 10-12 stewards and cooks
  
• Passengers: 50 sleeping berths (1936); 72 sleeping berths (1937)
  
• First flight: March 4, 1936
  
• Final flight: Crashed, May 6, 1937
  

Additional specifications and technical details are available on the following pages of this website:

 

• Hindenburg Flight Operations
  
• Control Car, Flight Instruments, and Flight Controls
  
• Hindenburg Design and Technology
  

Size comparison: Hindenburg and Boeing 747-400

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/hindenburg-747-comparison-550x172.jpg

 

Size comparison: Hindenburg and Goodyear Blimp

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/hindenburg-goodyear-comparison-550x172.jpg

 

Size comparison: Hindenburg and earlier zeppelins

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/relative-sizes-1024x655.jpg

Relative sizes of LZ-11 Viktoria Luise, LZ-120 Bodensee, LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin. and LZ-129 Hindenburg

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/lz129-profile2-385x83.jpg

Hindenburg profile, showing major elements and numbering system for gas cells and frames. Drawing courtesy David Fowler. (click to enlarge)

[AdamSmith]

Where was Trump?

 

Hindenburg “Millionaires Flight”

The “Millionaires Flight” of the Hindenburg was a 10-1/2 hour cruise over New England on October 9, 1936, for 72 wealthy and influential passengers. The guests were invited to generate support for a German-American zeppelin service and it was said the passengers had a combined net worth of more than one billion dollars, from which the flight got its nickname.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/nelson-rockefeller-nav-room-lz129-550x409.jpg

Nelson Rockefeller in Navigation Room of Hindenburg

 

Passengers on the “Millionaires Flight” were leaders in the fields of finance, industry, government, and aviation. The guests included powerful financiers such as Winthrop W. Aldrich and Nelson Rockefeller; U.S. and German government officials and naval officers; and leaders in the aviation industry including Eddie Rickenbacker of Eastern Airlines, Jack Frye of TWA, Eugene Vidal, and perhaps most importantly, Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/juan-trippe-on-Hindenburg_Photos-4-550x377.jpg

Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways on a Hindenburg flight to Rio de Janeiro in 1936 (photo Elizabeth Trippe, courtesy panam.org)

 

Juan Trippe had been a director of the Pacific Zeppelin Transport Company, founded in 1929 to operate a never-realized 36-hour zeppelin service between California and Hawaii. Airships appeared to pose direct competition to the flying boat airliners Pan Am wanted as operate across the Atlantic, and in fact shortly after the Millionaires Flight, Trippe and his wife Betty embarked on a round-the-world voyage by air that included a flight on Hindenburg from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro. Trippe was invited on the Millionaires Flight to stimulate his interest in investing in a zeppelin venture but, firmly invested in Pan Am’s clipper flying boats, he likely accepted the invitation to check out the competition.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/hindenburg-ashtray-web1-473x550.jpg

Each passenger was given a souvenir ashtray with a glass model of the airship filled with Esso diesel fuel

 

The flight was jointly organized by the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (DZR) and Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso), which supplied diesel fuel and hydrogen to the Hindenburg, and the passengers were hosted during the flight by Hugo Eckener, Ernst Lehman, and DZR’s American representative, F. W. “Willy” von Meister. NBC radio reporter John B. Kennedy did live airborne broadcasts from the ship over the NBC Blue and Red networks in the afternoon.

 

The Flight

 

The flight was a leisurely day-long cruise over the fall foliage of New England.

 

Passengers boarded a specially chartered Pullman train at New York’s Pennsylvania Station on the evening of October 8, 1936, and settled into sleeping compartments. The train traveled to Lakehurst overnight and parked at a railroad siding a few hundred feet from the mooring mast, and at 5:00 AM the passengers were awakened for breakfast and then taken to the airship.

 

http://www.Airships.net/wp-content/uploads/millionaire-flight-passengers-550x428.jpg

Passengers on the “Millionaire’s Flight” (left to right) Admiral Arthur B. Cook, R. Walton Moore, Admiral William H. Standley, Commander Charles Rosendahl, Rear Admiral William S. Pye

 

Hindenburg left Lakehurst at 6:57 AM and flew up the Hudson River to New England, passing over Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester, and reaching Boston around Noon.

 

The ship circled over Boston while the VIP guests enjoyed a midday meal of Swallow Nest Soup, cold Rhine salmon, tenderloin steak, Chateau Potatoes, Beans a la Princesse, Carmen salad, and iced melon, accompanied by beer and wines including a 1934 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen and a 1928 Feist Brut, and followed by Turkish coffee, pastries, and fine liqueurs.

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/millionaires-flight-menu-413x550.jpg

 

After lunch the airship turned south and passed Providence, New London, and New Haven before reaching New York City at around 3:00 PM, and finally headed back to Lakehurst.

 

Despite a heavy fog (which grounded the American Airlines DC-3’s taking passengers back to New York from Lakehurst), Hindenburg landed without difficulty at 5:22 PM and then departed for Germany as scheduled on its last transatlantic crossing of the 1936 season.

