Construction and Commissioning
USS Macon was built at the Goodyear Airdock in Akron, Ohio by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. Because this was by far the biggest airship ever to be built in America, a team of experienced German airship engineers—led by Chief Designer Karl Arnstein—instructed and supported design and construction of both U.S. Navy airships Akron and Macon.
The airship was named after the city of Macon, Georgia, which was the largest city in the Congressional district of Representative Carl Vinson, then the chairman of the House of Representative's Committee on Naval Affairs.
Macon was christened on March 11, 1933 by Jeanette Whitton Moffett, wife of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics. The airship first flew one month later, shortly after the tragic loss of the Akron. Macon was commissioned on June 23, 1933 with Commander Alger H. Dresel in command.
Macon had a structured duraluminum hull with three interior keels. The airship was kept aloft by 12 helium-filled gas cells made from gelatin-latex fabric. Inside the hull, the ship had eight German-made Maybach, 12-cylinder, 560 hp (418 kW) gasoline-powered engines that drove outside propellers. The propellers could be rotated down or backwards, providing an early form of thrust vectoring, to control the ship during takeoff and landings. Designed to carry five F9C Sparrowhawk biplanes, the Macon first docked an aircraft on July 6, 1933 during trial flights out of Lakehurst, New Jersey. The planes were stored in bays inside the hull and were launched and retrieved using a trapeze.
Read more about this topic: USS Macon (ZRS-5)
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