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NARRICTION
NONFike fiction
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reads ’s all true
b t
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T
H
FLAMING E

SKY
The tragic story
of the Hindenburg, the
greatest flying machine
ever built BY LAUREN TARSHIS

4 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • OCTOBER 2016

 POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES (HINDENBURG); AP IMAGES (WERNER FRANZ)

NG
AS YOU

I
What made airships like the Hindenburg so popular?
READ

n just a few minutes, 14-year-old

Werner Franz would be in the
middle of one
of the scariest
disasters in
history. But just after
7 p.m. on May 6,
WATCH
THE VIDEO 1937, Werner felt like
AT SCOPE
ONLINE! the luckiest kid
on Earth.  Werner Franz

SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • OCTOBER 2016 5

 Werner had a job on the
greatest passenger aircraft ever
built, the Hindenburg. It was a
zeppelin. In the 1920s and 1930s,
these flying machines ruled
the skies. Tens of thousands of
people traveled on zeppelins.
Millions more wished they could.
And no zeppelin was as
grand as the Hindenburg. In the
U.S., the Hindenburg was more
beloved than any president or
movie star. It was more famous
than baseball’s Babe Ruth.
In Germany, where Werner
grew up and where
the Hindenburg had
been built, the great
airship was a rare
source of pride. The
1930s were hard and ATLANTIC
dangerous years OCEAN GERMANY

in Germany. The NORTH Frankfurt

AMERICA
country’s leader, EUROPE

Adolf Hitler, was A JOURNEY OF LUXURY

stirring up anger and
hate. Many feared
he would soon start
a war. Millions of
German people were
out of work. Werner’s father was
one of them.
Lakehurst,
New Jersey Flight path of Above: The Hindenburg’s
UNITED the Hindenburg elegant dining room
STATES
Left: The fateful final
0 500 Miles journey of the Hindenburg
Source: Peter Belin
airship, each voyage taking him interminable journey by boat.
far from Germany’s troubles and A typical Atlantic crossing took

JIM MCMAHON/MAPMAN® (MAP); AFP/GETTY IMAGES (DINING

In 1936, Werner, then 13, into a world of excitement and from 5 to 10 days on an ocean
left school to look for work. glamour. liner, and the trip was not ROOM); EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL/ALAMY (CABIN)

He needed to help support his
family. Getting hired as a cabin
boy on the Hindenburg was
exciting. Many times, Werner
had gazed out his bedroom
window, hoping for a glimpse
of the airship sailing through
the clouds. Now he would be
peering down from the legendary
Little did he know that his
adventure would end in tragedy.
The Joy of Zeppelins
In 1937, passenger airplanes
lacked the fuel capacity to travel
long distances. For most people,
crossing an ocean meant an
uncomfortable and seemingly
pleasant. There were storms,
cramped living quarters, and
endless days with little to do.
Seasick travelers vomited over
rails. Bored kids fidgeted in hot
cabins that reeked of sweat.
Imagine, then, the joy of
making the trip in a zeppelin
instead. The Hindenburg could

6 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • OCTOBER 2016


cross the Atlantic Ocean in just
two-and-a-half days.
The Hindenburg was huge.
It was about as tall as a 12-story
building and as long as two
football fields. Its pill-shaped
body was filled with gas that lifted
it into the sky like a balloon. Its
four car-sized engines would rev
up, and vroom, the ship would
zip through the sky at speeds of
up to 85 miles per hour—twice
as fast as a typical ocean liner
of the day. And the ride was
famously smooth. No one got
airsick.
On board the Hindenburg,
passengers roamed two floors of
COMFY QUARTERS
Cabins were small but modern, with
cozy beds that could be folded into the
wall when not in use.
lovely rooms. They slept under
silk sheets in elegant cabins. They
woke to the scent of fresh-baked
rolls wafting from the kitchen
and feasted on gourmet meals
in the bright, modern dining
room. There was a room for
writing letters and reading, and a
salon for playing cards and other
games.
And the views!
Airplanes today typically travel
at least 30,000 feet above the
ground. Look out the window and
you see only clouds. Zeppelins
flew much lower. Airship
passengers would stand at large
glass windows and marvel at the
sights beneath them: stunning
old castles, glittering cities,
and crowds of people waving
from below. At sea, passengers
might see dancing dolphins and
spouting whales.
Of course, there was a high
price for this experience. One
Hindenburg ticket cost $450,
equal to about $7,500 today.
Most passengers were business
leaders, celebrities . . . and lucky
cabin boys, like Werner.
Famous for Safety
The May 1937 journey was
Werner’s fifth ocean crossing
on the Hindenburg. The ship
had taken off from its special
airfield near Frankfurt, Germany.
It had zipped across Europe,
then headed out for the roughly
3,400-mile trip over the Atlantic.
As a cabin boy, Werner served
meals and washed dishes for the
Hindenburg’s 61 crew members.
In his free time, he could enjoy
the views and explore the ship.
Much of the space inside
the ship’s body was taken up
by 16 huge “gas cells,” bags of
hydrogen that gave the zeppelin
its lifting power. Werner tried
not to think about the dangers
of hydrogen, one of the most
flammable gases on Earth. The
smallest spark could trigger a
huge explosion. For this reason,
matches and lighters were not
allowed on zeppelins.
Like all zeppelins of the
time, the Hindenburg had been
designed to fly with helium
gas, which is not combustible.
But most of the world’s helium
supply was in America, and the
U.S. government wouldn’t sell it
to Germany. Though the
U.S. was still on friendly 
SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • OCTOBER 2016 7

