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Ever heard the phrase what goes up must come down?
Well In the brief time that airships were a popular means of air transport, they were
involved in numerous incidents that shocked the world.
These incidents ranged from harmless and amusing, to deadly tragedies that forever shook confidence
in the validity of the vehicles, but all of them are interesting to study.
Number 5, Los Angeles 1927
The USS Los Angeles was a massive airship given to the United States by Germany in 1924
as war reparations.
She enjoyed a few years of service until her incident in New Jersey on the 25th of August
1927.
After being refitted and undergoing repairs, the Los Angeles was supposed to conduct an
eight-hour flight at 10,000 feet in the air.
The airship was docked on the high mast of the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, preparing
for its flight, when a breeze blew in from the southeast at around 3 o’clock in the
afternoon.
Rather than spinning to face the wind, the breeze began to lift the tail of the ship
into the air.
It kept on rising by its tail, and the men on board were forced to grab hold of the ship’s
girders to avoid falling over.
Suddenly, the ship was standing at a 90-degree angle over its mast.
In the engine room at the back of the airship, now high in the air, one of the engineer’s
reportedly shouted, “Holy Christ, I can see New York”.
Nobody was quite sure what to do, and the commanders of the mast and the airship got
into an argument about whether they should disconnect or not.
Luckily, as quickly as things had gone wrong, they solved themselves.
The ship did a complete flip of the high mast and lowered herself down onto the other side.
She was quickly returned to her hanger to be inspected for damage, but nothing had been
broken during the incident.
The most damage to the airship had occurred inside the cars, where falling tools and objects
had crashed into each other.
The accident was quickly moved on from, and nobody was hurt.
The crew at least left with a story to tell.
A century on from the incident, we can look at the extraordinary photos of an airship
hovering vertically in the air over its naval base and appreciate the pioneering efforts
of early aviators, who made flight what it is today.
Number 4, USS Shenandoah 1925
The USS Shenandoah was the first attempt by the United States Navy to create a rigid airship
that could patrol the skies over North America and its oceans.
At 680 feet long and with a crew of more than forty, when it was built in 1923 it was one
of the largest airships in the United States.
It was even the first airship to cross the Atlantic, as well as the first to conduct
a transcontinental flight of America.
She took part in naval exercises as a scout, and was ordered to conduct Arctic exploration,
until a tear in her balloon prevented the mission from proceeding.
It was a short career, but she was a popular vessel and became a symbol of the navy, flying
all over the country and drawing large crowds of spectators wherever she went.
The US government took notice of this popularity, and the Shenandoah was sent on a tour of United
States in 1925.
She was to visit forty cities all across the American Midwest.
On the 2nd of September, she set off on her journey, but it didn’t take long for things
to go tragically wrong on board.
The next day, on the 3rd, a sudden storm hit the Shenandoah as she was travelling over
Ohio.
The storm lifted the Shenandoah and the change in pressure tore the balloon to pieces.
The airship split in three and crashed to the ground outside the town of Caldwell.
Fourteen of the crew were killed, either by falling out of the airship while it was being
torn to pieces, or when it hit the ground.
Remarkably, the rear section of the airship remained afloat, and the seven men inside
managed to remain afloat for a time without the rest of the airship.
The story of the Shenandoah didn’t end there however.
This was not merely a deadly crash, but the destruction of an icon of the United States.
Naturally then, the looting began almost immediately when the pieces of the ship made landfall.
The Department of Justice and the Ohio National Guard tried to secure the site, and over the
next few weeks confiscated over four truckloads and materials that had been looted by locals
from the wreckage.
However, there was simply no way of finding it all.
Even the logbook had been taken, depriving investigators of a valuable resource with
which they could determine what had happened.
Everything, from the metal framework to the canvas of the balloon itself was an attractive
item to try and grab.
One report even stated that a piece of the canvas of the balloon was turned into a lampshade
during the Great Depression.
Once the looting had been stopped, the wreck site itself became a tourist attraction, with
thousands coming to view the crash site, and a small local economy developing around it.
Stalls were set up selling soda and water to the tourists flooding into the area.
The cause of the crash was investigated by the Army and Navy, who found the causes were
twofold.
One, the weather conditions of Ohio had been ignored in favour of a publicity stunt for
the military, and two, the Helium inside the balloon was considered too valuable to allow
any waste, and so safety valves had been removed from the airship.
This prevented pressure control during the rapid ascent.
Safety requirements for airships were changed after this disaster but airships would not
remain in flight for much longer anyway.
Before we crack on with this list I wanted to tell you a quick story about my business,
Oceanliner Designs and today’s sponsor Squarespace.
Number 3, LZ 104 1917
In 1917, the beleaguered troops of German East Africa were fighting a guerrilla war
against the British, cut off from home and running low on supplies.
A resupply mission by sea would be impossible, as the Royal Navy prevented any German ships
from reaching so far away.
A new plan would be needed, and the answer came in the form of the LZ 104 airship.
Operation China Snow was launched, in which the LZ 104 would fly from Bulgaria, across
the Mediterranean and over Egypt, making its way south until it could resupply the army.
This was to be a one-way mission, and even the fabrics that made up the airship were
planned to be disassembled and turned into useful material for the army.
