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The End of an Era
USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) flying over southern Manhattan Island, New York City (USA), 1930. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The last two rigid airships in the US Navy’s arsenal were the Los Angeles ZR-3 and the Akron ZRS-4 (click here to read the early articles on the Shenandoah ZR-1 www.wp.me/p1MLkF-19V and the Macon ZRS-5 www.wp.me/p1MLkF-17G). There was a ZR-3 but it was crashed during construction in Britain the majority of the crew were killed, including 16 men in the United States Navy who were training to fly the airship back to New Jersey. ZMC-2 is listed as rigid airship, but it was not really, what we think of as a rigid airship. ZMC-2 was a blimp with a metal skin instead of a fabric skin. ZMC-2 was the only metal skin airship ever made.
The Los Angeles was the only German built rigid airship in the United States Navy. This airship was built in 1923-24 and was turned over to the United States as war reparations.
Once the Los Angeles was turned over to the United States it was converted from hydrogen to helium, this reduced the payload but increased safety. During its service life, it flew 4,398 hours for 172,400 nautical miles. The navy used it as a flying observatory, a training ship for airship crews, and experimental platform; this was because the terms of the agreement which gave the Los Angeles to the United States the airship was only allowed to be used as a commercial and experimental platform. The United States asked and received the permission of the Allied Control Commission to use the Los Angeles in fleet exercises in 1931 and 1932.
The Los Angeles has many notable first including the testing of the trapeze system the United States used to launch and recover airplanes from an airship. The most unique experiment occurred on 25 May 1925 when the crew of the Los Angeles had an on-air conversation with a radio announcer on WGY using a photo-phone. This technology used a beam of light to transmit sound.
The Los Angeles was decommissioned in 1932 because of the depression, re-commissioned after the Akron accident in 1933. Then in 1939, the Los Angeles was decommission and disassembled in its hangar. The end of a long and grand life.
The Akron was built in 1929 through 1931, and went through four accidents; the last resulted in the loss of the airship with a great loss of life. The Akron had a unique feature similar to its German sister ships, a weather station on a cable that could be lowered from the airship while in fog to look for clear air below. The weather information was transmitted via radio back to the Akron.
The first accident happened in February 1932 while the airship was being removed from its hangar. The tail section of the airship came loose from its moorings and struck the ground causing heavy damage.
Airship USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in a near-vertical position, after her tail rose out-of-control while she was moored at the high mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The second accident happened after the Akron finished its first trans-continental voyage. Attempting to moor with untrained ground crews took longer than expected in the hot sun. The Akron began to float upwards during the mooring and the mooring cable was cut to avoid a nose-stand. Most of the ground crew let go of their lines. One man held on until he was 15 feet in the air and broke an arm on landing. Two other men were carried up much further and eventually fell to their deaths. A third man tied himself to his line and was hoisted aboard the Akron an hour later.
The third accident saw the tail of the Akron entangled in a beam in its hangar as it was being attempted to be removed from the hangar.
The Akron spent quite a bit of time as a flying aircraft carrier as did its sister ship the Macon (see Macon article). Another experiment was a “spy basket.” The idea was for the Akron to stay in the clouds and lower an observation station below. The “spy basket” was tested with sand bags instead of crew, but unstable swinging from side to side. The idea was scrapped and never used. The Akron also conducted numerous fleet exercises.
The fourth accident of the Akron was the death of the Akron and the ultimate death of the US Navy rigid airship program. On 3 April 1933, the Akron went through a severe storm. At 12:30 am on the 4th the Akron was caught in a wind-shear. The airship began to rise and then was almost immediately caught in the downdraft of the backside of the wind-shear. The airship was taken to full speed ahead and ballast was dropped. The airship was nose up (12 to 25 degrees) trying to gain altitude when the tail section struck the ocean off the New Jersey coast. All of this with continuing violent wind gusts. The low fin of the tail section was ripped from the airship and it began breaking up over the ocean.
Three men were recovered, one died later. A total of 73 men died with the loss of the airship, including civilian VIP’s and Admiral Moffett (Moffett field is named after him). Admiral Moffett was the rigid airship program in the United States Navy.
President Roosevelt said of the disaster, “The loss of the Akron with its crew of gallant officers and men is a national disaster. I grieve with the nation and especially with the wives and families of the men who were lost. Ships can be replaced, but the nation can ill afford to lose such men as Rear Admiral William A. Moffett and his shipmates who died with him upholding to the end the finest traditions of the United States Navy.”
