A HISTORY OF THE AIRSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY a ~ Leone WS NSS se SAN pee eae ge Dey Aviation History $24.95 WILLIAM F. ALTHOFF Here for the first time, author William F. Althoff has detailed the complete saga of the United States Navy’s nearly fifty years’ involvement with airships, including the twenty-four-year period after the Hinden- burg tragedy. It is the story of ships that were longer than a football field but, when properly balanced, cou!d be moved by a man’s finger. Beginning in World War | with Germany’s modest military success with Zeppelins, the United States initiated her own fleet of air- ships and established the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. The Lakehurst air station provided the setting for the golden era of airships, including USS Shenandoah, USS Los Angeles, USS Akron, and USS Macon. Among the largest machines ever created by man, these huge dirigibles amazed and intrigued the public as much as their crashes horrified it. Lakehurst’s story is also closely associated with the rise of the commercial rigid airship, which peaked in 1936 with ten successful round trips from Europe to Lakehurst by the Hindenburg and which ended with her explosion in 1937. After the end of the commercial rigid air- ship (and published in book form here for the first time), the Sky Ships story continues with the navy’s use of blimps to help protect World War II Allied shipping, which was be- ing decimated by German U-boats, and the postwar efforts to integrate airships with the navy fleet. Finally, the end of the naval air- (Continued on back flap) SKY SHIPS 2 ——_ rae L/ a i" stay Copyright © 1990 by William Althoff All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy- ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be mailed to: Permissions, Pacifica Press, 1149 Grand Teton Drive, Pacifica, California 94044 Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN 0-935553-32-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publiation Data Althoff, William F. Sky ships : a history of the airship in the United States Navy/ William F. Althoff 320 p. cm Originally published 1st ed. New York : Orion Books, c1990 Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-935553-32-0 1. United States Navy—Aviation History. 2. Airships—United States— History. |. Title VG93.A868 1994 359.9'4834'0973—-dc20 94—14873 CIP To my father, whose curiosity started all this Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2023 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/skyshipshistoryoOOO0Owill ww © Contents Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Establishing an Air Station The USS Shenandoah and the Early Years The USS Los Angeles: Training and Experimentation The USS Akron and USS Macon Lakehurst: International Airport Preparations for War The War Years Postwar Progress End of the Program Afterword APPENDIXES Commanding Officers, NAS Lakehurst (1921—62) Performance and Other Data for U.S. Navy Airships (1915-61) U.S. Navy Lighter-Than-Air Headquarters and Facilities During World War II Memorandum on Status of Lighter-Than-Air (1959) Postwar Airship Deliveries to the U.S. Navy Notes Selected Bibliography Index 1p. 123 142 165 205 235 265 267 268 271 273 PUTTE 279 289 297 an a - = ven - a rae te Peet (rad Te eee “icine ) Acknowledgements The research and writing of this book has incurred numerous obligations. Indispensable support was provided by Capt. M. H. Eppes, U.S. Navy (Retired); Capt. Frederick N. Klein, Jr., U.S. Navy (Retired); Lt. Eugene P. Moccia, U.S. Navy (Retired) and Mrs. Moccia; and Lt. Comdr. James M. Punderson, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired), all of whom made available personal papers. Captain Eppes and Captain Klein also submitted to extensive interviewing and later reviewed selected chapters of the manuscript. Dr. Douglas H. Robinson also reviewed a number of chapters and provided important information and counsel. I am grateful to Rear Adm. Calvin M. Bolster, U.S. Navy (Retired); Capt. Howard N. Coulter, U.S. Navy (Retired); Lt. Herbert R. Rowe, U.S. Navy (Retired); and Capt. George F. Watson, U.S. Navy (Retired) for their written statements, taped information, and pho- tographs. Comdr. Walter D. Ashe, U.S. Navy (Retired); Lt. Comdr. William A. Baker, U.S. Navy (Retired); Capt. Maurice M. Bradley, U.S. Navy (Retired); Mr. Moody Erwin; Rear Adm. Harold B. Miller, U.S. Navy (Retired); Lt. David F. Patzig, U.S. Navy (Retired); the late Rear Adm. George E. Pierce, U.S. Navy (Retired); Comdr. Robert Shannon, U.S. Navy (Retired); Lt. Comdr. Leonard E. Schellberg, U.S. Navy (Retired) (and Mrs. Schellberg); and the late Capt. Earl K. Van Swearingen, U.S. Navy (Retired) provided useful materials and agreed to taped interviews. Other individuals also provided tape-recorded information. Among these were Rear Adm. Richard S. Andrews, U. S. Navy (Retired); Mr. Kurt Bauch; Mr. Daniel Brady; Mr. Melvin J. Cranmer; Mrs. Elsie C. Harwood; Comdr. Harry J. Heuster, U.S. Navy (Retired); Mr. Charles Kauffman; Mr. Douglas