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Goodyear
Aircraft Corp. |

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. produced airships
for the U.S. Navy during World War I and formed the
Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp to build rigid airships during the 1920s
and 1930s.
In 1939 Goodyear Aircraft was established to manufacture
heavier-than-air craft. Goodyear produced over 4,000 Vought F4U
Corsairs during World War II under the designation FG-1.
Goodyear Aircraft was renamed Goodyear Aerospace in 1959 to focus
on radar technology. It was acquired by Loral in 1987, then by
Lockheed Martin
in 1996.

This was the scene in November
1929, as thousands of Akronites and visitors from all over met
at Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp.'s new airdock to witness the ring
laying ceremony that marked the start of construction of the
Akron. A pamphlet said the airdock "could house the aircraft
carriers Saratoga and Lexington together with the Washington
Monument and the Statue of Liberty."
This hangar was completed
within seven months in 1929, the largest building in the world
having no interior ground supports. it is 1175 feet long, 325
feet wide, and 211 feet high.

Goodyear Plant Akron Ohio

Completed in the fall of 1911,
the first airship to bear our city's name was made of Goodyear's
rubberized fabric and financed by F.A. and C.W. Seiberling. It
was 258 feet long and 47 feet in diameter. On July 2, 1912 the
ship, piloted by Melvin Vaniman, left Atlantic City for Europe
in what Vaniman hoped would be the world's first trans-Atlantic
flight. Twenty-three minutes after takeoff, the "Akron" exploded
and fell into the ocean, killing its crew of five.

Goodyear's first helium
airship, Pilgrim, settles on O'Neil's roof.

The Macon, which crashed into
the ocean near San Francisco less than two years after its
maiden flight in 1933.
Palmer, Alfred T., photographer.1941 Dec.
Electronics technician,
Goodyear Aircraft Corp., Akron, Ohio
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Palmer, Alfred T., photographer.1941 Dec.
Formerly an aircraft
dock, this huge building -- thought to be the largest in
the world with no interior supports -- is now the scene
of many busy shops turning out aircraft sub-assembly
parts, Goodyear Aircraft Corp., Akron, Ohio
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