San Antonio Express-News finds the greatest way to spend a weekend, figuring out what went wrong in the worst explosion in history:
Most historians and scientists have always subscribed to the static electricity theory, but no one ever had shown scientifically how it could have occurred on what was the Hindenburg’s 63rd flight. Until now.
Last fall, a British television production company came to San Antonio and enlisted scientists at the Southwest Research Institute to try to resolve the mystery once and for all.
“They wanted us to do a forensic analysis of the Hindenburg to determine if we could narrow down the cause of the incident,” said Matthew Blais, the institute’s director of fire and technology research.
…
“We tested the 1937 conclusions (about static electricity) using modern science and scale models. We proved that the flames were sucked into the belly of the ship through the vents,” [Hindenburg expert Dan Grossman] said.
“It would be hard for people to seriously debate or argue anymore.”
Director of FIRE AND TECHNOLOGY!