that met its fiery death in the year 1937.

Surprisingly, more than half of the people on board

actually survived the crash.

In this video, I want to take you on a detailed tour

of the inside of the Hindenburg.

We'll talk about airships in general

and why they are mostly a thing of the past.

(electricity crackling)

This video is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

The earliest airship that we know of

was in the year 1783 in France.

These primitive balloons were unstable,

and steering was near impossible at first.

A man by the name of Count Zeppelin created his own company

and helped perfect the design of airships.

At the time, passenger air travel was not commonplace yet,

so this was the fastest way to travel across the ocean.

It was about twice as fast as an ocean liner.

Construction of the Hindenburg was completed in 1936.

To this day, it's still the largest flying object

ever to be built.

It was built in Germany and funded by the Nazis,

which is why the swastika is on the tail.

Most of the space inside the ship

is taken up by 16 large gas cells.

If we remove these, you can see the frame of the ship.

The passenger areas are down here.

There are two decks.

The top one is the A deck,

and then below is the B deck.

The B deck is where the passengers board the airship.

There's angled windows to get a panoramic view

of the scene below, bathrooms, areas for the crew,

the kitchen, and the officers' mess.

This room is the smoking room.

It was pressurized so that there was no chance

of any hydrogen leaking in.

And yes, hydrogen is flammable.

We'll talk more about this gas later in the video.

The stair here take us up to the A deck,

which is where the passengers spent most of their time.

There are more windows on both sides of the ship.

Here's the reading and writing room,

and the lounge area, complete with a grand piano.

Normally, grand pianos can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds,

but that's a lot of weight to put in an airship.

This piano is made out of aluminum,

and it only weighs about 356 pounds.

The passenger cabins have two bunks each,

and the dining room was on the other side.

So now we've seen all the areas where passengers can go.

Let's see where the crew members could go.

Ont the B deck, this hallway is called

the keel corridor, which led to a walkway

through the entire bottom of the ship.

Towards the front of the ship

is the mail room and the radio room.

Right below here is the control car.

This is the command center of the ship,

which you can see from below.

This is the rudder wheel, which helps move the ship

to the left or right by controlling the rudders

on the very back of the ship.

This is the elevator wheel,

which controls the pitch of the ship.

Ideally, we want the ship as level as possible

to keep the passengers comfortable.

This is done by the elevators on the very back.

The officers' quarters are here,

so that they are close to the control car.

Along the keel catwalk, you'll find

plenty of these fuel and water tanks.

Here's the crew quarters, cargo areas,

and this is the electrical room.

There's more cargo areas here,

and a few more down here.

And then crew quarters for those

that work towards the back of the ship.

Along the side of the ship are four engine cars

with propellers to help move the ship forward.

There was always a crew member stationed at each engine car

at all times of the journey.

This walkway is how the crew could get to the engine car.

Along the keel corridor are several shafts with ladders

so the crew members could climb up higher.

These shafts were also used to ventilate gas.

This walkway through the center of the ship

is called the axial corridor.

These 16 gas cells are what hold the ship up in the air.

The cells were originally intended to be filled with helium,

but instead were filled with hydrogen.

If we look at the periodic table of elements,

hydrogen is the lightest element,

which means it will provide the most lift.

Unfortunately, it's also highly flammable,

so the intent with the Hindenburg was to actually

use helium, slightly heavier, but also much safer.

At the time, the United States

had the best supply of helium

but would not sell it to other countries,

which means that Germany was out of luck.

So the Hindenburg had no other choice but to use hydrogen.

Previous to the Hindenburg,

there had been quite a few airship accidents.

Other countries had already decided that

hydrogen-filled airships were just too dangerous.

Germany, however, had a flawless record so far.

No passengers had ever been killed in an airship accident.

During the year 1936, the Hindenburg

had many successful passenger flights,

to the United States and to Brazil.

The year 1937 didn't go so well.

May 3rd, the Hindenburg begins its journey

from Frankfurt, Germany.

It was a three-day journey to get to Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The ship was only halfway full at this time.

Only 97 people were onboard.

The landing was originally scheduled

for the early morning of May 6th, but it was delayed

because of strong headwinds, rain, and thunderstorms.

This is the Lakehurst station.

It has a hangar to park the airship when it's not flying.

This is the mooring mast.

For a normal landing, the nose of the ship

will be attached here while it's on the ground.

On the evening of May 6th, there were many people

on the ground, including spectators, news reporters,

and crew member ready to help bring the ship in.

At 7:00 p.m., the ship made a first pass

over the landing site and slowly circled around

for the final landing.

At this point, the ship was 12 hours late,

so there was an urgency to land,

as there were many passengers waiting to board

for the return trip back to Germany.

For some reason, the tail of the ship was low,

a possible hydrogen leak.

At 7:21 p.m., the ship released the handling lines

for the ground crew below.

Four minutes later, the ship bursts into flames

at the top, in between gas cells number four and five.

(explosion)

It took less than a minute

for the ship to be completely destroyed

and in ruins on the ground below.

Of the 97 people on board, 62 of them survived the crash.

Let's take a look at the explosion again.

Right after it happens, the tail begins to fall.

The flames travel through the axial corridor

and out the nose of the ship.

Everyone on board is thrown off their feet

with a sudden jolt.

Since they're about to land, most passengers

are already at the windows, and it's a good thing, too.

As the ship gets closer to the ground,

many were able to jump and run away from the burning ship.

Others were not so lucky.

No one knows for sure what caused the ship to catch on fire.

Unfortunately, most of the evidence was burned up.

The likely cause is from static electricity buildup

right before the disaster.

One small spark is all it would take.

The Hindenburg wasn't the worst airship disaster.

It was just the first to be caught on film

and widely seen by the public.

Because of this, airship travel

as a means of transportation was brought to an end.

Any airships that are still in use today

will definitely use helium and not hydrogen.

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(intriguing music)