page_title: USS Akron
section_title: Construction and commissioning
hierarchical_section_title: USS Akron / Construction and commissioning
caption_attribution_description: English: Sample of Duralumin used in the construction of the US Navy airship USS Akron (ZRS-4) manufactured by the Goodyear Zeppelin Co., Akron, OH.
context_page_description: USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the U.S. Navy, which operated between September 1931 and April 1933. She was the world's first purpose-built flying aircraft carrier, carrying F9C Sparrowhawk fighter planes, which could be launched and recovered while she was in flight. With an overall length of 785 ft, Akron and her sister ship Macon were among the largest flying objects ever built. Although LZ 129 Hindenburg and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II were some 18 ft longer and slightly more voluminous, the two German airships were filled with hydrogen and so the US Navy craft still holds the world record for helium-filled airships.
  Akron was destroyed in a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey on the morning of 4 April 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crewmen and passengers. The accident involved the greatest loss of life in any airship crash.
context_section_description: Construction of ZRS-4 was begun on 31 October 1929 at the Goodyear Airdock in Akron, Ohio by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. Because she was larger than any airship previously built in the USA, a special hangar was constructed Chief Designer Karl Arnstein and a team of experienced German airship engineers instructed and supported design and construction of both U.S. Navy airships USS Akron and USS Macon.
  On 7 November 1929, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, the Chief of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics, drove the "golden rivet" in the ship's first 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 (for the city near where she was being built) and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ernest Lee Jahncke announced it four days later, on 14 May 1930.
  On 8 August 1931, Akron was launched (floated free of the hangar floor) and  christened by First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, the wife of the President of the United States, Herbert Clark Hoover. The maiden flight of Akron took place around Cleveland 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 she was delivered to the Navy and commissioned on Navy Day, 27 October, with Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Rosendahl in command.
caption: Sample of the duralumin from which the frame of USS Akron was built
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