"Up Ship!": U.S. Navy Rigid Airships, 1919-1935 [United States]

xiii, 236 pp. Includes over 50 rare photographs, large-scale line drawings of each ship, and detailed specification tables. "The U.S. Navy, impressed with German advances in airship technology and the airship's ability to cover great distances, decided in 1919 to develop these ships for long-range scouting missions in the Pacific. Initially, the Navy procured three airships and built an 804-foot hanger in Lakehurst, New Jersey, to house them. But the era of experimentation that followed exacted a high price in blood and money. The ZR 2, purchased from the British, crashed and burned in England, killing 44 people among whom 16 were Americans in training. The American-built Shenandoah broke up in violent turbulence over Ohio with the loss of 14 lives. The Los Angeles alone escaped tragedy, remaining in commission from 1924-1932 to perform valuable experimental work and to train flight personnel. The final tragic loss of these ships' successors, the Akron and the Macon, designed specifically for strategic scouting with the Pacific Fleet, brought the era of the great rigid airships to an abrupt halt."