Forgotten Airship: USS Macon

[Applause] [Music] the age of rigid airships like the famous hindenburg was a brief but exciting time when the impressive vessels were seen to be at the forefront of a technological revolution they played an important part in the first world war especially as used by germany and after the war there were the subject of much research and production by nations all around the world because they were still thought to be important military assets in the 1920s the united states began testing the idea of using rigid airships as aircraft carriers able to launch and recover aircraft which led the construction of two extraordinary airships uss akron and uss macon among the largest airships ever built it is history that deserves to be remembered the united states have first entered the durable game with the construction of the uss shenandoah constructed between 1922 and 1923 the first of four rigid airships built by the u.s navy instead of using the abundant but highly flammable hydrogen for lyft the us instead chose helium much more rare but also considerably safer the us also for decades controlled the only no helium reserves in the world the second ship commissioned by the navy was uss los angeles which was commissioned on november 25th 1924 the los angeles was actually built by the german zeppelin company in germany as part of reparations promised at the end of world war one the navy made some adjustments once the los angeles reached the united states including changing its lifting gas from hydrogen to helium on july 3 1929 the los angeles was in the air cruising at a speed of 48 knots near the airships based at lakehurst new jersey when a u-01 plane piloted by lieutenant a.w gorton successfully hooked on to a dangling trapeze and was then released testing of the trapeze was meant to investigate if using the airships to carry planes was even feasible the trapeze included a u-shaped yoke while the plane had been fitted with a hook the pilot carefully flew his plane beneath the dirigible lined up the hook and connected the plane to the underside of the los angeles the pilot could then disconnect the hook using a cord in the cabin and return to flight several other tests followed and the concept was judged feasible but there were numerous technological and engineering issues to iron out the trapeze system was later designed to be retractable so planes could be loaded in the airship's hangars before being lowered into launching position of course the primary question involved was what kind of planes could be used onboard the airship says not just any plane would do into this void came the curtis f9c sparrowhawk the planes had originally been designed for use aboard naval carriers and as a prototype the xf-9c1 was delivered to the navy in march of 1931. the 20-foot planes were armed with two 30-inch browning machine guns and their initial carrier test tested well however they proved to be unsuitable for use on carriers already the navy was working on the new airships the zrs4 and the zrs5 shortly after successful testing of plane recapture aboard the los angeles the navy commissioned construction of the uss akron and her sister ship macon at the end of october 1929. the construction was done by the goodyear zeppelin corporation part of a joint project between goodyear and the german lufshaft bao meaning airship construction zeppelin company the airships were designed to be huge to provide space for what would be for hangars while the hindenburg and the graf zeppelin were slightly longer about 20 feet and slightly more voluminous neither of the german airships would have been using lifting helium making the acronym making the largest helium lifted rigid airships ever built were among the largest flying objects in the world at the time though construction began at the same time the macon differed from her sister in several significant ways perhaps most importantly the akron was only able to ever carry three planes thanks to several structural girders that obstructed the afmos hangers the akron could carry two planes in its hangars plus one aboard the trapeze while the akron's bays were never fixed the macon was able to carry all five planes four in the hangars and one aboard the trapeze another difference lay in the material used for the inflatable gas bags france germany and britain primarily used gold beater skin which is made of animal intestine its name comes from its traditional use in gold beating a process of creating gold leaf half of the akron's gas bags were made of goodyear rubberized cotton while the other half used experimental cotton based fabrics fused with a gelatin latex compound which proved to be so successful that all of the macon's gas bags were made of it the macon also received more advanced propellers the sparrow hawk had been chosen because it was relatively small about 20 feet long with a 25-foot wingspan although it had a number of significant drawbacks as well it was heavies have been originally been designed to withstand aircraft carrier landings they had relatively poor range and handling and had poured downward visibility from the cockpit as the planes were largely envisioned as a means to broaden the airship's use as reconnaissance tools the sparrow huck was imperfect a lighter faster plane would have been ideal however none existed that could fit within the ship's hangars this kind of fighter meant to be air launched from a larger aircraft or mother ship is called a parasite fighter in addition to their use aboard rigid airships during the 20th century various countries would experiment with heavy bombers that would carry parasite fighters for their own protection though they were never widely used in addition to the sparrow hawks the making was also capable of carrying two specially built two-seater fleet model ones for training and two two-seat wacko ubf xjw1 biplanes were also built with skyhooks for use aboard the macon ultimately only a handful of planes were ever built for the ships at least seven sparrowhawks of which only one survives and can be seen today at the national aerospace museum's udvar-hazy center in chantilly virginia and six of the special fleet model wands in addition to a prototype one difficulty of engineering stood above the rest during the construction of the sister ships during the design stage the finns were altered as the graf zeppelin had nearly snagged her finn on power lines during takeoff from a field in california earlier that year american officers had witnessed that near accident and sought to find a better system the change which included moving the control car would allow direct observation of the fins although the fins had to be moved and attached to an intermediate ring instead of a main ring the akron's maiden flight took place in september of 1931 the making didn't fly for another 20 months when it flew over northern ohio for almost 13 hours on april 21st 1933. unfortunately the macon never flew with her sister ship the akron was lost just weeks before on april 4th 1933 with a loss of 73 of her 76 crew one of the surviving crew was executive officer lieutenant commander herbert wiley who took command of the macon in 1934 but then the macon was the only rigid airship in naval service the shenandoah was lost in 1925 and los angeles was decommissioned in 1932. the macon served an important role developing strategies and doctrine for using the