USS Los Angeles ( ZR - 3 ) The second USS " Los Angeles " was a rigid airship , designated ZR - 3 , which was built in 1923 – 1924 by the Zeppelin company in Friedrichshafen , Germany , where it was originally designated LZ 126 . The airship was surrendered to the United States Navy by the German Government as part of war reparations from World War I . Design and development . After World War I , Major Harold Geiger was attached to the Ambassador ' s staff in Berlin . While in Germany , Major Geiger sent reports to the Chief of the United States Army Air Service on the construction of the ZR - 3 , and repeatedly urged that the airship , which was later taken over by the Navy , be purchased by the Army . He was on the ZR - 3 on its transatlantic flight . Operational history . After the highly publicized October 1924 transatlantic delivery flight from the Zeppelin Company works in Friedrichshafen to the US Naval Air Station at Lakehurst , New Jersey , the airship was commissioned into the US Navy on 25 November 1924 at Anacostia , D . C . with LCDR Maurice R . Pierce in command . Its lifting gas was changed from hydrogen to helium , which reduced payload but improved safety . The airship went on to log a total of 4 , 398 hours of flight , covering a distance of 172 , 400 nautical miles ( 319 , 300 km ) traveling to places in both the Pacific and the Atlantic . It served as an observatory and experimental platform , as well as a training ship for other airships . The length was , about shorter than the longest Zeppelins . It was noted that the airship had a " useful load . . . forty - three tons " , " thirty - three tons of fuel " , " range of 5 , 400 nautical miles " , " displaced 87 . 3 tons . " On 25 August 1927 , while the " Los Angeles " was tethered at the Lakehurst high mast , a gust of wind caught her tail and lifted it into colder , denser air that was just above the airship . This caused the tail to lift higher . The crew on board tried to compensate by climbing up the keel toward the rising tail , but could not stop the ship from reaching an angle of 85 degrees , before it finally descended . Amazingly , the ship suffered only slight damage and was able to fly the next day . In 1930 , the " Los Angeles " was used to test the trapeze system developed by the US Navy to launch and recover fixed wing aircraft from dirigibles . The tests were a success and future American dirigibles were fitted with this system to launch and recover small fighters . The temporary system was removed from the " Los Angeles " , which never carried any aircraft on operational flights . In 1930 , the " Los Angeles " also tested the launching of a glider over Lakehurst , New Jersey . On 25 May 1932 , the " Los Angeles " participated in a demonstration of photophone technology . Floating over the General Electric plant in Schenectady , New York , crew on board the ship engaged in an on - air conversation with a WGY radio announcer using a beam of light . As the terms under which the Allies permitted the United States to have the " Los Angeles " restricted its use to commercial and experimental purposes only , when the U . S . Navy sought in 1931 to use the airship in a fleet problem , permission had to be obtained from the Allied Control Commission . The " Los Angeles " took part in Fleet Problems XII ( 1931 ) and XIII ( 1932 ) , although as was the case with all U . S . Navy rigid airships , demonstrated no particular benefit to the fleet . The " Los Angeles " was decommissioned in 1932 as an economy measure , but was recommissioned for a period after the USS " Akron " crashed in April 1933 . Soon returned to storage , the airship was finally struck off the Navy list in 1939 and dismantled in its hangar , thus ending the career of the Navy ' s longest serving airship . Unlike the ill - fated " Akron " , " Macon " , and " Shenandoah " , the " Los Angeles " ' career did not meet a disastrous end .