In 1937, the Hindenburg airship exploded while docking at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. The incident resulted in 35 fatalities. This weekend, Discovery will be trying to find out what happened.
They built three replica Hindenburgs and crashed them all. Now, the lead scientist that built the models, Steve Wolf, is here to answer your questions. Fire away!
Earlier this year, Discovery crashed a Boeing 727 on purpose in order to see what would happen to the passengers on board.
The Hindenburg recreation is a little different, since people aren't getting around in large dirigibles anymore, as far as we know. Instead, this test is to find out what exactly happened in the disaster from 75 years ago.
The fact of the matter is that even though people theorize about what exactly happened in the Hindenburg disaster, nobody knows exactly what the cause was. Part of that was because crashing a gigantic dirigible was intricate, expensive, and difficult.
But Discovery's program Curiosity decided to take it on. They enlisted Steve Wolf as the lead investigator and also had him create the replicas. He is here for the next hour, feel free to ask him anything you want about the crash, his findings, and how he went about building awesome replica zeppelins.
UPDATE: Steve had to run, but thanks for all of the questions! Be sure to watch Curiosity this Sunday on Discovery.
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