Today in Technology History
(To receive "Today in Technology History" by e-mail, click here. To read past issues click here.)
April 3
On this date sixty-eight years ago, the U.S.S. Akron was destroyed.
The Akron was a rigid airship, or dirigible, filled with helium. The U.S. Navy used such lighter-than-air vehicles because their lift capacity allowed them to carry enormous amounts of cargo and fuel -- much more than the airplanes of the day.
The Akron and her sister ship the Macon were to be the Navy's largest rigid airships. When construction began in 1929, the Navy expected them to play a vital role in scouting and transport operations in the Pacific, where the vast distances between airstrips made airplane operations difficult. The Akron first flew in 1931, and among her test flights was an unprecedented flight around the rim of the U.S. -- from New Jersey to Florida, to California, to Seattle.
But the story of the Akron ended before it really began. On the night of April 3, 1933, on a routine flight in preparation for active service, the ship was caught in rough weather. Through a combination of navigation error and instrument failure (the altimeter gave her pilots the wrong reading) the Akron crashed into the ocean off the coast of New Jersey, sinking instantly in the rough seas and killing 76 of the 79 aboard. It was the deadliest aviation disaster up to that point -- killing more than twice as many people as the famous Hindenburg crash of four years later.
A few years after the accident, reacting to the poor safety record of the airships and to advances in fixed-wing aircraft design, the Navy decided to eliminate the airship fleet.
Related links:
| Biotechnology | Convergence | Creativity | Culture | E-conomics | Education |
| Equity | Gov't & Politics | Innovation | National Security | Personal Security |
For errors, broken links, questions or comments,
contact webmaster@tecsoc.org.
