Sky Ships

This review is for the Pacifica Press hardback edition of 1990... Hardback: cloth over boards with a sewn binding with dustjacket. Blue linen with gold details. 304 pp, 2 1/2 pounds. Something like 175 b & w illustrations. Five appendices, 10 pp of End Notes, 8 p Bibliography. Indexed.

William Althoff, has written a comprehensive history of US Navy airships from the first blimp, DN-1, to the termination of all airship activities in 1962. When writing this history, the author had access to numerous sources including letters, interviews and tape-recorded information from former airship officers. For example, Appendix D is a copy of the Confidential 1959 letter from Captain Marion H. Eppes (former Commander of Fleet Airship Wing One) to the Chief of Naval Operations giving his recommendations for airships in the Navy.The result is a well documented, well written account of a weapons system that due to politics and budget considerations never realized its true potential.Chapter 1 describes the establishment of Lakehurst Air Station with emphasis on the design and construction of Hangar 1. Lakehurst was designed for the construction and operation of rigid airships with one airship ZR-1 (USS Shenandoah) to be built at Lakehurst and a second rigid airship, ZR-2 to be purchase from Britain. ZR-2 crashed in Britain without being delivered. The chapter on the Shenandoah foretells future problems for navy rigid airships stating ".... hostage to the airship's own propaganda and obsessed with public acceptance ....the navy `brass' continued to expect too much from their large airships, and far too soon." The Shenandoah's short life ended with its 1925 destruction in storm over Ohio. While the Shenandoah did little to develop the rigid airship as a weapon system, the author notes that "....the program had taken its first, faltering steps, Personnel had been trained, valuable experience accumulated ...."The navy received ZR-3 (USS Los Angeles) from Germany in 1924 as war reparations. It was treaty limited to civilian usage and couldn't be used with the fleet to develop an airship scouting doctrine. Chapter 3 gives an excellent account of this airship's career in experimentation and training. It was instrumental in developing the low mooring mast, and in developing a system for recovering and launching airplanes from an airship. Budget problems resulted in the Los Angeles being deactivated in 1932. Althoff's has written a succinct review of the navy's program to develop a fleet-type rigid airship. The navy contracted with Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. for two high-performance, fleet-type rigid airships ZR-4 (USS Akron) and ZR-5 (USS Macon). ZR-4 was christened in August 1931. The Akron's 1932 performances with the fleet were at best a qualified success and a doctrine for its effective use wasn't developed. Much time was devoted to public demands to see the Akron. Upon encountering a severe storm at sea in April 1933, the Akron was lost. The Macon, christened in March 1933, became proficient in launching and recovering her five scouting airplanes. The Macon developed the concept of the airship as an aircraft carrier and by mid 1934 became highly effective using her aircraft for long range, wide area scouting. Unfortunately, failure to complete