The USS Akron is a rigid airship built for the United States Navy by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, entering service in 1931 as one of the largest flying objects built up to that time and designed specifically as a flying aircraft carrier, able to launch and recover small fighter biplanes from a trapeze mechanism inside its hull while airborne. Built with a helium-filled rigid structure intended for long-range naval scouting far beyond the range of surface ships, the Akron represented the United States Navy's most ambitious rigid airship program, alongside its later sister ship USS Macon. The Akron crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast during a storm in 1933, killing seventy-three of the seventy-six people aboard, one of the worst airship disasters in history by loss of life and a major setback to the Navy's rigid airship program.
Facts
SignificanceDesigned as an airborne aircraft carrier able to launch and recover airplanes in flight 2 Manufacturer or BuilderGoodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, Akron, Ohio 2 Sources
1. USS Akron, Wikipedia
Lead section, first paragraph, first sentenceQuote, Lead section, first paragraph, first sentence
which operated between September 1931 and April 1933.
2. U.S. Navy Airships U.S.S. Akron (ZRS-4) and U.S.S. Macon (ZRS-5), Airships.net
Introductory text on the design purpose of Akron and Macon
Akron and Macon were designed as airborne aircraft carriers, which could launch and recover heavier-than-air planes for use in both reconnaissance and self-defense.
Introductory text on construction of Akron
Construction of U.S.S. Akron began in November, 1929 at the newly completed Goodyear-Zeppelin Airdock in Akron, Ohio.
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