On the 21st of November 1917, the ship set off from Yambol in Bulgaria.
For several days it sailed through the air, managing to travel through harsh weather and
turbulence.
Eventually, one of the five engines on board seized up, which reduced the airship’s speed,
and the electronics failed, rendering it unable to send signals (Though it could still receive
them).
Then over Khartoum, a signal was received from the West African army, calling off the
mission as they had lost control of the landing sight.
This signal may have actually been faked by the British, but records are unclear.
Either way, the ship turned back from its mission and retreated to Bulgaria.
Though the mission was a failure, the LZ 104 managed to set a new record for airtime and
distance travelled in an airship, having spent ninety-five hours in the air and travelling
four-thousand two-hundred miles in total.
The celebration was short-lived however.
The airship began operating out of Yambol, attacking targets across the Mediterranean
in bombing raids.
On the 7th of April 1918, she attempted to attack the British at Malta.
An observing submarine commander reported seeing two bursts on board the airship, before
it was engulfed in a “gigantic flame… and it nosed down into the water”.
There were no survivors on board among the 21-man crew.
Strangely, neither the British nor Italians claimed the kill, and the destruction of the
airship is likely the result of an accident on board rather than fire from enemy forces.
Number 2, C-8 Blimp 1919
The C-Class blimps were a type of patrol airship developed by the US Navy after the first world
war, very simple in their design and function.
Unlike a zeppelin the C-class did not have a rigid metal frame but were more like a conventional
balloon with a cab slung underneath.
10 of the blimps were completed and they would go on to have tumultuous lives.
On the 2nd of July 1919, the C-8 attempted to dock at Camp Holabird in Maryland.
There were many spectators of the event watching the balloon come in when suddenly something
went badly wrong; the blimp somehow spontaneously ignited and detonated above the ground.
Unfortunately, more than 80 adults and children on the ground were injured in the blast and
the six-man crew on board the ship was lost.
A mile away from the explosion windows in houses were even blown out!
This would not be the only disaster that the C-class of ships was involved in.
Only two months earlier, the C-5 had been lost in a gale off the coast of Newfoundland
when it was blown out to sea while attempting a transatlantic crossing; the wind simply
picked it up while the ground crew were trying to pull it with ropes into position.
Two years later, the C-3 would catch fire and crash while attempting to dock in Norfolk.
The US navy eventually switched to non-flammable helium gas instead of hydrogen but this limited
the range of their airships; helium weighs twice as much as hydrogen and only allowed
93% of the lifting capacity.
In the end the ultimate cause of the C-8’s explosion was never discovered.
Number 1, Akron 1933
The USS Akron was the world’s first flying aircraft carrier, operated by the United States
Navy and flying between 1931 and 1933.
It was capable of carrying four planes that could be launched from its hold and used to
attack the enemy, and then recovered through a trapeze mechanism.
Though it never saw combat, it was a valuable experiment for the shirt time it was in service.
On the 3rd of April 1933, just two years after it had been launched, the Akron cast off on
a voyage along the coast of New England.
This would be its last journey.
The airship left dock at 7:30 in the evening, with many distinguished guests on board, including
a Rear Admiral, the Commander of the Lakehurst Naval Sir Station, and others.
It was intended to be a display of the potential uses of the airships in naval service.
Unfortunately, the day she left was also the beginning of a huge storm that would sweep
the American coast.
Fog soon rolled in, and within a few hours the ship had become difficult to control in
the wind and rain they had flown directly into.
Shortly after midnight, the Akron began a rapid descent into the ocean.
The crew managed to eject ballast, which briefly stabilised the height, but it did not last
long.
The ship quickly began to sink again, this time hitting the ocean tail-first.
The waves quickly dragged the ship down, and the Akron was lost with almost all on board.
Of the seventy-six men on board the vessel at the time of the crash, seventy-three died.
This makes the Akron the single worst airship disaster in history.
To make matters worse, the rescue efforts also resulted in several dead, as a Naval
Blimp was sent to help search for survivors in the water.
This blimp found itself victim of the same stormy conditions, and it also sank, killing
two of its crew.
The reason for the deadliness of the Akron crash is that despite sailing over the ocean,
there were no lifejackets on board the vessel, and only a single raft.
The reports of survivors indicate that it was not the crash that resulted in the deaths
but drowning and the freezing temperature of the Atlantic.
After this, safety measures aboard airships were changed and all were equipped with lifejackets.
President Roosevelt gave a speech in the aftermath of the disaster, in which he described the
“National disaster”, and praised the men lost in the crash as “Upholding to the end
the finest traditions of the United States Navy”.
The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, but numerous theories have been presented
as to what caused the descent of the Akron.
It’s possible that it was simply a downdraft that caused the tail of the Akron to sink
into the water and it was subsequently pulled down.
However, it’s also possible that the altimeter on board was not properly calibrated for the
low air-pressure caused by the storm.
Given the nearly 800-foot length of the ship and the difficulty in manoeuvring such a large
vehicle, if the captain thought he was at a higher altitude than he was, the ship’s
tail might have touched the water when the crew tried to pull up too quickly.
The answer will likely never be known for sure.
Just another reason why I never travel by hot air balloon - I’ll stick to good old
Terra Firma!