So I think the Navy, at that point when Macon finally crashed, it was like, okay, we’re cutting our losses here. And Macon was kind of the highest expression of the technology, but as this was happening seaplanes with longer and longer range capability were being developed, radar was starting to be developed, newer technologies were coming along. … it kind of shows how the Navy was looking at scouting for the fleet, protecting the fleet. “ Macon was envisioned as basically a scout for the fleet, Macon and Akron. And as early as the turn of the century, the Navy was focused on Japan, watching Japan, because their military was increasing so fast and they kind of were getting clues as to the Japanese government’s designs on South East Asia and the islands,” he said. “it’s showing the pre-World War II mindset of the Navy. However, the rigid airship program was beyond saving.īruce Terrell, chief archaeologist and historian at NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ Maritime Heritage Program, told USNI News on Tuesday that the Macon, for all it lacked in longevity, shed a lot of light on how the Navy perceived the threats to the U.S. One crew member jumped from the airship at too high an altitude and died, and another died when he returned to the sinking ship to retrieve personal items. The aircraft fell slowly enough that the crew could put on lifejackets – which were onboard the Akron. A tailfin was sheared off, and in trying to respond the crew set off a chain of events that led to them losing control of the airship and falling nose-up into the ocean, according to a post in the Naval History Blog. 12, 1935, the airship hit a storm off the coast of Point Sur, Calif. The planes often had their landing gear removed while operating from the airship, leaving little room for error for the pilots.Ĭurtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk hangs from USS Macon (ZRS-5). Macon demonstrated its concept of operations, launching and recovering as many as five single-seat Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplanes via a “trapeze” that the crew used to recover the planes. The airship stayed mission-ready and participated in many fleet exercises in its two years. The second-in-class dirigible had a slightly longer service life. Herbert Wiley, and was based in California. The airship was commanded by one of the only Akron survivors, Lt. Macon was commissioned a month and a half after the Akron crash. Moffett, the first chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics and the chief proponent of bringing LTA aircraft to the fleet. The first flying aircraft carrier, USS Akron (ZRS-4), was commissioned in 1931 – and after several incidents in two years, the airship crashed and sank off the coast of New Jersey in 1933, killing 73 of 76 men onboard, including Rear Adm. William A. USS Macon Life and LegacyĪs early as 1916 the Navy had begun designing lighter-than-air (LTA) rigid airships, and by 1926 the focus had shifted to airships that could support aerial scouting missions. Their hope: to understand life aloft in the floating aircraft carrier, to piece together a clearer map of the wreck site and to research how quickly the remains of the airship are being consumed by the sea. While the idea died, the wreck Macon lives on as an important archaeological site and this week Naval History and Heritage Command, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and several non-profits came together to explore the wreckage, mapping out pieces of the airship and its four biplanes and studying the change in its material condition over time. The sinking of USS Macon (ZRS-5), a lighter-than-air rigid airship, resulted in few deaths but its loss ended the Navy’s quest to use airships as long-range scouts for the fleet. – Eighty years ago, the Navy’s last flying aircraft carrier crashed off the coast of California and sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
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