1935 Navy dirigible found

LiveScience.com - New Photos Reveal 1935 Airship at Bottom of Pacific Ocean

250px-uss_macon_over_manhattan.jpg

On Feb. 12, 1935, during severe weather off Point Sur, Calif., a U.S. Navy flying machine called the USS Macon fell from the sky, plunged into the Pacific Ocean, and sank.

It was the nation’s largest rigid, lighter-than-air craft, and the last of its kind [photo].

This month researchers documented the wreckage of the 785-foot dirigible.

The images

From a Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s (MBARI) research ship, scientists deployed a remotely operated vehicle to capture high-definition video and still images of wreckage.

Images show the airship’s hangar bay, containing four Sparrowhawk biplanes, five of the eight 12-cylinder gasoline engines, and objects from the ship’s galley, including two sections of the aluminum stove, propane tanks that supplied fuel for it and a dining table and bench.

A second debris field contained the Macon’s bow section, including the mooring mast receptacle, plus aluminum chairs and desks that may have been in a port side officers’ or meteorologist’s office.

Decades of mystery

The exact location of the submerged wreckage remained a mystery for nearly 50 years until a commercial fisherman snagged a piece of the USS Macon’s girder in his net, and ended up displaying the artifact at a local seafood restaurant.

Clenched fist salute: Dan Melson

Comments

  1. commissar wrote:

    My dad loved “dirigibles.” He never calls them “zeppelins,” but always “dirigibles.”

    Posted 30 Sep 2006 at 12:23 pm

  2. CDR Salamander wrote:

    Commie,
    One day, in a half decade or so from now, over a beer, I will tell you how I almost, almost, became a “One-Winger.” Nice catch!

    Posted 30 Sep 2006 at 2:56 pm

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