Rigid Airship - United States

United States

The United States rigid airship program was mostly based at Lakehurst Naval Air station, New Jersey. USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) was one of the first of these rigid airships, serving from 1923 to 1925, when it was torn about in severe weather killing 14 of the crew. ZR-2 was a British airship intended to join the naval fleet, but it crashed on a trial flight 1921 before it could be delivered to the States. Forty-four of those on board died. USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) was a German airship, sold to the United States in 1924. The ship was grounded in 1931, due to the Depression, but was not dismantled for over 5 years. The sister ships Akron and Macon both crashed after technical failure. The Akron was flown into the sea in bad weather and broke up. Over seventy were killed, including one of the US Navy's proponents of airships - Rear Admiral Moffett. Macon also ended up in the sea when it flew into heavy weather with unrepaired damage from an earlier incident, but the introduction of life-jackets following the loss of the Akron meant only two lives were lost.

These crashes ended the rigid airship program.

Read more about this topic:  Rigid Airship

Famous quotes related to united states:

    The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.
    C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)

    It is a curious thing to be a woman in the Caribbean after you have been a woman in these United States.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)

    Yesterday, December 7, 1941Ma date that will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    Some of the offers that have come to me would never have come if I had not been President. That means these people are trying to hire not Calvin Coolidge, but a former President of the United States. I can’t make that kind of use of the office.... I can’t do anything that might take away from the Presidency any of its dignity, or any of the faith people have in it.
    Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)