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Discovery Channel re-creates Hindenburg disaster - December 16

By April MacIntyre Dec 7, 2012, 19:22 GMT

The end of the Hindenburg marked the end of the Golden Age of airship travel. And for the first time ever, Curiosity sheds new light on the mystery behind what really happened on board that night.

The infamous Hindenberg: Few disasters have left such an impression on the world or had such an impact on a single industry.

The end of the Hindenburg marked the end of the Golden Age of airship travel. And for the first time ever, Curiosity sheds new light on the mystery behind what really happened on board that night. 

The producers build three accurate replicas of the Hindenburg and recreate the disaster to find out what really happened.  Due to the scale and volume of the Hindenburg – along with the intricacies of its design – no one has been able to provide a satisfactory explanation of how or why the disaster occurred, until now.

From Discovery:

“What Destroyed The Hindenburg?” premieres Sunday, Dec. 16 at 9 PM E/P on Discovery Channel’s CURIOSITY series

Dozens of theories exist about how the Hindenburg went down during the night of May 6, 1937. Yet three quarters of a century later, there is still no clear answer.  Many theories emerged immediately following the crash.  Was it a bullet?  A static electric charge?  A fundamental flaw in its design?  Or could it have been an act of sabotage with a bomb? 

“What Destroyed The Hindenburg?,” airing Sunday, Dec. 16 at 9 PM E/P on Discovery Channel’s CURIOSITY series, conducts experiments never attempted before by building three replicas of the airship and putting the leading theories to the test.  

Due to the scale and volume of the Hindenburg – along with the intricacies of its design – no one has been able to provide a satisfactory explanation of how or why the disaster occurred, until now.

In the most ambitious testing program ever undertaken, CURIOSITY attempts to crack the mystery by recreating the disaster.  “We’re examining and testing every hypothesis in the lab, selecting those that are scientifically possible and taking them outside to test on our huge scale models,” said Steve Wolf, one of the lead CURIOSITY investigators.  "Testing on this scale has never been attempted."