What is little-known about the Hindenburg was that the fabric covering was painted with an aluminum and iron-oxide based paint. These are coincidentally the ingredients of thermite. Any kind of spark would be capable of lighting it off and it would proceed rapidly across the covering, as indeed the photography shows. The destruction of the covering would mean loss of hydrogen and the airship would founder, as it did, with the released hydrogen being consumed in flames above.
Airships are lovely...but they are slow. Maybe several times as fast as an ocean liner. Airplanes were already much faster by that time.
That was what I was referring to as the doping compound. However the Doping compound on the Hindenburg was cellulose acetate butyrate mixed with aluminum powder of which is not a flamable compound. The source of this rumor comes from a rocket scientist referring to the usage of the aluminum powder often used in solid fuel rockets.
What is little-known about the Hindenburg was that the fabric covering was painted with an aluminum and iron-oxide based paint. These are coincidentally the ingredients of thermite. Any kind of spark would be capable of lighting it off and it would proceed rapidly across the covering, as indeed the photography shows. The destruction of the covering would mean loss of hydrogen and the airship would founder, as it did, with the released hydrogen being consumed in flames above.
Airships are lovely...but they are slow. Maybe several times as fast as an ocean liner. Airplanes were already much faster by that time.
That was what I was referring to as the doping compound. However the Doping compound on the Hindenburg was cellulose acetate butyrate mixed with aluminum powder of which is not a flamable compound. The source of this rumor comes from a rocket scientist referring to the usage of the aluminum powder often used in solid fuel rockets.
https://www.airships.net/hindenburg-paint/
I looked it up. Thanks for the information. It sounded plausible...until it wasn't. (I am not by any means a hydrogen enthusiast, however.)