Leigh; the late Comdr. Joseph P. Norfleet, U. S$. Navy (Retired); Mr. Jack R. Poppele; Mr. Paul G. Richter; Mr. John B. Rieker; Mr. Charles M. Ruth; Rear Adm. Leroy C. Simpler, U.S. Navy (Retired); the late Lt. Comdr. Frederick J. Tobin, U.S. Navy (Retired); Mr. F. W. “Willy” von Meister; and Mr. Frank Wainwright. Thanks to Mr. Winfield E. Fromm for materials relative to the development of Mag- SKY SHIPS netic Airborne Detection equipment and to Dr. David C. Hazen for information regarding Princeton University’s flying wind tunnel project. Mr. Raymond F. Burd, Jr., provided rare views of the old Lakehurst Proving Ground. Mrs. Frederick J. Tobin graciously offered photographs from her late husband’s effects. Mr. Clark L. Bunnell provided records relative to federal employment at NAS Lakehurst in the 1930s. Capt. H. B. Van Gorder, U.S. Navy (Retired), forwarded a copy of his report on the 1958 flight of ““Snow Goose” to the Arctic. Mr. Charles L. Keller graciously loaned his extensive research notes compiled in the National Archives and in the Garland Fulton Papers. The late Vice Adm. T. G. W. “Tex” Settle, U.S. Navy (Retired), submitted to an extensive correspondence and was an inspiration to the author. Thanks are due to the staff at the History of Aviation Collection, University of Texas at Dallas, for their assistance in the incomparable C. E. Rosendahl Collection, especially to Mr. Michael R. Quinn and Robert Kopitzke, curators. Mr. Marvin A. Krieger helped with Collection photographs. Comdr. Charles A. Mills, U.S. Navy (Retired), and Rear Adm. Carl J. Seiberlich, U.S. Navy (Retired), provided verbal progress reports on the Naval Airship Program. Com- mander Mills also loaned documents and photographs. Others who provided useful materials were Mr. Henry J. Applegate; Mr. Don Brande- meuhl; Mrs. William FE. Bucher; Mr. William W. Chapman; Mr. Barry J. Countryman; Mr. Gordon M. Cousins; Mr. Richard E. Deal; Mr. James D. Dowd; Mr. Michael S. Fedosh; Mr. Charles Gidrites; Mr. John A. Iannaccone; Mr. John A. Lust; Mr. Edgar L. Moore; Mr. Kevin Pace; Rear Adm. Scott E. Peck, U.S. Navy (Retired); Capt. Charles W. Roland, U.S. Navy (Retired); and Mr. David Smith. Dr. Richard K. Smith assisted the author with research advice. Mr. I. “‘Butch’”’ Gross- man provided special advice and was more helpful than he could know. Mr. James R. Shock provided a wealth of documents. Dr. A. D. Topping of the Lighter-Than-Air Society was also very helpful. The author’s oral history research was supported, in part, by grants from the New Jersey Historical Commission. This book is the product of more than a decade of research. Inevitably in a project of this scope, dozens of individuals assisted in a variety of ways. I am grateful to each, including those whose names | may have omitted. All served to make this book better than it would have been otherwise. Finally, a special thanks is due to my wife, Penny. Her encouragement and insight were uniquely indispensable. Preface Out of the soft afternoon sky comes the airship. The pulse of five powerful engines is more insistent as the aircraft approaches. Gradually, the sound of her arrival engulfs the airfield and those assembled for the ceremony. Naval officers and ground crewmen, newsmen and dignitaries stare expectantly. The size and curious grace of the airship become evident as she comes over ete field. She floats effortlessly before them, yet her dimensions are remarkable. The streamlined hull is 650 feet long and more than 100 feet high, an intricate space of compartments, passage- ways, and machinery. She is an aerial home for forty aviators, a ship of the sky. On this mild November day in 1924, she is also the largest aircraft in the world. New letters on her silver flanks spell out the name Los Angeles. Amidships, bold letters announce her proud operator: U.S. Navy. She is the navy’s third rigid airship, designated ZR-3. These ships are intended as very long-range aerial scouts for the fleet. The lighter-than-air program at this moment is charged with promise and potential. This morning, the ship was walked from the great hangar at Lakehurst, New Jersey, for a short flight south to the naval air station at Anacostia, near Washington. Here the ship will be commissioned into the United States Navy. This is her inaugural flight under American command, but it is not her first flight. The world’s most modern airship has been designed and built in Germany. The military and commercial potential of Zeppelin airships has deeply impressed the aeronautical world. But Germany is now a defeated power, and the victors of the Great War want Zeppelins for themselves—without German competition. So the few surviving Zeppelins are distributed and their hangars destroyed. The United States receives none of the spoils, and thus, in 1922, a contract is signed with the Zeppelin Company for a compensation airship. The order for the new ship saves the firm from liquidation. The “American ship”’ is intended to impress the aeronautical community, which indeed XI SKY SHIPS she does. Completed in 1924, Los Angeles