USS Akron (ZRS-4) in flight, 1931. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Without Admiral Moffett to sing the praises of airship and fight the battles to keep the service active, it was only a matter of time. It is a shame to see skies void of airships. They are majestic workhorses of the sky, with just a twinge of romance thrown in for good measure. I believe the airships fill an important space between expensive fixed-wing aircraft and slow moving, ocean-going ships. Less expensive than planes and faster than ships. Maybe one day we will see a return to their use to fill this void.
Related articles
- USS Shenandoah ZR-1, The First American Made Rigid Airship (joeccombs2nd.com)
- The Aluminum Airship of the Future Has Finally Flown (gizmodo.com)
- British Airships (imechearchive.wordpress.com)
- Playing with Zeppelin Balloons (invent.answers.com)
- First rigid airship since the Hindenburg cleared for outdoor flight trials (go.theregister.com)
- Aeros begins flight testing following FAA certification (gizmag.com)
- The Heyday of Rigid Airships (invent.answers.com)
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We Pre-empt Your Normally Scheduled Article ( The Ugly, The Beautiful, & The Barrier) …
This week was going to be the last in my rigid airship series. However, last week while on my private Facebook page (I guess I should say personal as nothing on FB is private) a friend of mine sent a “personal” message asking why “so-and-so” was one of my friends. Though most of my facebook friends are veterans, writers, or people I went to school with, they are as different from one another as night and day. And I value each and everyone of them. I started to send my friend an answer, not my first on this subject. The answer became statement of my view on the world. I have decided to share it with you. As always, I do not discuss religion, politics, or money (my grandfather always said it was in poor taste to discuss these things in front of company), but I do mention my own personal beliefs towards the end. If you agree with me … fine, if you don’t … fine. Our friendship is not dependent on our personal beliefs of the after life. I accept you as you are and only ask that you accept me as I am. I hope you find something useful below, but if nothing else you will understand who I am a little better.
The Ugly, the Beautiful & the Barrier
There are really only three types of people in the world; you are the ugly, the beautiful or the barrier. The barrier stands between the ugly and the beautiful, protecting the beautiful from the ugly. The beautiful spread hope by showing others that hope, beauty, joy and love reside within us all and that no person is an exception. The ugly destroys hope, exalts surface beauty over inner beauty, suppresses joy and spreads hate not love.
There are sub-types of beauty and barrier too. They are easy to spot if you know what to look for. The first two believe that one day the ugly will be defeated and then all will be beauty. Then one day they realize that ugly will not be totally defeated and they become embittered and disillusioned. They decide that the ugly could be defeated if we just forced people to do what they should do.
The Embittered barrier turns on the beauty at first and then on the barrier that does not support change by coercion. The Embittered beauty turns on the barrier at first and then on the beauty that does not support change by coercion. Both stop blaming the ugly for all the ugliness in the world and instead blame the barrier and the beauty.
Another sub-type of barrier and beauty are those who realize that ugly has always existed and always will, but they are content to help just one person on this one day. Today they will help just one, and that will be enough for today. The war will never end, but today will be victory for one person. Today a person who is in despair, cold, hungry, or sick; someone who can longer see the light will once again feel hope within their breast, love will caress their soul, joy will light their path and once again they will see the beauty that surrounds us all. These two realize you cannot force an outcome. They realize that when you try to force people to do something, they will do the opposite. Can you force someone to be happy or to love you? Of course not, but the embittered and disillusioned will not be deterred.
There are no sub-types of ugly, but ugly is very good at getting the disillusioned and embittered among the beautiful and the barrier to do their work for them. The ugly takes great joy from this.
The second sub-type of the barrier willing sacrifices themselves in the path of the ugly to protect the beauty, both literally and figuratively. It is written, “No greater love has a man than he lay down his life for another.” This sacrifice is not without its price and leaves both seen and unseen scars on those of the barrier. The pain of these scars are with those of the barrier always and rob them of the beauty, joy and love they once had. But not the hope, their hope is that their sacrifice will protect the beauty from the ugly. They mourn the loss of those who sacrificed themselves before, and this is the most painful scar of all. These are the people I respect, these are people I honor, these are the people who are my heroes.
The second type of the beauty are often undervalued and underrated by the rest of us. People see the joy and love that burst forth from them, as if from a wellspring, and think “it is easy for them to be happy they know nothing of pain.” But, the beauty are the most scarred of us all. They remember the pain, but they do not carry it like an albatross around their necks. They change the things they can change and accept the things they cannot. Fortunately, for us they have the wisdom to know the difference. They have not forgotten the pain, but they do not dwell in a past that cannot be changed. They focus on today; this focus is what allows them to spread beauty to us all, if we will only let them. We have to let them, for they will not attempt to force beauty on us. The beautiful know that by attempting to force beauty on others they will only spread ugly. Often these are the people we see as the weakest and most naive among us, but they are the strongest and wisest among us. Of all the types and sub-types they are the most rare.