airship for reconnaissance especially in keeping the airship out of sight while the sparrowhacks performed reconnaissance missions the macon's crew began removing the sparrowhack's landing gear and replacing it with a fuel tank which gave the little plane 30 percent more range on october 12 1933 the macon flew from the east coast across the country to her permanent home base at naval air station sunnyvale now moffett federal airfield near san francisco in april of 1934 the making flew cross-country to opa-locka florida flying over mountains on the route would require the ship to reach or exceed its pressure height that is the height at which internal pressure of the gas bags is equivalent to external atmospheric pressure at that height the bags automatically vent air from the bags to prevent them from rupturing for a time over texas heat from the sun caused helium to warm enough to force the ship to reach pressure height unintentionally this forced the macon to dump nine thousand pounds of ballast and seven thousand pounds of fuel and run its engines at full power to maintain lift and control in a gust storm near van horn texas which caused two girders to fail the crew was able to do emergency repairs and the making arrived in florida safely the ship was grounded for more permanent repairs but the full repairs were not completed most importantly it was decided that strengthening the girders near the top talon could wait until the next scheduled overhaul when the gas bags could be deflated in july of 1934 with herbert wiley in command the ship tracked the uss houston cruiser then carrying president franklin delano roosevelt back to california from hawaii the meeting was a complete surprise for the president and the navy making delivered newspapers to the president and the houston sent the following message the president compliments you and your plans and your fine performance in excellent navigation well done and thank you for the papers the president the following year on february 12th 1935 repairs from the earlier damage were still not complete the ship was returning to sunnyvale after maneuvers having participated in a fleet exercise off the santa barbara islands when it was caught in a storm near point sur surum caused structural damage to a ring which held the upper tail fin which failed completely the fin broke away debris punctured several gas bags and the crew immediately dumped all the ballast in an attempt to raise the tail and keep the ship in the air the ship had lost around 20 of its lift but the loss of an enormous amount of ballast force to ship up rapidly to an altitude of almost 5 000 feet above pressure height and the gas bags invented more helium historian richard smith suggests that the loss of the fin was not catastrophic but that the failure of the making was due to the rapid abandonment of ballast in the first few minutes after the tail fin detached he contends that it wasn't until the ship began venting more precious helium above its pressure height that the ship became doomed the ship's engines also continued to run which may have contributed to the ship's rapid climb as well one witness described it she plunged downward and then suddenly rose and disappeared into the storm clouds the crew fought to regain control the ship which sunk relatively slowly over the course of almost 30 minutes following the initial accident wiley's first report was that the ship had a casualty in stern he later radioed that will abandon ship as soon as we land on the water somewhere 20 miles off point sur probably 10 miles at sea many witnesses and newspapers reported rumors of an explosion however the damage to the airship was silly caused by the storm after the ship had hit the water began to sink rapidly within 20 minutes while the crew fired off a rocket to announce their position already ships from the fleet that the macon had been on maneuvers with were racing towards it the uss pennsylvania reported that macon survivors located assistants no longer needed 81 of the 83 crew members were rescued thanks to the fact that after the loss of the akron the ship had been supplied with life preservers commander wiley was the only man to survive the crash of both ships two men died radio man first class ernest edwin daly jumped ship too early and messe attended first class florentino eduba drowned attempting to recover personal belongings from the sinking ship the crash marked the end of the navy's use of rigid airships represented carl vinson held back a bill to build two more airships saying that the loss of the acronym macon increases down to the practicability of airships others attempted to defend airships famous pilot and indy 500 driver eddie rickenbacker said the crash should not discourage further development of dirigibles but should lead to more intense research to perfect construction hugo echner commander of the graf zeppelin also declared that the loss doesn't prove the zeppelin impracticable the us would not build any more airships however and technological improvements of planes would soon make them obsolete though lost only a short distance from shore the wreckage was only relocated in february of 1991 by the monterey bay aquarium research institute the ship had sunk 147 feet too deep for most kinds of diving in 2006 along with stanford university and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration a number of remote vehicles took over 10 000 images in high definition video of the rack the actual location remains a secret but is within the monterey bay national marine sanctuary established in 1992 and administered by noaa the makin represented a unique time in aeronautics history when the dirigibles outpaced the fleet ships and served an important reconnaissance role in the age of the graceful airships despite all the disasters certainly well captured the imagination and the use of dirigibles as an aircraft carrier lives on in fiction heck in 1938 indiana jones and his dad escaped a durajabal in an airplane the wreck of the macon includes four sparrowhawks and only one other survives it is in the collection of the smithsonian institution i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music] the history of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration in the united states are intertwined noaa's roots take back to 1807 when thomas jefferson established the nation's first scientific agency the survey of the coast since then noah has evolved to meet the needs of a changing country noaa maintains a presence in every state and has emerged as an international leader on scientific and environmental matters the treasures of noah's ark traveling exhibit showcases an array of heritage artifacts which tell the story of how the people technology and resources shaped noah and its predecessor agencies over the past two centuries noaa's responsibilities include preserving protecting and promoting its own heritage while at the same time sharing the history with the public through innovative programs through partnering with public institutions exhibit increases awareness about noaa provides examples of how the agency has impacted the everyday lives of citizens from coast to coast

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 105,158

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, uss Macon, dirigibles, NOAA

Id: U2h1NNpxcFM

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 20 2021