Fulton Airport, Airships, Rubber Bowl, and Derby Downs

By Karl Grismer

The first air field at Akron was started in 1924 by Bain E. "Shorty" Fulton, a young daredevil who would fly, or try to fly, anything which had wings and a motor. With two planes which were the worse for wear, he acquired an old farm house and five lots at the Fulmer Farm on Massillon Road, built a small hangar, and began taking up passengers. An energetic fellow, full of zip, he managed to get enough business to keep him alive.

Fulton was the city's leading champion of an Akron airport and with him plugging along one line and Goodyear along another, things began to happen. but there was opposition.

More than a few citizens were convinced that the airport was being advocated purely for Goodyear's benefit and hence did not favor the idea. Twice attempts were made to get voters to approve bond issues for buying the needed land and starting work, and twice the issues were defeated. Then the city councilmen took a hand and, acting on their own responsibility, authorized four bond issues during a two-year period. They totaled $1,838,000. There was much opposition but the airport was achieved.

The site selected for it was at Fulton's Field on Massillon Road. Various tracts were acquired, some 850 acres altogether. Sixty acres were set aside for the Goodyear hangar and to relieve Goodyear of the necessity of paying city taxes on the hangar, the city council removed the hangar site and an access to it from the city limits.

Goodyear let contracts for the hangar to the Wilbur Watson Engineering Company, of Cleveland, and with Clemmer-Noah as local contractors, work was started on April 20, 1929. Crews were kept working night and day and the structure was completed by November 25th of the same year. It was the largest building ever built in the world without interior supports - 1,175 feet long, 325 feet wide and 211 feet high. The reported cost of the structure was $2,200,000.

While work on the hangar was progressing, Akron got a double lighter-than-air craft thrill. On one day, August 28, 1929, it was visited by two of the mightiest dirigibles in the world, the Los Angeles and the Graf Zeppelin.

The Los Angeles, pride of the Navy, commanded by Lieut. Com. Herbert Wiley, arrived at 12:20pm and was greeted by the Goodyear blimp Pilgrim. Crowds of shoppers and workers poured from stores and office buildings to watch the gleaming silver ship pass overhead and vanish in the north, headed for Cleveland where it was one of the main attractions of a big air meet.

The Graf Zeppelin, commanded by Hugo Eckener, paid Akron a courtesy visit on the next to the last leg of its history making flight around the world. It came in at 11:57pm at a 60 mph clip with motors roaring and cabin lights gleaming in the darkness, and headed for the airport where many thousands were awaiting its arrival. After stopping at Lakehurst the Graf sped on to Friedrichshafen on September 4, completing the round-the-world flight in 20 days and 4 hours.

Work on the first Navy dirigible, the ZRS-4, was started by Goodyear Zeppelin on November 7, 1929, before the hangar was finished. Rear Admiral William A. Moffett drove a golden rivet into the master ring.

Mrs. Herbert Hoover, wife of the President, christened the ship the Akron on August 8, 1931. A tremendous crowd assembled for the event. People came by auto, train and bus, some from hundreds of miles away. The great hangar was a seething mass of humanity. Scores of planes roared overhead, including an autogyro piloted by Amelia Earhart Putnam. The heat was suffocating and more than fifty people fainted. They were cared for in emergency hospitals. Included among the dignitaries who were present were David S. Ingalls, assistant secretary of the Navy, and Governor George White.

The Akron made her maiden flight on Wednesday, September 23, 1931. A crowd which was even larger than the one which attended the christening, watched almost breathlessly as the huge orange-peel doors at the north end of the hangar, each weighing 400 tons, were opened and the mighty ship emerged.

Then, at exactly 3:37 p.m., the Akron began rising and a great cheer echoed from the hills, and thousands of auto horns were blown. When the ship rose lazily to two hundred feet, the sun burst through the clouds, turning the craft into burnished silver.

Heading northward, the Akron reached Cleveland at 5 p.m., circled about 600-foot pinnacle of the Terminal Tower, and cruised over the lake. It returned to the hangar and was safely moored at 8:15. One of the 113 persons aboard was Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams.

After repeated test flights, the ship left Akron Wednesday evening, October 21, and reached Lakehurst early the next morning. Commander Rosendahl was in charge. A week later the Akron was officially accepted by the Navy.

On February 22, 1932, the Akron was disabled at Lakehurst when she was caught by a sudden gust of wind and hurled against the ground. The structural damage was repaired and the ship later made many successful flights, took part in fleet maneuvers and flew to Panama and Guantanamo.

At 7:28 p.m. April 3, 1933, the Akron took off from Lakehurst on a routine training flight. The weather was threatening but was not considered serious. The ship reached Philadelphia at 8:10 p.m. and then headed toward the coast. Shortly after midnight the Akron crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at Barnegat Light, NJ, while flying at nearly 100 miles an hour, and almost immediately broke apart. Of the 76 officers and men aboard, only three survived, Lieut. Com. H.V. Wiley, second in command, and two sailors. Included among the victims was Rear Admiral William A. Moffett. The accident was attributed to a faulty altimeter which gave a wrong reading of the ship's altitude.

The second Navy dirigible, which was christened the Macon by Mrs. William A. Moffett before the Akron crashed, made her maiden flight on April 21, 1933, with 105 persons on board and commanded by Capt. Alger H. Dresel.

Operating out of the Navy's new station at Sunnyvale, Cal., the Macon flew to the Caribbean Sea in 1934, took part in fleet maneuvers, and operated extensively later with the Pacific fleet. On February 13, 1935, while flying over the Pacific near San Francisco, the ship was hit by a sharp gust of wind. The top fin, which had been weakened some time before in a storm, pulled loose. Three gas cells were ripped and the ship set down in the ocean. She was destroyed but only two members of the crew were drowned.