USS Akron

Airship ZRS-4             1931-1933

Construction Began: November 7, 1929 by Goodyear Zeppelin
Christening: August 8, 1931 by Mrs. Herbert Hoover
Maiden Flight: September 23, 1931 3:37pm
Commissioned: October 1931
 

The airship Akron helped make our city internationally famous from 1931 to 1933. Built for the U.S. Navy by Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. at its huge Akron Ohio airdock, the ship was 785 ft. long, had a maximum speed of 84 mph and a range of 10,580 miles.

  • Dimensions: Length, over-all, 785 feet; Diameter of Hull, 132 feet 9 inches; Designed operational gas volume, 6,500,000 cubic feet of helium.
  • Weights: Structure, 242,356 pounds; Total lift, 403,000 pounds
  • Powerplants: Eight 560 horsepower Maybach 12-cylinder V-type water-cooled engines, mounted inside the hull and driving their propellers via extension shafts.
  • Performance: Maximum Speed (designed), 75.6 knots; Maximum Range, 5940 nautical miles at 55 knots speed.
  • Flight Crew: 10 Officers and 50 Enlisted Men, plus a Heavier-Than-Air group of 4 Officers and 15 Airplane Mechanics.
  • Airplane Complement: Up to four Curtiss F9C-2 "Sparrowhawk" fighters, launched and recovered via a mechanical trapeze extended below the airship's hangar compartment.
 
 
Building the USS Akron

Akron's first main frame ring, during her construction March 24, 1930.

November 5, 1930 Here the airship's framework has been completed enough to hold seven bags of lifting helium.

The airship's control car.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs
 

 

U.S. Naval Historical Center Drawing

 

 
The Christening

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs

August 8, 1931

Paul W. Litchfield, President of the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation is seated just to left of the microphones. Seated to the right of the microphones are (left to right): Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; First Lady of the United States Mrs. Herbert Hoover, Akron's Sponsor; and David S. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aviation.

 
 
USS Akron Interior

Inside Cockpit

Kitchen

Stove

560 HP Motor

One of 8 driveshafts
 
USS Akron.  Akron-Summit County Library: Special Collections, Shorty Fulton Collection, Akron, OH.
 

Bathroom

Mess

Engine Room

Official U.S. Navy Photographs

 
 
USS Akron Airborne

USS Akron with USS Los Angeles

Over Manhattan Island

November 1931

Official U.S. Navy Photographs

 

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs

 

Official U.S. Navy Photograph

An accident occurred at Lakehurst on 22 February 1932, that prevented her participation. As the rigid airship was being taken from her hangar, the tail came loose from its moorings and, caught by the wind, crunched into the ground. The damage was confined to the lower fin area and ground handling fittings had been torn out of the main frame.. It was not until later in the spring that Akron was airworthy again, and, on 28 April, the rigid airship cast off for a flight with Rear Admiral Moffett and Secretary of the Navy Adams on board.

 
USS Akron Disaster

The Akron encountered a violent squall over the Atlantic on April 4, 1933 and was lost at sea with 73 of its 76 man crew. During the search for other possible survivors, the Navy non-rigid airship J-3 also crashed, killing two more men. Soon after Akron's loss, Navy divers examined her wreckage, which was located about a hundred feet below the ocean surface east of Atlantic City, N.J. In June of 2002, the research submarine NR-1 revisited the airship's crash site, where much of the framework remains visible on the Continental Shelf, nearly seventy years after the great dirigible went down.
 
Mansfield News-Journal April 4,5,7 1933
 
 
The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) April 4,5,7 1933
 
 

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph

Receiving commendations from the Secretary of the Navy after the airship's loss on 4 April 1933. From left to right: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Henry A. Roosevelt; Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson; Admiral William V. Pratt, Chief of Naval Operations; Lieutenant Commander Herbert V. Wiley, senior survivor; Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Richard E. Deal, survivor; and Aviation Metalsmith 2nd Class Moody Erwin, survivor.

 

USS Akron Commemoration

USS Akron.  Akron-Summit County Library: Special Collections, Shorty Fulton Collection, Akron, OH.