USS Macon (ZRS-5) | |
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USS Macon over New York City in 1933 | |
Career | |
Manufacturer | Goodyear–Zeppelin Corporation (Springfield Township, Ohio) |
Manufactured | 31 October 1929 (commenced) 8 August 1931 (launched) |
Serial | ZRS-5 |
First flight | 21 April 1933 |
Owners and operators | United States Navy |
In service | 23 June 1933 (commissioned) |
Last flight | 12 February 1935 |
Fate | Crashed off the coast of California, 12 February 1935 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Akron-class airship |
Displacement | 6,500,000 cu ft (184,059.5 m3) |
Length | 785 ft (239.3 m) |
Beam | 133 ft (40.5 m) (hull diameter) |
Draft | 146 ft 5 in (44.6 m) (height) |
Installed power | 560hp per engine |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | |
Range | 5,940 nmi (11,000 km; 6,840 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 60 |
Armament | 8 × .30-cal machine guns |
Aircraft carried | |
Aviation facilities | 1 aircraft launch trapeze |
USS Macon (ZRS-5) was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting and served as a "flying aircraft carrier", carrying up to five single-seat Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk parasite biplanes for scouting or two-seat Fleet N2Y-1s for training. In service for less than two years, the Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast in February 1935, though most of the crew were saved. The wreckage is listed as the USS Macon Airship Remains on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Less than 20 ft (6.1 m) shorter than the Hindenburg, both Macon and her sister ship Akron were among the largest flying objects in the world in terms of length and volume. Although the hydrogen-filled, Zeppelin-built Hindenburg and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II were both longer, the two American-built naval airships still hold the world record for largest helium-filled rigid airships.[2]