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USS
Akron
Airship ZRS-4
1931-1933
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Construction
Began: November 7, 1929 by Goodyear Zeppelin
Christening:
August 8, 1931 by Mrs. Herbert Hoover
Maiden Flight:
September 23, 1931 3:37pm
Commissioned:
October 1931
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The airship
Akron
helped make
our city internationally famous from 1931 to 1933. Built for the
U.S. Navy by Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. at its huge Akron Ohio airdock,
the ship was 785 ft. long, had a maximum speed of 84 mph and a
range of 10,580 miles.
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Dimensions: Length, over-all, 785
feet; Diameter of Hull, 132 feet 9 inches; Designed operational
gas volume, 6,500,000 cubic feet of helium.
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Weights: Structure, 242,356
pounds; Total lift, 403,000 pounds
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Powerplants: Eight 560 horsepower
Maybach 12-cylinder V-type water-cooled engines, mounted inside
the hull and driving their propellers via extension shafts.
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Performance: Maximum Speed
(designed), 75.6 knots; Maximum Range, 5940 nautical miles at 55
knots speed.
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Flight Crew: 10 Officers and 50
Enlisted Men, plus a Heavier-Than-Air group of 4 Officers and 15
Airplane Mechanics.
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Airplane Complement: Up to four
Curtiss F9C-2 "Sparrowhawk" fighters, launched and recovered via a
mechanical trapeze extended below the airship's hangar
compartment.
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Building the
USS Akron
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Akron's first main frame ring, during her construction March 24, 1930.
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November 5, 1930 Here the airship's framework has been completed enough to hold seven bags of lifting helium.
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The airship's control car.
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U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs
U.S. Naval Historical Center Drawing
The Christening
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs
August 8, 1931
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Paul W.
Litchfield, President of the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation is
seated just to left of the microphones. Seated to the right of
the microphones are (left to right): Rear Admiral William A.
Moffett, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; First Lady of the
United States Mrs. Herbert Hoover, Akron's Sponsor; and David
S. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aviation. |
USS Akron
Interior
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Inside Cockpit
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Kitchen
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Stove
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560 HP Motor
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One of 8 driveshafts
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USS Akron. Akron-Summit County
Library: Special Collections, Shorty Fulton Collection, Akron, OH.
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Bathroom
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Mess
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Engine Room
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Official U.S. Navy Photographs
USS Akron
Airborne
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USS Akron with USS Los Angeles |
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Over Manhattan Island
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November 1931
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Official U.S. Navy Photographs
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs
Official U.S. Navy Photograph
An accident occurred at
Lakehurst on 22 February 1932, that prevented her participation.
As the rigid airship was being taken from her hangar, the tail
came loose from its moorings and, caught by the wind, crunched
into the ground. The damage was confined to the lower fin area and
ground handling fittings had been torn out of the main frame.. It
was not until later in the spring that Akron was airworthy
again, and, on
28 April,
the rigid airship cast off for a flight with Rear Admiral Moffett
and Secretary of the Navy Adams on board.
USS Akron
Disaster
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The
Akron
encountered a violent squall over the Atlantic on April 4,
1933 and was lost at sea with 73 of its 76 man crew.
During the search for other
possible survivors, the Navy non-rigid airship J-3 also
crashed, killing two more men. Soon after Akron's
loss, Navy divers examined her wreckage, which was located
about a hundred feet below the ocean surface east of Atlantic
City, N.J. In June of 2002, the research submarine NR-1
revisited the airship's crash site, where much of the
framework remains visible on the Continental Shelf, nearly
seventy years after the great dirigible went down. |
Mansfield News-Journal April
4,5,7 1933
The Chronicle Telegram
(Elyria, Ohio) April 4,5,7 1933
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph
Receiving commendations from the Secretary of
the Navy after the airship's loss on 4 April 1933. From left to
right: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Henry A. Roosevelt;
Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson; Admiral William V. Pratt,
Chief of Naval Operations; Lieutenant Commander Herbert V.
Wiley, senior survivor; Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Richard E.
Deal, survivor; and Aviation Metalsmith 2nd Class Moody Erwin,
survivor.
USS Akron Commemoration
USS Akron. Akron-Summit County
Library: Special Collections, Shorty Fulton Collection, Akron,
OH.
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