will survive the vagaries of the elements and of politics until 1939, the longest useful life of any rigid airship. On 12 October 1924, the airship departs Germany and dares the broad Atlantic for America. More than eighty hours later, the German ship lands at the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst. She is only the fourth aircraft to cross the Atlantic. The feat electrifies the press and thrills the American public. The commander, Dr. Hugo Eckener, and his delivery crew are féted everywhere, including a parade in New York City and a welcome at the White House. Some of the lingering bitterness of the war is thus dispelled. More important for the future, the delivery marks the beginning of a close liaison between German and American airship men, a bond which will flourish through triumph and tragedy until the eve of another world war—and the end of all rigid airship development. But that is comfortably in the future. Today, Commissioning Day, there are thirty-nine officers and men on board, including eleven of the Germans who delivered her. These aviators share a determined belief in the efficacy of the large airship as a means to navigate the air. The mood throughout the ship is proud, hopeful, expectant. The airship tries to land. Literally, she cannot reach the ground—the ship is too “light.” The navy is operating its lighter-than-air program on a budgetary shoestring; needless expenditures must be avoided. The aircraft’s lift is provided by nearly 2.6 million cubic feet of helium, which is frightfully expensive. Therefore, if possible, the captain wants to land without valving the precious gas. But the ground crew, under the leadership of Lt. Charles E. Rosendahl, cannot pull her down. The wind is gusty. A handling line snaps. Reluctantly, the valve controls are pulled and seventy thousand cubic feet of helium are released to the atmosphere. While this awkward ballet of men and machine continues, the assembled guests wait patiently. Among the distinguished guests is an unobtrusive figure who appears vaguely distressed by the entire affair. But this facial expression is characteristic of the American president, Calvin Coolidge. He appears (as one commentator notes) to be forever looking down his nose to locate some evil smell which seems always to offend him.! Nearby, a big naval officer appears particularly pleased today. Vice Adm. William A. Moffett is a propo- nent of the large naval airship. As chief of the new Bureau of Aeronautics, moreover, the admiral is responsible for all of naval aviation. His advocacy of the rigid airship will cost him his life. After several failed attempts, ZR-3 lands into the anxious hands of the ground crew. Navy men scramble aboard as ballast to help keep the ship heavy; the rest hold her down. The ceremony can finally proceed. At 1614 hours, as reporters dutifully scribble and cameras record the scene, ZR-3 is christened USS Los Angeles by Mrs. Grace Coolidge, wife of the president, with a bottle of water from the River Jordan. (The absence of champagne is a concession to that burning social issue, Prohibition.) Six minutes later, the ship is placed into commission as a vessel of the navy and delivered to her captain, who reads his orders to command. The president and his party are then escorted up into the control car for a brief tour. The president’s flag is displayed, the only time this will occur on a navy airship. The flight crew is anxious to be underway. Lt. “Tex” Settle (soon to become the navy’s top balloon pilot) is at the head of the ladder, keeping the line of VIP traffic moving with a Xl Preface “Please step along, sir” and a slight push on the elbow. A short and rather sluggish visitor is given an extra verbal and physical urging. Settle recalls: “He looked up, a bit surprised, and I saw it was ‘Silent Cal’ himself. He said nothing, and did speed up a bit. Mrs. Coolidge, following, gave me an understanding, amused smile—she probably hadn’t seen her husband shoved that way in a long time... She was a gracious lady.” After fifteen minutes, the president disembarks and the young officer freezes to attention, but Coolidge seems not to notice the lieutenant. Admiral Moffett, Lieutenant Rosendahl, and another five men climb aboard for the short passage to Lakehurst. No time is wasted. At 1654 hours, the ship is weighed off in preparation for getting under way, that is, the aircraft’s load and lift are precisely adjusted. Ten minutes later, Los Angeles rises vertically off the field, four engines are cut in at two- thirds speed and the aircraft moves off to the east. In 2'4 hours she is circling the Lakehurst landing field where, finally, she lands and is berthed in the big hangar next to Shenandoah (ZR-1), her American-built sister. In the evening hours of 25 November 1924, the returning naval aviators stow their flight gear and the ground crew rolls the massive hangar doors closed. In less than a dozen years and for a variety of reasons—technological, military, and political —the rigid airship will fail to prove its value in naval warfare. The legacy