USS Akron visit to Arlington
With an overall length of 785 feet, the Akron and her sister ship the USS Macon were among the largest flying objects ever built
![USS Akron](https://arlingtonhistorical.com/files/fullsize/545c106943eb691cca2661ec6a9fc669.jpg)
On her maiden voyage the world's first flying aircraft carrier USS Akron flew over Arlington and Washington, D.C.
On November 3, 1931 the USS Akron, on her maiden voyage flew over Arlington and Washington, D.C. The USS Akron (ZRS-4) was a helium-filled rigid airship of the U.S. Navy and was operated between September 1931 and April 1933.
She was the world's first flying aircraft carrier, carrying F9C Sparrowhawk fighter planes which could be launched and recovered while she was in flight. With an overall length of 785 feet, the Akron and her sister ship the USS Macon were among the largest flying objects ever built. Although the German-built Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin II were longer and slightly more voluminous, the two German airships were filled with hydrogen, so the US Navy still holds the world record for helium-filled airships.
Built by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, Ohio, the USS Akron began her maiden voyage crusing down the east coast from Lakenhurst, New Jersey. On November 3rd the Akron took to the air with 207 people on board. This demonstration proved that airships could provide limited but high speed airlift of troops. Over the weeks that followed, some 300 hours aloft were logged in a series of flights, including a 46-hour endurance flight to Mobile, Alabama, and back. The return leg of the trip was made via the valleys of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River.
Akron next tested the Naby use of a "spy basket"—something like a small airplane fuselage suspended beneath the airship that enabled an observer to serve as the ship's "eyes" below the clouds while the ship remained out of sight above them. The first time the basket was tried (with sandbags aboard instead of a man), it oscillated so violently that it put the whole ship in danger. The basket proved "frighteningly unstable," swinging dramatically from one side of the airship to the other and reached as high as the ship's equator. The spybasket was never used again.
Although the German-built Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin II were some 18 feet longer, the two German airships were filled with hydrogen, so the US Navy still holds the world record for helium-filled airships.
The Akron was destroyed in a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey on the morning of 4 April 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crewmen and passengers. This accident involved the greatest loss of life in any known airship crash.
(Photo courtesy, The Akron, George Washington Memorial Parkway facebook site)
Images
![USS Akron](https://arlingtonhistorical.com/files/fullsize/545c106943eb691cca2661ec6a9fc669.jpg)