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Very interesting 1 p. typewritten letter (written in German) relating to the May 7 1937 zeppelin HINDENBURG disaster, on Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, Friedrichshafen, Germany printed stationery, from Ludwig Durr, the firm's Chief Works Engineer of Construction, to David W. H. Pickard, a collector of aviation memorabilia, Reedly, England, in answer to a letter he had sent to Dr. Hugo Eckener, Managing Director of the Zeppelin Company, explaining that a preliminary inquiry found that no basis was discovered to prove the destruction of the airship by natural causes, and that they were looking into the possibility of a "violent incident in the eye of the craft." Durr, adds that further investigation necessarily would be difficult. Signed by Durr (in pencil). The huge 803-foot long German zeppelin HINDENBURG mysteriously exploded in a ball of fire and burned, when landing at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6 1937 just over a month before this letter was written. The reason for the disaster has never been fully determined, although talk of sabotage, as alluded to in the letter we are selling, had later been dismissed. The leading theory, however, is that a stray electrostatic spark that ignited a hydrogen leak was the cause. Some 35 people lost their lives in the tragedy. *** We have been in the paper ephemera business since 1953 and are members of the Manuscript Society and Ephemera Societies of the U.S. and U.K., as well as numerous other collector organizations.

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