HELIUM FOR GERMAN AIR LINER

Southland Times, Issue 23377, 8 December 1937, Page 5

HELIUM FOR GERMAN AIR LINER

AMERICAN ALLOTMENT WASHINGTON, December 6. The Munitions Control Board has granted the allotment of 17,900 cubic feet of helium to the German Zeppelin Company, presumably for the operation of the sister ship of the Hindenburg, ■which crashed on May 7, on the transAtlantic route. An Act of Congress authorizes the grant for all save military purposes.

After the Hindenburg disaster Dr Hugo Eckener, - designer of the air liner, said it was possible that lightning had struck the Hindenburg while she was manoeuvring when the highly inflammable hydrogen was being discharged. He added that the construction of airships would continue naturally and that no passenger would set foot in a hydrogen-fllled airship again, for which reason he would use helium regardless of the cost.

United States Army experts blamed static and the use of inflammable gases in combination with hydrogen blue gas. A heavy electrical storm coincided with the arrival of the ship. An inquiry why helium was not used was answered with the information that the limited quantity of the gas resulted in its prohibition for other than American Army uses. The Senate Military Affairs Committee hastily presented a favourable report on a Bill to liberalize the sale of helium gas and to permit its export under certain conditions. Officials explained that the United States had originally indicated its willingness to supply sufficient helium for the use of the Hindenburg, but the German designers rejected this because of its high cost and inferior lifting power contending that hydrogen was actually safe because of its greater ease of manoeuvring to avoid storms.