terms with Germany in 1937,
many Americans mistrusted
Hitler. They worried he would
turn his zeppelins into weapons
of war.
Despite the dangers of
hydrogen, the Hindenburg
was considered safe. German
zeppelins had flown more than
1 million miles without one
accident. Meanwhile, thousands
had died in shipwrecks, like the
Titanic in 1912.
8 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • OCTOBER 2016
Stormy Skies
The flight across the Atlantic
that May went smoothly, but
thunderstorms over the coast
of New Jersey delayed the
Hindenburg’s landing. Then,
on Thursday evening, the skies
cleared. The ship prepared to
land in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Families and friends of
passengers lined the airfield.
About 90 men from the U.S. Navy
stood ready to grab hold of the
HIRZ/GETTY IMAGES (HINDENBURG); GLASSHOUSE IMAGES/ALAMY (TITANIC)
Hindenburg’s landing ropes and
pull the ship to the ground.
Slowly, the Hindenburg began
to drop from above. Kids shouted
with excitement. Photographers
and newsreel camera operators
prepared to capture the landing.
The first sign of trouble was
a small flame that burned at the
back of the airship, flicking like
a serpent’s tongue. Onlookers
stared. Hearts stopped. A few
people started to flee.
BIGGEST, FASTEST, SAFEST
Historians often compare the
Hindenburg (left) and the
Titanic (below). Both ships
were the biggest and fastest of
their kind—and considered the
safest.
 And then—Kaboom!
Millions of cubic feet of
hydrogen ignited.
Just 32 Seconds
Werner heard a muffled blast.
He turned and saw a wall of fire
racing toward him. He started to
run, but the nose of the airship
jerked up. Werner fell to the floor.
He slid back, back, back, toward
the wide-open jaws of the fire.
The heat was intense. He felt sure
he would burst into flames.
But then, splash!
A shower of water from
somewhere above drenched
him from head to toe. The water
cooled his body and cleared
his mind. Werner stood up. He
stumbled away from the fire.
Then he saw it: a small door in
the side of the ship. He kicked the
hatch open. He wasn’t sure how
far above the ground he was, but
he had no choice. Staying on the
ship meant certain death. Werner
jumped through the opening,
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES (HINDENBURG OVER CITY); SHUTTERSTOCK (SPALDEEN)
into the flaming sky.
It took just 32 seconds for
the Hindenburg to crash to the
ground in a burning heap. As it
landed, passengers burst through
windows and doors.
Of the 97 people on board,
35 died. Many more would have
perished had it not been for the
Navy landing crew. These men
risked their lives to rush into the
flames and pull people to safety.
For months, the crash
remained front-page
news. Many Germans  JOSEPH PACHECO IS A RETIRED NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT.
Poem
Where Were You on May 6, 1937?
BY JOSEPH PACHECO
In the late afternoon
pounding the pink “Spaldeen” ball
between the screened windows
of the Telephone Building on 13th Street
in our slum version of handball,
my friend Danny and I looked up
and saw the Hindenburg,
immense shining silver
shaped like a cigar
floating directly above us
so close
Danny threw the “Spaldeen” up
as high as he could to try to hit it
but of course he missed A “Spaldeen” is
and we both laughed . . . a small bouncy
rubber ball that
was used in
later I heard street games.
it crashed in Jersey
and the whole next day
everyone listened
to the announcer on the radio
sobbing and I remember thinking
radio announcers are always cool
but not this time
so this must be real
and later that week at the movies
they showed it in the Newsreel,
the Hindenburg collapsing
like a huge balloon on fire
and my mother and the women
in the audience crying,
right then I wished that Danny
had been able to hit it with the ball
and change its course—
maybe that would have saved it.
HE WROTE THIS POEM ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE OF SEEING THE HINDENBURG.
COPYRIGHT © 2005 BY JOSEPH PACHECO. ADAPTED WITH PERMISSION.
SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • OCTOBER 2016 9
thought that a bomb was to
blame for the disaster. An
investigation was conducted, but
even now, no one is sure what
went wrong. Most experts say that
there must have been a small leak
in one of the gas cells. Electricity
in the air from the earlier storms
likely sparked the explosion.
That was all it took to destroy
the grandest airship ever built.
The End of Zeppelins
The newsreel cameras caught
the crash on film. Within weeks,
millions around the world had
seen the footage. The public’s
faith in zeppelins was destroyed.
10 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • OCTOBER 2016
And so, the Hindenburg crash
ended not only dozens of lives,
but also the age of zeppelins.
Airships quickly floated into
obsolescence.
As for Werner, he had been
right all along. He was the
luckiest kid in the world. The
water that had drenched him
had come from one of the ship’s
shattered water tanks, and it
surely saved his life.
The ship was close enough
to the ground when he jumped
through the hatch that he was
unhurt and could run from the
fire. “It was a heavenly gift,” he
would later say.
Two weeks after the crash,
Werner returned to Germany.
He went on to serve as a radio
operator and an instructor in
the German air force during
World War II, which began
not long after the Hindenburg
crash. Later, Werner married
and raised a family. He lived to
the age of 92. He looked back on
his few months working aboard
the Hindenburg as some of the
happiest of his life. But he never
forgot how close he came to
death on that fiery night in 1937.
“I was grateful for everything
I was allowed to experience after
that,” he said.•
A BURNING HUSK
For days after the Hindenburg
crash, the aluminum skeleton
of the great zeppelin smoked
and burned.
INTERFOTO/ALAMY
 A prototype of the
Aeroscraft takes off in
Essay Tustin, California

