Goodyear RS-1

The Goodyear RS-1 was the first semi-rigid airship built in the United States, a single experimental craft designed by Goodyear aeronautical engineer Herman Theodore Kraft for the United States Army Air Service in the 1920s. The Army awarded the construction contract to the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, and Kraft consulted the Italian airship designer Umberto Nobile. Assembled at Scott Field, Illinois, it was 282 feet long with a gas volume of 720,000 cubic feet and first flew on 8 January 1926 with a crew of eight, powered at first by four Liberty engines. The Army wanted to study the semi-rigid type. The RS-1 was grounded in November 1928 when its envelope deteriorated, never flew again, and was dismantled and sold for scrap in 1930.