The Hindenburg Disaster

In 1923, the very first US-built rigid airship was launched. The USS Shenandoah had in it the overwhelming majority of all the world's helium. Almost every single scrap of helium that had ever been collected by humans ever, throughout all of history, was all inside the Shenandoah. Back then, we'll fill up party balloons with helium and think nothing of it, but back then, a hundred years ago, almost all the helium that we had access to as a species was inside one single airship. Airships were a big part of aviation between the world wars. They were seen by many as the future of aviation. When New York's Empire State Building was completed