[AdamSmith]

Complete Passenger List

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/winthrop-aldrich-310x385.jpg

Winthrop W. Aldrich, 1950s

 

Winthrop W. Aldrich

Chairman of the Chase National Bank

 

Sherman Altick

Aviation Editor

 

J. W. Bancker

 

William J. Baxter

Baxter International Economic Research Bureau

 

R. H. Blake

 

Lt. Gen. Friedrich von Boetticher

German Military Attaché to United States (“Hitler’s Ambivalent Attaché”)

 

Harlee Branch

Chairman of U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board; City Editor and Washington correspondent for The Atlanta Journal

 

William J. Brewster

 

Ray Brock

 

Harry A. Bruno

Aviation Public Relations Executive

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/juan-trippe-globe-web-315x385.jpg

Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways

 

William A. M. Burden

Wall Street aviation analyst; great-great-grandson of railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt

 

Reginald M. Cleveland

Aviation Reporter; New York Times, Scientific American

 

Colonel J. C. Cone

Director of Air Regulations, Aeronautics Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce

 

Rear Admiral Arthur B. Cook

Chief of Bureau of Aeronautics, United States Navy

 

William F. Cutler

 

H. Morin de Linclays

U.S. General Manager of the French Line (Compagnie Générale Transatlantique)

 

Harry L. Derby

President, American Cyanamid and Chemical Corporation

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/jack-frye-twa-321x385.jpg

Jack Frye of TWA around the time of the Millionaires Flight

 

Robert Dorman

 

Frank Durand

President of New Jersey Senate

 

Byron C. Foy

President of De Soto Motors and son-in-law of Walter Chrysler

 

Frederick H. Frazier

 

Jack Frye

President, TWA

 

Alvin T. Fuller

Former Governor of Massachusetts (perhaps best known for his refusal to pardon Sacco and Vanzetti); Wealthy automobile dealer and art collector

 

Commander Garland Fulton

U.S. Navy airship officer

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/garland-fulton-millionaire-flight-ticket-291x550.jpg

 

Robert L. Hague

Vice President, Standard Oil of New Jersey

 

John Augustine Hartford

Chief Executive, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P)

 

John D. Hertz

Founder of Yellow Cab Company; Partner in Lehman Brothers investment bank; Transportation investor

 

H. E. Hildebrand

 

H. L. Hughes

 

J.L. Hughes

 

Thomas Hughes

 

Harry P. Kelliher

 

John B. Kennedy

Reporter, National Broadcasting Company

 

James L. Kilgallen

Famed Report with Hearst’s International News Service; Father of reporter Dorothy Kilgallen who made a round-the-world flight by air, including a leg on Hindenburg

 

Robert D. King

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/Juan_and_Betty_Trippe_with_Hindenburg_Photos-6-310x385.jpg

Juan and Betty Trippe disembarking Hindenburg after a flight from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro, 1936 (photo Elizabeth Trippe, courtesy panam.org)

 

John E. Lamiell

Director of the International Service, United States Post Office

 

Roman Lapica

United Press Staff Correspondent

 

Arthur Levy

 

Thomas Lewis

 

Karl Lindemann

Director of the Hamburg-Amerika Line and an officer of Standard Oil

 

Paul W. Litchfield

President of Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and the leading force behind American commercial airship endeavors

 

Hans Luther

German ambassador to the United States; Former chancellor and President of Germany and President of the Reichsbank

 

Paul MacKall

Bethlehem Steel Executive

 

Lucius B. Manning

President, Cord Automobile Corporation

 

Thomas McCarter

Former New Jersey Attorney General and founder of the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, one of America’s largest utility companies

 

Edward O. McDonnell

Director of Pan American Airways; Banker with Grayson M.P. Murphy (an investor in the Pacific Zeppelin Transport Co., of which McDonnell was a director)

 

Joachim Meyer

 

R. Walton Moore

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State

 

A. L. Murphy

 

Ed Neil

 

Pat O’Brien

 

Rear Admiral William S. Pye

United States Navy

 

W. M. Rapsher

United States Customs Service

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/Eddie_Rickenbacker_in_his_Eastern_Air_Lines_office-311x385.jpg

Eddie Rickenbacker in his Eastern Air Lines office (Auburn University Library)

 

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker

Famed aviator, WWI fighter ace, and General Manager of Eastern Air Lines

 

Joseph P. Ripley

Vice President, National City Bank; Investor in Pan American Airways, NYRBA, and United Aircraft; Director of Pacific Zeppelin Transport Co.

 

Nelson Rockefeller

Chase National Bank; Grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller; future Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States

 

Commander Charles E. Rosendahl

Senior U.S. Navy airship commander

 

John F. Royal

Senior Executive, National Broadcasting Company

 

E. J. Sadler

Vice President, Standard Oil of New Jersey

 

Abel Alan (“Abe”) Schechter

News Director, National Broadcasting Company

 

Dr. D. A. Schmitz

 

John Schroeder

 

Edward L. Shea

Executive Vice President, Tidewater Associated Oil Co.

 

Richard Southgate

Chief of Protocol, U.S. Department of State

(One of Southgate’s predecessors as Chief of Protocol was Ferdinand Lammot Belin Sr., whose son (“Peter” Belin) survived the Hindenburg disaster)

 

http://www.airships.net/wp-content/uploads/gene-vidal-time-292x385.jpg

Gene Vidal

 

Admiral William H. Standley

Chief of Naval Operations, United States Navy

 

Juan T. Trippe

Head of Pan American Airways; Director of Pacific Zeppelin Transport Co.

 

Eugene L. Vidal

Director of Aeronautics of the U.S. Department of Commerce; a close personal friend of Amelia Earhart

 

Lieutenant George F. Watson

U.S. Navy airship officer

 

M. G. B. Whelpley

Vice President, Chase Securities; President, American Express Bank & Trust; Former V.P. of Chase National Bank

 

Vice Admiral Robert Witthoeft-Emden

German Naval Attaché

 

H. C. Woodall

 

Henry Ford, Walter P. Chrysler, Alfred P. Sloan Jr., and Walter C. Teagle were among those who were invited but did not join the flight.

 

I would like to express my appreciation to Patrick Russell and John Provan, and Doug Miller of the Pan Am Historical Foundation, for their assistance with this post.