K-1 (airship)

The K-1 was an experimental blimp that the United States Navy designed in 1929 and assembled at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in late 1931. It was not the prototype of the later K-class blimps. Because Congress would not approve an airship, the Navy ordered a universal control car from the Naval Aircraft Factory and an envelope for experimental gases from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and gave the craft no serial number. The enclosed car hung from the top of the envelope and carried bunks and a galley, and the K-1 was the first Navy blimp with a taxi wheel. Its fuel was blau gas, a mixture with the same density as air, which tended to leak into the helium. It last flew in September 1940 and was scrapped in October 1941.