Rigid Airships
- ZMC-2, a metalclad-airship built by the Aircraft Development Corp - 1929-41 (scrapped)
- (ZR-1) Shenandoah - 1923-25 (lost due to structural failure in line squalls)
- (ZR-2) R38 (see below) - 1921 (lost due to control inputs far in excess of structural strength)
- (ZR-3) Los Angeles - 1924-39 (decommissioned, 1932 and dismantled, 1940)
- (ZRS-4) Akron - aircraft carrier 1931-33 (lost in a storm 1933)
- (ZRS-5) Macon - aircraft carrier 1933-35 (lost due to structural failure)
ZR-2 was under contract from Britain where construction had been started on it as the R38. ZR-2 was contracted for in October 1919 while under construction, but crashed in 1921 before the US Navy could take delivery of it and did not officially receive its US designation, though it was painted in accordance of its planned Navy designation. On the fourth test flight of R-38 severe control inputs at low altitude and high speed cause the structural failure of the airship with the loss of the majority of the crew. Sixteen of the men killed were USN training to fly the ship back to Cape May, NJ.
Read more about this topic: List Of Airships Of The United States Navy
Famous quotes containing the words rigid and/or airships:
“The loosening, for some people, of rigid role definitions for men and women has shown that dads can be great at calming babies—if they take the time and make the effort to learn how. It’s that time and effort that not only teaches the dad how to calm the babies, but also turns him into a parent, just as the time and effort the mother puts into the babies turns her into a parent.”
—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)
“They’re semiotic phantoms, bits of deep cultural imagery that have split off and taken on a life of their own, like those Jules Verne airships that those old Kansas farmers were always seeing.... Semiotic ghosts. Fragments of the Mass Dream, whirling past in the wind of my passage.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)