Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "What Happened to the Largest Animal to Ever Fly?" video.

  1. BTW, Thoughty -- the villain of the Hindenburg disaster was its SKIN. Thin aluminum burns like magnesium sparklers -- and the dirigible was painted with just such aluminum. When hydrogen burns, it does so WITHOUT a WHITE flame. Yet, what do you see in the footage? Yup. It's brilliantly white. The closest video you can get to hydrogen burning is the NASA Space Shuttle -- but there it's overwhelmed by the solid rocket boosters. To get a clean look, check out the old Titan boosters used by NASA in the days of Gemini. You'll note that you can barely see hydrogen burning. (It starts out attached to nitrogen and some carbon.) The reaction also involves nitrogen -- and if it's involved in a major way -- the exhaust will trend RED. Both carbon and aluminum produce WHITE light of tremendous intensity -- the best example being the Saturn V's F1 engines. The latter are banned in Formula 1 racing -- in spite of their names.
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