of this program will compromise development of the nonrigid airship or blimp. Navy interest in the smaller ships has been subordinated during the rigid airship era, but an aggressive program of development will get under way, belatedly, by 1940. Given the urgent pressures of war, the largest airship fleet ever constructed will, in World War II, make an important contribution to U.S. efforts against the submarine menace. And the navy will persist. The postwar lighter- than-air program will operate modern, highly sophisticated airships as anti-submarine war- fare (ASW) and as Airborne Early Warning (AEW) platforms. Nonetheless, in 1961, the blimp will be rejected as a military vehicle in favor of competing systems. U.S. Navy lighter- than-air will be terminated, and more than forty years of experimentation and operating experience will be discarded. This book is that story. X11 t = amy wien tah = ye «= @ Gde* Oreatimie io i: 7 _ PVN Wis hae Oe Sale Ley as nisege eA 771049" aQGeew »OGer felt 9 war rene “At = uae Lge rl 8Sne ter ate & &)5 See ee cande thane Aa ee ee ee ha | : = ree yin 38 e SH ace = = : > - She -«& SaaS G2) 4 Odes teowenl® os & PORTA SE R.A 6 SS 2Pee 62n0 wl MTA. BS OY €21)' OG 6 Ace oer Se ee eid ach 20-On (aes ae on oe ema” orth wee 3° 6 SS eae <4 Oe Baentd Bes Gon a os ie os anes o> A Ceperéis) tees sexe Bo =° ©. ee a ews = > _ a ee co -_ 2p ie4 4 ly a * 7 - _ Sit SEES CMH V¥ Ar Introduction Lighter-than-air (LTA) craft are mankind’s oldest aircraft. In 1783, the first air passenger was carried aloft in a French balloon—more than a century before the Wright brothers’ heavier-than-air (HTA) machine. The new science of ballooning evolved slowly during the next hundred years. But the invention of reliable, lightweight engines transformed aeronau- tics. By the early 1900s, experimental power-driven balloons, or dirigibles, were being flown successfully by a host of pioneers in a number of countries. The stimulus for the United States Navy’s lighter-than-air program dates to the early 1900s, and to Germany. The first Zeppelin airship (LZ-1) made its maiden flight in 1900. In 1909, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, inventor of the rigid airship, founded the first commercial aerial transport company; one year later, passenger service was inaugurated. Between 1910 and 1914, the fledgling—and very lucky—airline established an all-but- forgotten record: nearly sixteen hundred flights, almost thirty-two hundred hours in the air, and more than ten thousand paying passengers without an injury.! The German military authorities were also attracted to this new vehicle. Commercial Zeppelin airships were chartered to train personnel. Both the army and navy ordered Zeppelins built and equipped for military service before the war. By the outbreak of the First World War, German preeminence in lighter-than-air aeronautics was firmly estab- lished. The Zeppelin organization was promptly integrated into the national war effort. Years of design and experiment were compressed into each year of the conflict. The Allies scram- bled to learn as much as possible regarding German airship “trade secrets,” but their technology lagged well behind that of their opponent. The use of this novel weapon for offensive bombing of enemy cities provided an irresistible temptation. Zeppelin raids, it was assumed, would bring the war home to civilian populations, undermine national morale, and possibly force termination of hostilities. The SKY SHIPS first air raid using Zeppelins was conducted against Antwerp in August 1914. By 1916, these attacks were receiving enormous attention from the world’s press. Zeppelin is a new word of terror which supplements the vocabularies of both England and France. These monster airships have destroyed the boasted security of the English people, based on isolation of the island. England has spent her millions to maintain master[y] of the seas, only to find the airships of Germany have free passage, against which no safe- guards can be raised.* Despite these exaggerations, the military results of the raids were a disappointment. The more effective use of Zeppelins as naval scouts over the Baltic and North Seas was far less known—but of intense interest to both Britain and the United States. Rigid airships flew scouting and defensive reconnaissance missions for the German Navy, contributing materially to intelligence gathering. German airships also proved effective in the grim game of mine warfare between Britain and Germany. The Allied powers were obliged to take note. As one U.S. Navy observer wrote: “It seemed evident that a new weapon had appeared and that the United States should consider The control car from the captured Zeppelin L-49 on display at the Hotel des Invalides, Paris. The airship was one of eleven which attacked England on 19 October 1917. L-49 was forced down intact, allowing the Allies to make detailed drawings of the ship. These were used to help design America’s first rigid airship, USS Shenandoah. Note the similarity between the car and that on page 29. (D. H. Robinsin)