3 - The Barnes Review

PAGE 34 the barnes review MAY/JUNE
ships also seemed an ideal long-range platform
from which to hunt Nazi U-boats in
the Caribbean and South Atlantic—the
Navy built some large dirigibles in the
1930s, though they proved unwieldy. In
fact, several were wrecked in storms, with
tragic loss of life, before the next war even
started. The Navy switched to blimps.
Still, the fact remained: Only American
dirigibles and blimps could be floated with
fireproof helium. America jealously guarded
her helium monopoly, refusing to sell the
stuff to Nazi Germany, whose airships thus
remained dependent on highly flammable
hydrogen.
In 1929, imagining future wars in which
the skies would grow dark with clouds of
airships, Congress first appropriated mo -
ney to make the storage and marketing of
American helium a government operation.
By 1960, the Helium Reserve program had
taken on a life of its own, purchasing 4 billion
cubic feet per year—10 times the annual
rate of use—and paying private industry
to build huge refining and underground
storage facilities for the inert gas, in the
Texas panhandle. To do that, of course,
Washington had to guarantee a higherthan-market
price: $35 per 1,000 cubic feet,
up from the previous $15. The federal government
has been buying surplus production
to maintain a similarly artificial high
price ever since.
Today, the Bureau of Mines loses $100
million per year storing a billion dollars
worth of this substance—enough to meet
world demand for more than a century.
Over the years, the government’s helium
operation has run up an estimated debt of
$1.4 billion. The military has not commissioned
a new zeppelin or blimp for 50 years.
Arguably the most important zeppelin
ever built, the first Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127)
proved what could be done with a properly
run and maintained zeppelin. The Graf was
the ultimate in passenger air travel for the
day and could put any modern commercial
jet to shame when it comes to comfort and
style. The Graf was first walked out of her
hangar on September 18, 1928. She would
fly farther than any other zeppelin manufactured
before or since.
First flown in tests on March 4, 1936,
the Hindenburg made its first flight on
March 26 of the same year. She would
make several awe-inspiring flights before
her destruction at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
John Tiffany is the editor of THE
BARNES REVIEW and a longtime Revis -
ionist scholar.
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin is third from left as he poses with members of the
crew of his airship L-31 in this 1916 photograph. Hugo Eckener, director of the
German Aerial Navigation Company, destined to become the world’s most skilled
airship captain and an expert promoter of “zeps,” is the bearded crewman just to
the left of the count and partly obstructed by the count’s hat.
The last of a dying breed in difficult
times, the most forgotten of the zeppelins is
the Graf Zeppelin II (LZ-130), completed in
1938, near the outbreak of World War II.
Even though it included many modern construction
advances, the LZ-130 never
gained much publicity and was to be the
last of the gigantic passenger dirigibles of
its era. (Note that the Graf II was built
after the Hindenburg disaster.) ❖
FOOTNOTE:
1 The very word “dirigible” comes from the
French, meaning “steerable” or “directable.” We
understand it to mean a steerable lighter-than-air
craft.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
WEB SITES:
nguworld.com/vindex/
webleyweb.com/tle/le960506.html
ciderpresspottery.com/ZLA.html
cargolifter.com
speedvision.com/pub/articles/aviation/02inews/00
0628a.html
trivia.about.com/games/trivia/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://people.frankfurt.netsurf.de/Jen.
Schenkenberger/bild%5F00002%5Flz129.htm
geocities.com/gene_moutoux/Zep
pelin.htm
goldcoasters.com/tips/c0037fs009.
html
germanculture.about.com/culture/germanculture/library/weekly/aa062000b.htm
nara.gov/nara/legislative/house_guide/hgch23ci.
html
sciencenews.org/sn_arch/6_15_96/timeline.htm
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Ambers, Henry J., The Dirigible and the Future,
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Andrews, Solomon, The Aereon, or Flying-Ship,
J.F. Trow & Co., New York, 1866.
Archbold, Rick, Hindenburg: An Illustrated
History, Warner Books, New York, 1994.
Clark, Basil, The History of Airships, St.
Martin’s Press, New York, 1964.
Collier, Basil, The Airship: A History, G.P.
Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1974.
Duggins, Don, The Complete Book of Airships,
Tab Books, Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., 1980.
Gibbs-Smith, Charles H., The Invention of the
Aeroplane (1799-1909), Taplinger Publishing Co.,
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Glines, Carroll, (ed.), Lighter-Than-Air Flight, F.
Watts, New York, 1965.
Harper, Henry, The Evolution of Flying
Machines, Hutchins & Co., London, 1930.
Harris, Sherwood, The First to Fly: Aviation’s
Pioneer Days, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1970.
Hearne, R.P., Zeppelins and Super-Zeppelins,
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Hylander, Clarence J., Cruisers of the Air: The
Story of Lighter-Than-Air Craft, from the Days of
Roger Bacon to the Making of the ZRS-4, Macmillan
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Ryan, Craig, The Pre-Astronauts: Manned
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Tanaka, Shelley, The Disaster of the
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Ontario, 1993.
Ventry, Lord, and Kolésnik, Eugène M., Jane’s
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Wood, Peter, When Zeppelins Flew, Time-Life
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