USS Akron (ZRS-4) - Construction and Commissioning

Construction and Commissioning

Construction of ZRS-4 commenced on 31 October 1929, at the Goodyear Airdock in Akron, Ohio by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. Because she was the biggest airship ever to be built in America up to that point, a special hangar was constructed in Akron and a team of experienced German airship engineers, led by Chief Designer Karl Arnstein, instructed and supported design and construction of both U.S. Navy airships USS Akron and USS Macon.

On 7 November 1931, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett—Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics—drove the "golden rivet" in the ship's main ring. Erection of the hull sections began in March 1930. On 10 May, Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams chose the name Akron (after the city near where it was being constructed) and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ernest Lee Jahncke announced it four days later, on 14 May 1930.

The airship's frame was built of duralumin. Once completed, Akron could store 20,000 US gal (76,000 L) of gasoline, which gave it a range of 10,500 mi (9,100 nmi; 16,900 km). Eight Maybach VL-2 gasoline engines were mounted inside the hull. Each engine turned one twin-bladed propeller via a driveshaft which allowed the propeller to swivel vertically and horizontally.

On 8 August 1931, Akron was launched (floated free of the hangar floor) and christened by Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover, the wife of the President of the United States, Herbert Clark Hoover. Akron's maiden flight took place around the Cleveland, Ohio area on the afternoon of 23 September with Secretary of the Navy Adams and Rear Admiral Moffett on board. The airship made eight more flights—principally over Lake Erie but ranging as far as Detroit, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Columbus, Ohio—before being flown from Akron to the Naval Air Station (NAS) at Lakehurst, New Jersey, where it was delivered to the Navy and commissioned on Navy Day, 27 October, with Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Rosendahl in command.

Akron had a unique feature, somewhat like the WW I German zeppelin spähkorb device developed by Ernst Lehmann, for determining whether the air was clear below a fog bank to descend. A small weather station containing a radio transmitter was lowered on a cable and reported back to Akron whether there was clear air below the fog or whether it reached all the way to the ground.