Constructed for the U.S. Navy in the mid-1930s for the purpose of undertaking reconnaissance over the open seas, the USS Macon was the largest dirigible in American history. Requiring 6.5 million cubic feet of helium to inflate and weighing 400,000 pound, 785-foot long airship was a flying behemoth. Its interior was sufficiently large to accommodate a crew of 100 and up to five airplanes (which could be launched and retrieved in mid-air through an opening in the bottom of the dirigible’s hangar).
On February 12, 1935, the USS Macon, was lost in a storm off the coast of California. Miraculously, only two of the 83 crew members who were on board perished with the craft. Still, the loss of the dirigible effectively marked the end of the American military’s ill-fated and accident prone experiment with lighter-than-air technology. (Just two years earlier, Macon’s sister ship, the USS Akron, had gone down over the Atlantic, killing 76 crew members.)
On Monday, researchers from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, the National Marine Sanctuary Program, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Stanford University, and the University of New Hampshire are planning to revisit the “age of the airship.” They will send a submersible robotic probe to film the wreckage of the USS Macon which now rests nearly 1,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
For more information about the USS Macon and next week’s expedition, head over to the web site of the Monteray Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The web site will have live streaming video of the underwater expedition beginning around 10:00 AM CST on Monday and continuing throughout the week.
ScP
September 13, 2006 - 3:39 pm
Thanks for the information. Very useful. I believe, however, it was the U.S.S. Shenandoah that was lost over Ohio and that the Akron also crashed over the sea, killing almost everyone on board – they had no life jackets! I will look into the Marine Sanctuary website.
September 13, 2006 - 5:22 pm
Yep, you’re right. In my haste to post the note I cited the location and death toll for the Shenandoah accident by mistake.
Thanks!
ScP
September 14, 2006 - 7:58 pm
Airships ahoy!
Some recent airship sightings:
An airship is currently gracing Melbourne skies, thanks to Holden. I’ve seen it but not with a camera handy, so this picture by Dr Snafu will have to serve. It’s nice to see it floating around, but at on…
August 28, 2007 - 8:19 pm
[...] So, going one way, this links to other contemporary ideas for routinising flight over the Atlantic (in particular), such as the seadrome and Project Habbakuk. In another direction, it links to modern solar-powered airships designed for stratospheric surveillance. And finally, it links to real-life flying aircraft carriers such as the USS Macon and fictional ones such as HMS Whatever-it-was in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. [...]