K-class blimp

The K-class blimp was the United States Navy's main patrol and anti-submarine airship of the Second World War, built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio. It was a non-rigid airship driven by two nine-cylinder Pratt and Whitney Wasp radial engines mounted on outriggers either side of the control car. The prototype K-2 first flew at Akron on 6 December 1938 and was delivered to the Navy that month, and 134 K-class blimps were built before and during the war. They flew convoy escort, patrol and mine-spotting missions in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean, and in 1944 two of them made the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid airships. The last operational K-ship retired in March 1959, and Goodyear followed it with the larger M-class design.