The "U.S.S. Akron"

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U.S.S. Akron at Lakehurst, N.J. The vertical window-like stripes on the hull are the water-recovery system for ballast and engine coolant. The white stripe is one of her three keels. The ship also had internal decks

American experimentation with airships continued on into the 1930s. The U.S. Navy constructed two helium-filled flying aircraft carriers, the U.S.S. Akron and the U.S.S. Macon. They were the biggest airships ever constructed to that time, and still hold the record as the largest helium airships ever put into regular service.

Akron was not a lucky name. An earlier, privately owned Akron had been lost in 1912, but this didn't seem to impress the Navy, which named the ship after its place of construction. The Akron of 1931 was huge. She held 7.4 million cubic feet of helium, was 785 feet long (only 18 feet shorter than the Hindenburg), and was 133 feet in circumference. She carried a crew of 60 men.

Virtually all of her crew accommodations and operating systems were built into the hull. Only the bridge gondola hung beneath the hull. She also had a full hangar deck capable of handling five small fighters or scout planes. The planes were recovered by a hook and were lifted into the hull after recovery.

  

Although she successfully participated in Fleet Exercises and was praised by Admiral William E. Moffett, the head of the Navy's airship program, flight testing indicated that her duralumin skeleton was subject to metal fatigue. Although some modifications were made while she was in service, she was not grounded for a major refit. Instead, she flew cross-country and toured the Pacific Coast states. 

During a stop, a freak accident occurred when inexperienced ground crew did not let go of their mooring lines as the ship rose and were carried aloft. Several fell to their deaths.

On April 3, 1933, Admiral Moffett was aboard "to see what she could do." This may have made the skipper, Commander Frank C. McCord heedless, wishing to impress his boss. In any event, when Akron hit violent weather off the New Jersey coast, McCord ordered ballast dropped and full speed ahead into the heart of the storm.

One of the Akron's tiny Sparrowhawk fighters. To launch the plane it was lowered through the hatch (bottom, open) and slingshot off the mechanism. Recovery was made by the hook-and-trapeze structure on the top wing

The big ship was wracked, just as the Shenandoah had been, thrown all over the sky. The unreinforced frames previously marked as at-risk began to collapse.

Finally, Akron was shoved tail first into the ocean by the storm, and the stress broke her up. 73 men perished. Only three survived. Among the dead was Admiral Moffett, the airship program's greatest advocate. Amazingly, it was not the crash that killed the men of the Akron --- it was drowning. The U.S.S. Akron, a Navy ship, had no life jackets.