Left: A great shot of one of the great ships retrieving
what may be a sparrowhawk fighter or an older plane used for testing
the launch and recovery system on the big ships. You can just barely
make out the "U.S. NAVY" painted on the ship's side and the U.S
insignia can be seen to good advantage forward of the control
car.
Right: The squadron insignia for the Macon pilots.
Launched in September of 1931, the Akron was a technical marvel
and more importantly, it was a truly American ship. Unlike the LZ 127
Los Angeles, which was built in Germany and then sold to the U.S.,
this was an American endeavor and was viewed with much pride by those
who had built and designed her.The Akron had many design differences
from her German built cousins. To begin with, she had less structural
bracing than most German ships. The design team for the Akron viewed
the German ships as too heavy and unnecessarily reinforced. One of
the major differences that is immediately obvious is its internally
mounted engines. Because the Akron was filled with nonflammable
helium, it was safe to put the power plants internally which made
servicing them easier and had the added bonus of making the ship more
streamlined and thus, faster. Its eight props were built on
outriggers on either side of the ship. Something unusual to the
helium filled ships of the U.S. were the water vapor collectors
located along her sides. You can see them in the pictures below as
vertical lines starting just above the propeller outriggers (four per
side). The reason for these collectors was to replace the weight lost
as the gasoline was burned by the engines. In a hydrogen filled ship,
some hydrogen would simply be vented through the valves in the top of
the ship. This would decrease lift and the ship could then maintain
altitude. The problem with the helium filled ships was that helium
was so expensive that venting it away was the last thing you wanted
to do. The only answer was to some how add weight to the ship as it
flew and so the water condensers were added and proved fairly
functional.
On April 3, 1933 the Akron, under command of Commander Frank McCord
was off the cost of New Jersey, fighting its was through a thunder
storm. Because of the winds, heavy cloud cover and ground fog the
navigator was unable to determine their drift rate and could
therefore not approximate how far off their course they really were.
The weather reports from the wireless radio told of low pressure over
Washington D.C. and this was mistakenly assumed to be the center of
the storm. In reality, the storm that the ill-fated ship was flying
through was actually an entire storm front and one of the worst that
the New Jersey coast had seen in years. The captain decided to turn
back to shore but apon arrival of the coast no break in the storm
could be seen. The order was given to head back out to sea and simply
ride out the weather. After several hours the Akron found some calm
air. Even though the storm could be seen flashing all around, it
looked as though everything was going to turn out all right. This was
no doubt a relief to the ship's captain. On board were two very
important men, Rear Admiral William Moffett, chief of the Navy Bureau
of Aeronautics, and Commander Frederick Berry, commander of the
Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and he was hoping to impress them with
his ability to command an airship. At a quarter past midnight the
Akron was rocked by a horrific blow. The calm that the unfortunate
air ship had felt was in fact The eye of the storm system. As it
emerged from the other side of the eye, fierce winds caused the
massive airship to buck wildly. Suddenly the ship hit an enormous
downdraft and was sucked down almost a thousand feet. Only by
dropping most of the water ballast and full power to the engines
could the decent be stopped. The Akron was able to gain altitude
briefly but was pushed down again and again until finally the force
of the storm started to rip the ship apart. With loss of control of
the fins the Akron smashed into the freezing water of the Atlantic.
Because the Akron carried no live vests and there hadn't been enough
time to lower her one life raft, seventy two of her seventy six man
crew drowned, including Rear Admiral Moffett and Commander Berry. The
tragic end of the Akron shocked the world and the U.S. NAVY. In this
one crash, the airship had lost much of its support in the military
and civilian world.
The death of the Macon on February 12 ,1935 would be once again due
to high winds but not only. This time structural integrity would be
its failing as well. After a day of military simulations with other
navy sea ships, the Macon had run into a viscous wind storm. As the
captain of the ship tried to control his ship in the thrashing winds,
a solid blow hit the upper fin of the ship and ripped it from its
mounts. To save weight, the Macon's fins had been attached to only
two main rings instead of three as had been done in the past. This
savings in weight cost the ship her life. As helium poured out of her
torn rear cells, the Macon dropped all water ballast she could in an
attempt to maintain altitude. The Ship immediately rocketed skyward
out of control and soon had exceeded her pressure height. Helium
screamed out of her emergency valves in an automated attempt to keep
them from exploding form the change in pressure. Soon the ship, with
much of its helium gone, spiraled into the ocean below. Luckily, the
navy had learned from the disaster of the Akron , and the Macon
carried a full compliment of life vests and inflatable rafts. Because
of this, all but two of the eighty-three man crew survived. The trust
of the American public in rigid airships however, did not.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|