FRANCIS W. Reichelderfer was Chief of the US? Weather Bureau for a quarter of a century, from 1938 to 1963. In the mid 1930s, however, he was a weather forecaster stationed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the American terminus of the trans Atlantic airships. The German Hindenburg was the largest of them all, and now and then Reichelderfer was allowed to hitch a ride.
"It was delightful. So quiet," he recalled years, later in an interview given shortly before his death. "On the Hindenburg there was a separate dining room, a music room with a grand piano and a smoking room. We all had small staterooms, although, of course, the walls were of fabric, not of metal or of wood."
Reichelderfer goes on to describe a memorable trip in 1936 from Rio de Janeiro to Frankfurt when, the Hindenburg experienced headwinds stronger than expected: "I could sense an anxiety among the German crew that they might have to make an emergency landing because of lack of fuel. They normally flew across the Bay of Biscay and up the English Channel, but a shorter route was through the Straits of Gibraltar and up the Rhone valley.
"As we passed Gibraltar, we heard the thud of gunfire from the Spanish fort at Ceuta on the African side. There was some fear that it might have been aimed at its but it was in fact the first shot to be fired in the Spanish Civil War, a ranging shot aimed at a submarine, and followed by a salvo of five more shots. Once over the Mediterranean we had a tail wind and flew up the Rhone without a problem."
A year later the Hindenburg was not as lucky, and Reichelderfer had a personal interest in the tragedy he witnessed: "On May 6th, 1937, I packed my bags to return with the zeppelin to Frankfurt. The captain wanted to make a quick turn around without refuelling" at Lakehurst in an attempt to establish a world record, but the Hindenburg was not allowed to land immediately because, of turbulent thundery conditions.
"At that altitude the electrical charge would probably be quite different to that on the ground. When the zeppelin eventually came in to land, she released her 200ft `drag ropes', which got wet, and it seems to me very likely that as soon as one of these touched the ground the potential difference caused a spark to the metal framework which ignited a pocket of hydrogen and set fire to the Hindenburg."
Thirty five people died in that conflagration 59 years ago, and it effectively ended the era of the giant airship.