J-class blimp

The J-class were non-rigid airships designed in the early 1920s by the United States Navy Bureau of Aeronautics together with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, as an improvement on the D-type. They had a smaller envelope, more powerful engines, a boat-style control car able to land on water and a single ballonet. J-1 first flew on 31 August 1922 and proved difficult to handle, so J-2 was cancelled. J-3 and J-4 were built from Army TC-type envelopes and cars modified for the Navy and served mainly at Lakehurst, training crews for the rigid airships. J-3 was lost on 4 April 1933 in a forced landing while searching for survivors of the airship Akron, with two of its seven crew killed. J-4 was struck from the Navy register in March 1940.