USS Akron (ZRS-4)

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ZRS-4 landing in Sunnyvale / California

The USS Akron (ZRS-4) was a US Navy rigid airship in the early 1930s and the largest airship in the world in its time . It was developed as a flying reconnaissance aircraft and served as a flying aircraft carrier for up to four specially converted reconnaissance aircraft .

The airship

The ship was 239 m long and 40 m in diameter. The skeleton consisted of three main keels (one at the top, the other at the bottom right and bottom left) and ten main rings.

It was powered by eight internal Maybach motors with 420 kW (570 hp) each. With the rigid airship, which was designed for helium for the first time , there was no risk of the engine igniting the gas. On the side of the hull, above the propellers, there were capacitors for the ballast water recovery system .

The lifting gas volume was 194,000 m³ (6,500,000 cft ), the maximum speed 130 km / h. The propellers were pivotable and reversible to make take-off and landing easier.

The crew quarters also included a smoking room.

Four double-decker aircraft of the type Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk , which were equipped with so-called "sky hooks", could be carried under the buoyancy mechanism of the airship. Originally, it was planned to carry five aircraft, but this could only be made possible with its sister ship, the USS Macon , thanks to a lighter construction that allowed a higher payload.

Construction and operation

USS Akron upon exposure of an aircraft of the type Consolidated n2y

The contract for the construction of two large airships, the USS Akron and the USS Macon , worth eight million dollars, was awarded to the Good Year Zeppelin Corporation in 1928 , in which the German Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH held two thirds.

Karl Arnstein played a key role in the construction . During the construction work, the Navy insisted on changing the tail fins. Originally they were supposed to be elongated and relatively flat and anchored to three skeleton rings. However, the naval airmen wanted to be able to see the lower fin from the guide gondola and use it as a point of uprising. The changed, shorter and higher fins were only anchored to two skeleton rings. This circumstance would later become important for the sister ship USS Macon .

The ship was christened on August 8, 1931 in the city in which it was built, by Lou Hoover , the first lady at the time , in the name of the same city Akron . The first voyage took place on October 2, 1931 (other source: September 23 under Corvette Captain Charles E. Rosendahl ). At the end of October the ship was handed over to the US Navy.

On November 3rd, a ten-hour journey with 207 people on board was undertaken - probably the largest transport of passengers ever carried out by airship.

US naval airship USS Akron

In January 1932, the Akron took part in a fleet maneuver off the coast of North Carolina. However, the result was disappointing. The airship failed to discover the ships it was supposed to scout while it was being discovered. In June (still without their own aircraft on board) the "enemy" ships were cleared up, but they in turn directed fighter planes to the Akron in order to "shoot them down".

On February 22, 1932, an incident occurred on the ground. The stern disengaged from its anchorage and hit the ground several times. The lower fin then had to be replaced, which lasted until the end of April. A few months later there was a fatal accident in Camp Kerny, California, when the airship accidentally released ballast on landing and then rose again. Three men from the ground crew did not let go of the tethers and were pulled up. Only the sailor Bud Cowart managed to hold on to the rope until he could be brought on board almost two hours later. The other two fell to their deaths. This incident is also documented by film recordings.

In May 1932, an aircraft landed on the airship's interception system for the first time. It was not yet operational when it was commissioned. The entire Sparrowhawk squadron was not fully available until the fall of 1932.

The end

The Akron took in 20 months 73 rides with about 1,700 flight hours without any major accidents. It was lost on the 74th trip on April 4, 1933 in the early hours of the morning. The real task of this last trip was to calibrate a radio compass station on the coast.

The loss came after the airship had survived a very heavy storm over the Atlantic off New Jersey all night . The control cables to the tail unit tore and the ship straightened up with the bow despite the ballast already being completely thrown off. The stern touched the surface of the water. However, the altimeter of the airship also indicated a ride height of 240 meters. The ship sank in the sea after a short time.

Only three of the 76 crew members survived the morning. A fourth man died shortly after he was rescued on board the German motor ship Phoebus , which had seen the crash and rushed to help. The search for survivors had been difficult due to the weather. To date, this is the worst airship disaster in history with the greatest number of victims. One reason for the many deaths was the lack of life jackets or life islands . This bug has been fixed on the USS Macon .

Among the victims were Commandant Frank McCord, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett , Head of the Naval Airship Division, and Frigate Captain Frederick Berry, Commander of the Naval Air Base at Lakehurst , who were also on board. During the search for possible survivors, the impact airship J-3 crashed and claimed two more victims.

The USS Macon was also later lost in an accident at sea. The Navy Airship Base in Sunnyvale , California was renamed Moffett-Field after the Admiral's death .

See also

literature

  • Peter Kleinheins: The big zeppelins: The history of airship construction. VDI-Verlag, series Klassiker der Technik, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-18-400687-5 .

Web links

Commons : USS Akron (ZRS-4)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files