As promissed yesterday, this is the U.S.S. Akron, and her sistership, the U.S.S. Macon:
from:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/ac-usn22/z-types/zrs4.htmUSS Akron (ZRS-4), Airship 1931-1933
USS Akron, first of a class of two 6,500,000 cubic foot rigid airships, was built at Akron, Ohio. Commissioned in late October 1931, she spent virtually all of her short career on technical and operational development tasks, exploring the potential of the rigid airship as an Naval weapons system. During the remainder of 1931 and the early part of 1932, Akron made flights around the eastern United States and over the western Atlantic, including one trial of her capabilities as a scouting unit of the fleet. Damaged in a ground-handling accident at Lakehurst in late February 1932, she was again ready for flight two months later and began tests of her ability to operate an embarked unit of airplanes. These would greatly extend her reconnaissance reach and enhance her defenses against hostile air attack.
During May and June 1932, Akron was based on the West Coast, performing a successful search mission over the Pacific as part of a fleet exercise. However, a fatal accident early in this deployment, in which two Sailors lost their lives, provided further proof that handling large airships at their ground bases was an inherently risky proposition. Another accident, while leaving the hangar at Lakehurst in August, reinforced this conclusion.
Akron flew extensively during last half of 1932, further refining her airplane support and search capabilities. In January and March 1933 she twice went south, visiting Florida, Cuba and Panama to explore the base sites in the U.S. fleet's southern operating zone. While beginning a trip to the New England area, Akron encountered a violent storm over the New Jersey coast and, shortly after midnight on 4 April 1933, crashed tail-first into the sea. Only three of the seventy-six men on board survived this tragic accident. During the search for other possible survivors, the Navy non-rigid airship J-3 also crashed, killing two more men.
Soon after Akron's loss, Navy divers examined her wreckage, which was located about a hundred feet below the ocean surface east of Atlantic City, N.J. More recently, in June 2002, the research submarine NR-1 revisited the airship's crash site, where much of her collapsed framework remains visible on the Continental Shelf, nearly seventy years after the great dirigible went down.
and the Macon:
USS Macon (ZRS-5), Airship 1933-1935
USS Macon, sister of the 6,500,000 cubic foot rigid airship Akron (ZRS-4), was built at Akron, Ohio. She first flew in April 1933, only a few weeks after Akron's tragic loss. Following a series of test flights, one of which took her from Ohio to Wisconsin and back, she was commissioned in June. Macon was based at Lakehurst, New Jersey, during mid-1933 and made several development and training flights during this time. In October she flew by way of her name city of Macon, Georgia, and Texas to Moffett Field, California, where a new airship hangar awaited her.
During the rest of 1933 Macon and her embarked airplanes began what would be an extensive program of participation in exercises off the Pacific Coast, testing her abilities for fleet scouting and other missions. In April 1934 she flew east, again via Texas, to Opa-locka, Florida. Weather damage received in this trip was repaired in time for her to participate in Fleet Problem XV in the Caribbean during May, after which she returned to Moffett Field. Macon made a long-distance flight over the Pacific Ocean in mid-July to intercept the cruiser Houston (CA-30), which was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Panama to Hawaii. During this mission her F9C "Sparrowhawk" aircraft were operated with their wheeled landing gear removed, a performance-enhancing practice that was thereafter normal when these small fighting planes were embarked on the airship.
Further fleet exercises followed over the remaining months of 1934 and the first part of 1935. These demonstrated Macon's ability, in association with her airplanes, to conduct strategic searching over the vast distances to be expected in a Pacific war. However, they also showed her vulnerability, especially in the presence of opposing airplanes, when she was used for tactical scouting close to the fleet. During the early evening of 12 February 1935, while returning to Moffett Field from an operation over the ocean, USS Macon encountered a storm off Point Sur, California. A violent gust tore off her upper fin, causing damage that soon brought her down into the sea. Though all but two of her crew were rescued, the dirigible sank in deep water, effectively ending the Navy's controversial, and trouble-plagued, program of rigid airship operations.
A few pics:
The Macon being secorted by two of the Sparrowhawk fighters that they carried.
A fuzzy, but instructive, photo of fight opperations taking place. The forward plane is trying to snag the landing hook.
This is an on-board look at a Sparrowhawk making a hookup.
And last, but not least, the little Sparrowhawk.
Topic: USS Akron (ZRS-4), the flying aircraft carrier! (Read 1233 times)