#ussmacon

February 12th 1935 about 5:00pm, a lighthouse keeper in Point Sur, in California, witnessed an extraordinary event. A huge air shipping carrier faced to a unfortunate failure & about to sunk. It was a U.S.S. Macon the flying aircraft carrier had suffered major damage to its tail fin. In the storming sky the airship was out of control. For next 8 minutes it drops down nearly mile height straight into the pacific ocean. The captain realized the situation is hopeless. So they abandon the aircraft & let it to disappear deep in to the sea.  Many witnessed that ship sunken but no one knew where exactly rested.

Then half century later a research institute launched a project to find the U.S.S. Macon in Point Sur. They wanted to know how it was crashed. They used a computer programmed high definition photo taker with remote control in order to cover the complete area of crash zone. In 1991 they released a robot to get a good view of sunken U.S.S. Macon under the bay which occupied with a professional camera. They found the Macon & it was broken in to 2 pieces found less than 800 feet on the bottom of the sea.

Before World War II, Germany had these flying airships which could carry hundreds of people on board & 3 aircrafts.  They were generally huge.

 Karl Arnsteine was a very young engineer well known for building big bridges. He designed his first aircraft carrier at the age of 28. He was succeeded & his 1st model was L30. It was 650feet long & 78 feet across. It was no more a passenger ship but deadly new weapon. In 1917 this airship leaded the battle of world war I. at night they centred England & it was hard to detect but in the night they had troubles finding the targets. The largest risk was the medium they used as gas. It was Hydrogen & it was highly inflammable. So it was dangerous in the battle field.

In 1917 Germans tested a new idea to redesign the ship to carry fighter planes. U.S.S. Macon was the most advanced version for flying aircraft carrier ever builds. This zeppelin was capable of carrying 5 airplanes. 

In 1919 after winning the world war I Paris bided Germany to make more aircraft carriers for military purposes. A new airship was bided to be the biggest airship yet608 feet long. Then Karl Arnstine builds it lighter & stable. This airship was scheduled to be in America 1994 & to be named the U.S.S. Los Angeles.

In 1990 the automobile industry took place & then Goodyear made something besides tires, it was balloons. Its customer was US Navy. The Goodyear wanted more & he established Goodyear ZeppelinCooperation.

Karl Arnstine made U.S.S. Macon huge ship where there were no computers & all the calculations were made by hand. This giant airship’s frames contained 11 rings connected by intermediate rails & 3 keelsthat provided the strength & supported loads as fuel tanks, balance tanks, engines & cargo. 6.5 million Euro  used to just to build the frame. It was 785 feet long & 133 feet tall. Frame covered by 33 thousand square yards of fabric. It was coated with Nitric solution to made it tight & water repellent & then it was coated varnish to reflect the sun. They used engines each gives 560 horse power for top speed of 86 miles per hour. Lift comes from Helium. It is expensive than Hydrogen but it is non flammable. It had 12 gigantic gas cells combined 310 thousand refrigerators.

Three months before the U.S.S. Macon sunk; the airship was on the way to Caribbean. Over Texas, it hits turbulence & ripped the Macon fin under the stress. The crew struggled to steady the ship. When Arnstine got to know this he wanted this ship to land & gets repaired before any further trips. But Navy overruled him. So airship was on a search operation of unauthorized target, US president Franklin Roosevelt. He was on his summer holidays in pacific. President was impressed & said “well done” to this airship for its dedication to came over & put an eye on him.

On February 12th airship had to attend the practices in Pacific Ocean till 2:00 pm. Then U.S.S. Macon headed to north & crew was relaxed & looked forward to be in home. When they reached to Point Sur the storms came up & the escape to cease was too late. Storm damaged the upper fin which already on unstable situation. February 12th at 5:00pm Macon failed to be stable anymore. The storm ripped apart the unrepaired upper fin. Then 3 gas cells ripped & emptied. Without them U.S.S. Macon failed to be stable. They released gas but it was also too late. Macon went up until it reached its repressure height. It exhausted Helium about 1 hour until it dropped down. So captain ordered every man to hurry up & put boats & get into them. Then crew jumped into the water when it’s safe. Commander was the last to abounded the ship. Two men out of 83 drowned. After U.S.S. Macon the Navy ends its airship program which was too costly & too risky.