This is almost as long as a football field!

Would You Ride on That?

The return of the mighty zeppelin BY MACKENZIE CARRO

W
hat comes to mind when you think of the future of
travel? Hover cars? Jet packs? Teleportation pods?
Zeppelins—the huge, pill-shaped aircrafts that
were all the rage nearly a century ago—are probably not on
your list. But some experts say that zeppelins should be part
of our future.
Zeppelins, also known as airships or dirigibles, were
popular in the 1920s and 1930s. They made long-distance
travel faster and more comfortable than ever before. But
after the Hindenburg crash in 1937, the zeppelin became a
symbol of tragedy and death—and a pariah of the sky. With
the rise of modern airplanes, it seemed as if the only place
zeppelins would fly would be into the pages of history books.
Until now.
Today, a number of companies are trying to restore the
zeppelin to its former glory. Can they succeed?
Super Safe
There are many benefits to flying in a zeppelin. Modern
zeppelins use nonflammable helium gas. Helium is not
only safe, it’s also far better for the environment than jet
fuel. (Every day, airplanes around the world use roughly
740 million gallons of jet fuel.) Plus, zeppelins can land
anywhere—even on water. If a zeppelin’s engine were to fail,
the ship wouldn’t crash. It would just float in the air until
the pilot found a place to land.
So why haven’t airships already made a comeback?
Although safe and Earth-friendly, helium is rare and
expensive. Then there is the issue of speed. Zeppelins are
much slower than planes. They move only slightly faster
than trucks and trains.
Still, because airships can land without a runway, they
can reach far-flung places more easily than a plane, truck, or
train can. Zeppelins could carry goods to parts of northern
Canada, where no airports or roads exist. They could bring
food and other relief supplies to remote refugee camps. They
could serve as floating hospitals after natural disasters.
Cruising the Sky
Airships are great for sightseeing too. Like cruise ships
of the sky, they not only get you from point A to point B,
but also allow you to enjoy the trip. On a zeppelin, you
wouldn’t need to stay belted in your seat. You could get
up, walk around, and even open a window. And imagine
the thrill of gliding over the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone
National Park in a low-flying zeppelin.
Zeppelins may never replace airplanes, but do they
deserve a place in our skies? •

WRITING CONTEST
Could zeppelins ever be as popular as they were in the time of the Hindenburg? Support
your answer with details from at least TWO of the three texts you just read: the narrative
nonfiction, the poem, and the essay. Send your response to ZEPPELIN CONTEST. GET THIS
Five winners will each get Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. See page 2 for details. ACTIVITY
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SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • OCTOBER 2016 11