William F Althoff - Sky Ships: A History of the Airship in the United States Navy

Books by William F. Althoff

USS Los Angeles

The Navys Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology

Forgotten Weapon

U.S. Navy Airships and the U-Boat War

Arctic Mission

90 North by Airship and Submarine

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

2016 by William F. Althoff

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Althoff, William F.

Sky ships: a history of the airship in the United States Navy / William F. Althoff. 25th anniversary edition.

1 online resource.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-61251-901-2 (epub) 1. United States. NavyAviationHistory. 2. AirshipsUnited StatesHistory. I. Title. II. Title: History of the airship in the United States Navy.

VG93

359.94834dc23

2015028772

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First printing

To the memory of my father

whose curiosity started all this

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

O ut of the soft afternoon sky comes the airship. The pulse of five powerful engines is ever more insistent as the aircraft approaches. Gradually, the sound of her arrival engulfs the airfield and those assembled for the ceremony. Naval officers and ground crewmen, newsmen, and dignitaries stare expectantly.

The size and curious grace of the airship become evident as she comes over the field. She floats effortlessly before them, yet her dimensions are remarkable. The streamlined hull is 650 feet long and more than 100 feet high, an intricate space of compartments, passageways, and machinery. She is an aerial home for forty aviators, a ship of the sky. On this mild November day in 1924, she is also the largest aircraft in the world. New letters on her silver flanks spell out the name Los Angeles. Amidships, bold letters announce her proud operator: U.S. Navy.

She is the Navys third rigid airship, or ZR, designated ZR-3. These aerial ships are intended as very long-range strategic scouts for the fleet. The lighter-than-air (LTA) program at this moment is charged with promise and potential.

This morning, the ship was walked from the great hangar at Lakehurst, New Jersey, for a short flight south to the naval air station (NAS) at Anacostia, near Washington, D.C. There the ship will be commissioned into the United States Navy. This is the inaugural flight under American command, but it is not her first flight. The worlds largest, most modern airship has been designed and built in Germany. The military and commercial potential of Zeppelin airships has deeply impressed the aeronautical world. But Germany now is a defeated power, and the Great War victors want Zeppelins for themselveswithout German competition. So the few surviving Zeppelins are distributed and their sheds destroyed. The United States receives none of the spoils. And so, in 1922, a contract is signed with Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (Zeppelin Company) at Freidrichshafen, in southern Germany, for a compensation airship. The order for this new ship saves the firm from liquidation.

Americas Zeppelin is intended to impress the aeronautical community, which indeed she does. Completed in 1924, USS Los Angeles will survive the vagaries of both weather and naval politics until 1939the longest useful life of any rigid airship.

On 12 October 1924, LZ-126 (builders designation) lifts off from Germany to dare the broad North Atlantic for America. More than eighty hours later, the aircraft lands at NAS Lakehurst. She is the fourth aircraft to crossand the first from Germany to the United States. The feat electrifies the press and thrills the public. The commander, Dr. Hugo Eckener, and his delivery crew are feted everywhere, including a parade in New York City and a welcome at the White House. Some of the wars lingering bitterness is thus dispelled. More important for the future, the delivery marks the beginning of a close liaison between German and American airship men, a bond that will flourish through triumph and tragedy until the eve of another world warand the end of all rigid airship development.

But that is comfortably in the future. Today, Commissioning Day, there are thirty-nine officers and men on board, including eleven of the Germans who delivered her. These aviators share a determined belief in the efficacy of the large airship as a means to navigate the air. The mood throughout the ship is proud, hopeful, expectant.

The airship tries to land. Literally, she cannot reach the groundthe ship is too light. The Navy is operating its LTA program on a budgetary shoestring; needless expenditures must be avoided. The aircrafts lift is provided by nearly 2.6 million cubic feet of helium, which is frightfully expensive. Therefore, if possible, her commanding officer wants to land without valving precious gas. But the ground crew, under the leadership of Lt. Charles E. Rosendahl, USN, cannot pull her down. The wind is gusty. A handling line snaps. Reluctantly, the valve controls are pulled, and seventy thousand cubic feet of helium are released to the atmosphere.

While this awkward ballet of men and machine continues, the assembled guests wait patiently. Among the distinguished visitors is an unobtrusive figure who appears vaguely distressed by the entire affair. But this facial expression is characteristic of the American president, Calvin Coolidge. He appears (as one commentator notes) to be forever looking down his nose to locate some evil smell that seems always to offend him. Nearby, a big naval officer appears particularly pleased. Vice Adm. William A. Moffett, USN, is a proponent of the large naval airship. As chief of the new Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer), moreover, the admiral is responsible for all naval aviation. His advocacy of the rigid airship will cost him his life.

After several failed attempts, ZR-3 lands into the anxious hands of the ground crew. Navy men scramble aboard as ballast to help keep the ship heavy; alongside, shipmates hold her down. The ceremony can proceed.

At 1614 hours, as reporters dutifully scribble and cameras record the scene, ZR-3 is christened USS Los Angeles by Mrs. Grace Coolidge, wife of the president, with a bottle of water from the River Jordan. (The absence of champagne is a concession to the burning social issue: Prohibition.) Six minutes later, the ship is placed into commission as a vessel of the Navy and delivered to her captain, who reads his orders to command. Coolidge and his party are then escorted up into the control car for a brief tour. The presidents flag is displayedthe only time this will occur on a U.S. Navy airship.