I was raised in the Southern Baptist church and taught on a regular basis, “money is the root of all evil.” Money is not the root of all evil. Let me say that again, “money is not the root of all evil.” The lust for power is the root of all evil. The ugly use money to increase their own power for their own gratification. But the ugly do not need money to exert power over others. Have you ever seen the face of a man, woman, or child who is under the power of the ugly? The ugly constantly berates them, “You are worthless, you are so lucky to have me because no one else would ever love you!” The ugly constantly berate them with this because it is the only way their victims will believe the lie. This lie is the tool the ugly wields over the victim, the tool that controls the victim and robs them of everything that is precious in life. The victims fear the ugly. This fear is the goal of the ugly because it gives them their power over their victims. What the ugly do not know is that eventually fear exhausts the fearful to the point of apathy towards the tormentor.
Hate consumes all around it and eventually even consumes the hater as well. Love grows to encompass all with its light and joy, the more we embrace it the more light and joy grow and expand. The embittered and disillusioned barrier and beauty are not lost. They can return to where they once were. But, it has to be a decision each one makes on his or her own, this decision cannot be forced by others.
I do believe in a God. I do believe in life after death. I do not concern myself with the ugly, I leave those to God. I do believe the barrier and the beauty are doing the work God has set before them, they work on His account. I also believe:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
These are the gifts God has for the beauty and the barrier. They are His gifts to give; we cannot take these gifts or force them for ourselves or others.
Love will triumph over hate. Eventually, the war will end and ugly will lose. All of their power will not save them, they will lose and they do not even know it.
Each of us has our own belief system. A truth, if you will, that we have arrived at for ourselves. A truth that has been revealed to us by our experiences over the course of our lives. As our life continues we modify it, but it is our own truth. This is my truth. I do not know the journey you must travel, discard or accept (in whole or part) any part of this as it suites your needs, but this is my truth.
May you always know peace, joy and love.
P.S. Next week will be the last of my airship articles for the summer … I promise. Then the following week I’ll introduce you to a remarkable man, a man responsible for my view of history and the reason behind my style of historical research and writing.
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- “The only real elegance is in the mind; (swankaposh.wordpress.com)
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- Ugly People Become Filthy Rich Or Rise To The Top In Politics To Take Revenge On The Good Looking Ones (stirringtroubleinternationally.com)
- Beauty and Ugliness (abstractpotential.wordpress.com)
- Teaching My Girls About Beauty – What I wish I was told as a kid (babble.com)
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USS Shenandoah ZR-1, The First American Made Rigid Airship
USS Shenandoah (Photo credit: San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
The USS Shenandoah ZR-1 was an amazing airship, for many reasons. First, the Shenandoah was the first rigid airship built by the United States (being the first had many implications throughout the short life of the Shenandoah). ZR-1, built in 1922-23, was 680 feet long, almost 79 feet wide and 93 feet high, speed of 69 miles an hour and a range of 5,000 statute (land) miles. It was quite literally as large as or larger than many ocean-going ships of its day and) today. All four of the United State built airships were built at the Naval Air Station Lakehurst (this is where the Hindenburg disaster happened).
USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), United States Navy rigid airship (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The design (as all non-German built airships were) was based on the design of the German airships of World War 1, in this case, German bomber L-49 built in 1917. Though a fast climber, the Germans found the design lacking and made improvements in later designs. The Shenandoah was also the first rigid airship to use the safe helium, rather than the volatile hydrogen for its lift gas. Helium at the time was expensive, $55 per thousand cubic feet (more than $11,000 to fully inflate ZR-1), in 1923 dollars.
Due to this high cost helium was considered too expensive to vent to the atmosphere to keep the airship at neutral buoyancy. An ingenious design to capture condensation from the engine exhaust compensated for consumed fuel. Then, the airships vents were sealed making them inoperable, this would have disastrous consequences only one year later.
ZR-1’s bow following the January storm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Shenandoah flew for the first time on 4 September 1923, and was officially commissioned into the United States Navy on 10 October 1923. The airship passed builder’s trials with flying colors (no pun intended). To celebrate Navy Day, on 27 October the Shenandoah flew down the Shenandoah Valley and returned to Lakehurst that night by way of Washington DC and Baltimore, where search lights illuminated the giant airships for crowds in both cities.
Admiral Moffett had big plans for naval airships and had the full backing of President Coolidge. In January 1924, the upper tailfin of the Shenandoah was damaged when a gale ripped the airship from its mooring mast, also damaging the nose of the airship.
