USS Macon (ZRS-5)

Career	Missing image USN-Jack.png USN Jack
USS Macon over Moffett Field</center>
Launched:	April 21 1933
Commissioned:	23 June 1933
Lost:	12 February, 1935
Fate:	crashed in severe weather
Struck:	26 February, 1935
General characteristics
Dead weight:	108 t
Useful load:	72 t
Length:	239 m (785 ft)
Diameter:	40.5 m (132.8 ft)
Height:	44.6 m (146.2 feet)
Volume:	184,000 m³
Propulsion:	8 internal combustion engines of 420 kW each
Speed:	140 km/h (75.6 knots, 87 mph) maximum
Range:
Complement:	91
Armament:
Aircraft:	5 F9C biplanes
Motto:

USS Macon (ZRS-5) was a rigid frame airship built and operated by the United States Navy and designated for scouting purposes. In service for less than two years, in 1935 Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off the coast of California.

She was built in Akron, Ohio by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, christened on March 11 1933 by Jeanette Whitton Moffett (wife of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett), and first flew one month later, only a few weeks after the tragic loss of her sister ship Akron (ZRS-4). Macon was commissioned on June 23 1933 with Commander Alger H. Dresel in command.

The Macon had 12 helium-filled gas cells made from gelatine-latex fabric. Designed to carry five F9C biplanes, Macon received her first aircraft on board July 6 1933 during trial flights out of Lakehurst, New Jersey. The planes were stored in bays inside the hull and were launched and retrieved using a trapeze. Departing the east coast October 12 1933, Macon's homefield became NAS Sunnyvale (now Moffett Field, California).

During a crossing of the continent, the Macon was forced to fly up to 1800 m (6,000 ft) to clear mountains in Arizona. As the ship's pressure height was less than 900 m (3,000 ft), a large amount of helium was vented to reach this altitude without rupturing the gas cells. To compensate for the loss of lift, 4 tonnes (9,000 lb) of ballast and 3 t (7,000 lb) of fuel had to be dumped. Unable to spare anymore fuel, the Macon had to complete its journey in a climbing attitude with engines at cruise speed. The nose-high attitude badly stressed the airframe, and when the Macon struck turbulence over Texas, a ring in the tail section buckled and two girders broke. The Macon completed the journey safely but the buckled ring and all four tail fins were deemed in need of strengthening.

On February 12, 1935 the repair process was still incomplete when, returning to Sunnyvale from fleet maneuvers, the Macon ran into a storm off Point Sur, California. During the storm, she was caught in a sudden updraft which caused structural failure of her unstrengthened upper tail fin. Trailing cables punctured the rear gas cells and the resulting gas leakage prompted a discharge of ballast. Control was lost and, tail heavy and with engines running, the Macon rose past the pressure height and kept going until enough helium was vented to cancel the lift. It took her 20 minutes to descend from 4,850 ft and, settling gently to the sea, Macon sank off the California coast, losing only two crewmembers from her complement of 76.

Macon, having completed 50 flights from her commissioning date, was stricken from the Navy list on February 26 1935. Subsequent airships for Navy use were of a nonrigid design to make them less vulnerable to meteorologic phenomena.

MBARI, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (http://www.mbari.org/) succeeded in locating and surveying the debris field of the Macon in February 1991, and was able to recover artifacts from it. Brief details are available at:

http://www.mbari.org/itd/retrospective/first.pdf (page 6)
http://www.mbari.org/itd/retrospective/full_text.pdf (page 11)

These mention sonar, video, and still camera data, as well as the artifact recovery, but no further information was readily apparent. In May 2005 MBARI returned to the site as part of a year-long research project to identify archeological resources in the bay. Side-scan sonar was used to survey the site and a more complete exploration is scheduled for later in 2005.

References

Richard K. Smith, The Airships Akron & Macon (Flying Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy), United States Naval Institute: Annapolis, Maryland, 1965