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Going down like a lead balloon?

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Here's a dilemma for you, or maybe it isn't. I'm currently making this freeware aircraft for FSX, which I'm sure you will recognise as LZ-129, aka the Hindenburg:

 

2012-7-13_12-58-15-976.jpg

 

The problem is, rather obviously since it was about fifty feet wide on the real thing, the massive Swastika flag on the tailfins. Personally, not being a fan of revisionist versions of history, I'm of the opinion that if it was there on the real thing, then it ought to be there on a model which is supposedly representing the real thing. However...

 

Whilst I'm certainly no ######, I see such a model as nothing more than a representation of what the real thing looked like, and thus its realistic appearance is acceptable to me, but I realise some people might differ in that view. My interest in modeling the Hindenburg is because it was and still is, the largest aircraft ever made and flown, and a fascinating thing for sure. But the fact remains that the real thing was something of a political football, it being partially funded by the ###### government - to the tune of 11 million marks.

 

Whether we like it or not, the big Zeppelin was a showcase for the ##### on occasion, even flying over the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of the Berlin Summer Games in 1936. But that did often backfire, notably when the legendary US athlete James Cleveland 'Jesse' Owens, thrashed everyone at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - winning the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100 relay Gold medals. Owen's stunning athleticism, and the fact that he was a negro, infuriated Adolf enough to make him storm out of the games like a petulant child, and fortunately it has upstaged the appearance of the Hindenburg over the stadium as far as the history books are concerned, where the ##### wanted the games to be a display of Aryan supremacy, and although the Germans did win more medals than any other country at the 1936 Olympics, everyone instead remembers Owens and not those other wins, nor the appearance of the Hindenburg overhead.

 

On the other side of the coin, there is Hugo Eckener. Eckener was one of the chief men at the Zeppelin company and the driving force of many Zeppelin projects including the Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin (which he also captained on many occasions), and he was greatly admired the world over, appearing on the cover of Time Magazine and being given a ticker-tape parade in New York City amongst other accolades. Eckener was staunchly against the ##### and often outspoken about them too, in spite of the difficulties that stance put him in, especially when the ##### wanted to use the Hindenburg to promote themselves politically, even though doing so was undoubtedly a case of the Zeppelin company paying the piper, because of the way it had been funded.

 

But it was Eckener who named the ship Hindenburg - without seeking approval from the ##### - and in doing so apparently infuriating both Joseph Goebbels and Adolf a really bad dude (there's a case in point, look what the forum replaces the guy's surname with), who had wanted to name the ship after the Fuhrer. Eckener also described the Hindenburg flights the ##### used to promote themselves as 'scheissfahrts' (sh*t flights). This lesser known aspect of the Hindenburg's history shows that the ##### didn't get their own way all the time where the Hindenburg was concerned when Eckener was around (or Jesse Owens for that matter), so in as much as it was a symbol of the #####, in having the Swastika on the tail, to me, it also recalls the men who were prepared to make a stand against them long before WW2 commenced.

 

Few people can fail to have been moved by Herbert Morrison's emotionally-charged WSL Radio commentary at the fiery demise of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst NJ in 1937, when approximately one third of the people on board were killed as it burst into flames whilst landing. And perhaps no less emotional, are the arguments for not displaying the Swastika on the tail of a model of it.

 

But what do you think? Do I model it with a Swastika, without a Swastika, or do I sit on the fence and make two versions, so people could choose for themselves? Should Avsim's file library even host something with a Swastika on it? It does so at the moment, and I'm not offended by that, since I view it with merely an historical eye. But I'd be interested to hear opinions on the matter.

 

Al


Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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WWII is my favorite history subject; I'm certainly glad that the ######'s were defeated...............and put the swastika on the tail. It is part of real life history.

 

L.Adamson

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I'd make 2 versions, since the one with the swastika will be an illegal download for our german flight-simmer friends, and possibly the french ones too.

 

But living in a place where swastikas themselves aren't illegal to be on historical items, it really irritates me to see period aircraft and models without them where they would have been.

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Personally, I don't see an issue. It's a historical representation for a flight simulator. Collectively, we all like and fly different aircraft - American, German, Russian, Japanese etc. We don't fly dead ideologies. So Relax - go for historical accuracy. It's a mature adult bunch here.

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Looks very nice Al.

 

Like others have said,you could provide both options,with/without.

 

Cheers!

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You should model the swastika. It's historically correct! There are plenty of war books and documentaries that display it. If someone sees it as a problem then they are burying their head in the sand as to historical facts. If they really object then they won't download it. It bears nothing on your integrity at all!

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Don't worry about being P.C. (Politically Correct).

 

Your aircraft is based on HISTORICAL FACT. Don't apologize for it. People don't get offended by seeing Japanese Zeros and Kates with the red sun, do they? However, you might want to have two versions like others suggested simply because the German people themselves have outlawed such depictions and feelings of animosity against such things run much higher and deeper in Europe than in the Western Hemisphere, for obvious reasons...

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You could model it with the swastika markings and the markings it used for its first 6 test flights.Just omit the swastikas and the name. The second set would only have the D- LZ129 and the Olympic rings.

 

 

Note the date and I don't see the swastikas on the tail: MAGE SOURCE PAGE: http://www.pilotundl.../typenlz129.htm

 

After looking at that picture again, I think i see the name so the swastikas may have been photoshopped and the pic doesn,t match the date. Any way, to me it would still be plausible to use both presentations as it did fly without the name Hindenburg

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I'm for historical accuracy.


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IL-2 Sturmovik went down the road of swastika denial but many of us used the 'hakenkreuz' add-on? I know I did.

Using the swastika because it was actually ON the airship is the only way to go. To deny its use is the first step in denying the #####, then the holocaust, then the war. When that happens, we can start over from scratch because no-one will be any the wiser.

Not that anyone reads history any more. :rolleyes:


Eva Vlaardingerbroek, an inspiratiom.

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You could just paint a nice bunch of ripe yellow bananas instead!

 

Another dillema would be if it had the robinsons golliwog logo.

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I would do two versions. History should be kept but at the same time since this is also for entertainment, there are plenty of people who would not enjoy flying a blimp around with the ###### symbol on it which is understandable. If you would like those folks to be able to enjoy your blimp, then it would be nice to have a skin without.

 

But it really comes down to who you're trying to satisfy as with any project.

 

P.S., It looks very nice!

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Thanks for the commentary and history lesson. Learned some facts I didn't know.

 

What was the insignia when it crashed at Lakehurst?

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I'd make 2 versions, since the one with the swastika will be an illegal download for our german flight-simmer friends, and possibly the french ones too.

 

 

That's an interesting thought and of course quite true (for Germans at least, not sure about the French).

 

I'm all for historical accuracy though.

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