Though the year got off to a bad start, Shenandoah made many milestones. In July the oiler Patoka was converted to the navy’s first airship tender. On 8 August, the Shenandoah moored to the Patoka for the first time. Then the airship flew across the country to test mooring masts in California and Washington State, this was the first flight of a rigid airship across the North American continent.
Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00828, Lakehurst, Luftschiffe ZR-3 und ZR-1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The first six months of 1925, the Shenandoah went through maintenance and ground testing. In July and August, the airship completed fleet exercises with the Atlantic Fleet and tests with the Patoka (it was towed while moored to the Patoka).
On 2 September, the Shenandoah left Lakehurst for a good will tour of the Midwest. Commander Lansdowne, the commanding officer, wanted this flight postponed due to weather. However, the navy was determined for the trip to go on. On the morning of the third the Shenandoah was near Caldwell, Ohio when it was caught in a violent updraft in a storm. With the air vents sealed the crew could not vent the helium as it rapidly expanded with the rapidly climbing airship. Fourteen men died including Commander Lansdowne. Twenty-nine of the Shenandoah’s crew floated down in the three sections of the destroyed airship onto farmlands of southeastern Ohio. All three of the crash sites are visible though one is on private land and closed to the public. Colonel Billy Mitchell criticized Army and Navy leadership for putting publicity above safety and was court-martialed for insubordination, ending his career.
USS Shenandoah moored to the USS Patoka (AO-9). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many changes were made after the loss of the Shenandoah was would be after the loss of the USS Thresher 38 years later. The gondola was made a part of the airship keel instead of hanging from the airship on cables, the hulls were strengthened, and engine power was increased; the one improvement that may have saved the Shenandoah was the increased attention paid to weather forecasting.
There are plaques at the three crash sites near Ava, Ohio commemorating the Shenandoah. Bryan and Theresa Rayner share their private collection at the USS Shenandoah Museum, call ahead to see when the museum will be open (740-732-2624). Click on this web address to read about the Rayner’s museum, get directions, and learn more about the Shenandoah disaster.
Fabric from the airship USS Shenandoah, recovered from the crash site. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The front section of the wreck of the USS Shenandoah, from gelatin silver print by R.S. Clements. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The bow section of Shenandoah after the crash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The aft section of the wrecked U.S. Navy airship USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) near Cladwell, Ohio (USA), in September 1925. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10432
I have been planning this article for some time, and originally intended to include photographs from my trip to Ava, Ohio. Due to a rather interesting if unpredictable (to me at least) summer I have not been able to make the trip to Ava. However, when I do I will update this article with photographs and a report on the USS Shenandoah Museum. My next airship article will be the last in this summer’s airship series. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I find these elegant ladies of the sky to be truly marvelous, and find it odd that they are not utilized in our modern times when their fuel efficiency, cargo capacity, and speed are so needed. But, we will leave that part of my argument for the end of the last article in the series.
Take care and have a blessed weekend.
Related articles
- Airship Dreams, Part 2: Even Bigger! (darkroastedblend.com)
- The Shenandoah’s navigation and commerce… and forward thinking (cenantua.wordpress.com)
- Improved designs and technologies welcome a ‘new era of airships’ (nbcnews.com)
- Bring back the airships! (makezine.com)
- ‘Days of Unblinking Stare’: Army’s ‘Football-Field-Size’ Spy Blimp Makes First Fight in New Jersey (theblaze.com)
- 75 Years Since the Hindenburg Disaster: Amazing collection of photos: Building, first transatlantic flight, cause of explosion (dancingczars.wordpress.com)
- Airship Dreams, Part 1 (darkroastedblend.com)
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Annual Festival of Sail begins tomorrow!
One of the many things I liked about living in San Diego.
The annual Festival of Sail begins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. with the Tall Ship Parade, a highly popular event that brings tens of thousands of people to the San Diego Bay.
The parade starts at Point Loma with ships sailing nine (nautical) miles past Shelter Island, Harbor Island, downtown San Diego, to the Coronado Bridge, and then back to the Maritime Museum for berthing.
The best viewing is from your own boat out in the water, but if you have to stay on land, Shelter Island and Harbor Island offer the best viewing points.
Of course, everyone knows that, so they are usually crowded. If you’re driving, get there early.
Otherwise, take public transportation. The San Diego Trolley has several stops in the downtown area: Little Italy, Santa Fe Depot, Seaport Village, Convention Center, and Gaslamp Quarter.
There will be ten tall ships in this year’s parade, led by the…
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