D-class blimp

The D-class blimp was a United States Navy patrol airship of the early 1920s, slightly larger than the C-type it followed and carrying many detail improvements. Its envelope matched the C-type apart from an extra six-foot panel, giving a length of 198 feet and a volume of 190,000 cubic feet. As before, envelope production was divided between Goodyear and Goodrich, and the Naval Aircraft Factory built the control cars. The engines moved to the rear to cut noise and ease talk between crew members, and the fuel tanks hung from the sides of the envelope. The first, D-1, caught fire on the day of its maiden flight inside the Goodyear hangar at Wingfoot Lake, four others passed to the Army, and the last, D-6, had a control car redesigned by Leroy Grumman. The last operational D-type, the D-3, was decommissioned by the Army in 1924.