Why did the Hindenburg suddenly combust?

Answer 1

Back in the day, they used to fill zepplins with hydrogen gas because it was very light and floated quite well. Subsequently, the Hindenburg was full of hydrogen gas. I'm not exactly sure what caused the gas to ignite, but hydrogen is pretty volatile stuff and is explosive in addition to being flammable. I didn't catch the episode, but the Mythbusters did an experiment to determine whether or not it was the hydrogen inside the blimp or the paint on the outside that casued the problem. I might try looking into that.

Answer 2

there is a show called Mythbusters on Discovery channel. They just aired it.... The Hindenburg would not have exploded like it did and become a ball of fire, but due to the type of paint that the blimps covering was covered in, it became a ball of fire because the paint was very flamable.

Answer 3

Yup, hydrogen, not helium. the u . s . a . exchange into the only producer of helium on the time and that they does not sell it to the Germans, so the Germans used hydrogen. Following the Hindenburg disaster, the Germans permit their airship software fall to the wayside...

Answer 4

I believe that a lightning bolt was involved to spark the hydrogen fuel.

Answer 5

because it blew up