Fascinating reassessment of the 1937 Hindenburg airship disaster
"Hindenburg - The New Evidence" (2021 release; 55 min.) is a new documentary reassessing what really happened at the infamous 1937 Hindenburg airship disaster (who can ever forget the infamous news footage--or the cover of Led Zeppelin's debut album for that matter). As the documentary opens, we are introduced to 2 experts who bring a quick historical perspective on the history of the gigantic German airships (3 times as large as a 747), the many years of operating without a single incident (including dozens of cross-Atlantic trips in 1936 and early 1937), and then the events of May 6, 1937. As it turns out, new 8mm footage was recently unearthed providing new clues as to what exactly may have caused the explosion of the Hindenburg. At this point we are 10 min. Into the documentary.
Couple of comments: this is produced and directed by veteran documentarian Kirk Wolfinger. Here he gives the experts a platform to reassess what went wrong with the Hindenburg on that fateful day in May, 1937. The newly discovered 8mm footage (filmed by an amateur as opposed to the many 'official' news crews that were at the scene) is fascinating of course. But as it turns out, the real hero in all this is a certain Professor Giapis at CalTech, who reconstructs the various elements of what went wrong, and then puts it all together. That covers much of the last 30 min. Of this documentary. I will admit that some of the super scientific aspects of this reassessment went over my head (I am by no means an expert in any of this) but it all sounded quite convincing to me, and I was watching with with great fascination. (Among other tidbits I learned from watching this, it turns out there is an actual Zeppelin museum in southern Germany and I am adding this to my "bucket list" of must-visit places.)
"Hindenburg - The New Evidence" premiered this week on PBS as part of its long-running NOVA franchise, and is now available on PBS On Demand and other streaming services. A DVD is also being released. If you have any interest in "the Titanic of airships", I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this is produced and directed by veteran documentarian Kirk Wolfinger. Here he gives the experts a platform to reassess what went wrong with the Hindenburg on that fateful day in May, 1937. The newly discovered 8mm footage (filmed by an amateur as opposed to the many 'official' news crews that were at the scene) is fascinating of course. But as it turns out, the real hero in all this is a certain Professor Giapis at CalTech, who reconstructs the various elements of what went wrong, and then puts it all together. That covers much of the last 30 min. Of this documentary. I will admit that some of the super scientific aspects of this reassessment went over my head (I am by no means an expert in any of this) but it all sounded quite convincing to me, and I was watching with with great fascination. (Among other tidbits I learned from watching this, it turns out there is an actual Zeppelin museum in southern Germany and I am adding this to my "bucket list" of must-visit places.)
"Hindenburg - The New Evidence" premiered this week on PBS as part of its long-running NOVA franchise, and is now available on PBS On Demand and other streaming services. A DVD is also being released. If you have any interest in "the Titanic of airships", I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
- paul-allaer
- May 19, 2021