Unique aircraft carrier: USS Macon - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Botnst · #1 10-15-2006, 04:45 PM

I'd never heard of this craft, either. Photos at the site, referenced at the end of this post.

Bot

The Underwater Airship

The military zeppelin USS Macon was meant to be a floating American aircraft carrier over the Pacific Ocean -- but it crashed, sank and has been lying on the ocean floor for more than 70 years. Now scientists have discovered and documented the unique wreck off the coast of California.

The tragedy unfolded unusually slowly for an aviation catastrophe: The crew fought to control the USS Macon for more than an hour. US naval officers threw fuel canisters overboard in an attempt to reduce the weight of their vessel. The canisters imploded on their way to the ocean floor. Meanwhile, the Macon -- the largest rigid airship ever constructed in the United States -- sank inexorably downward, the safety of the Moffett Field hangar just within reach.

The Macon hit the water surface only five kilometers (three miles) off the Californian coast, along the latitude of the Point Sur lighthouse near Monterey, on Feb. 12, 1935. The zeppelin broke apart and sank into the deep water. Two of the 83 crew members died -- the low number of deaths is likely due to the fact that the Macon sank in slow motion.

Neither enemy fire nor sabotage was to blame for the giant airship's doom (and a giant it was: longer than three 747 jets parked nose to tail). A heavy storm above the picturesque stretch of Californian coast known as Big Sur tore off the Macon's vertical tail fin. The airship's structural framework was so badly damaged that the Macon broke apart when it hit the water.

A riddle at the bottom of the ocean

Why and how that happened is the question an interdisciplinary research team now wants to answer. While an investigative commission formed by the US Navy following the catastrophe was able to determine that shoddy repair work was to blame for the crash -- a test flight above Texas had led to damage to the structural framework earlier -- the results reached by the commission were never definitively proven. The commission's researchers had to content themselves with speculation -- after all, the evidence for their hypothesis lay 450 meters (1,476 feet) below the ocean surface. Scuba divers are still unable to reach that depth today, although treasure hunters and dealers in military paraphernalia are sometimes equipped to go there. However, the location of the wreck was kept secret precisely in order to prevent plundering.

It was only in June 1990 that Chris Grech, the deputy director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) discovered the first pieces of wreckage on the ocean floor. Several high-tech searches had been unsuccessful during the 1980s. Grech finally discovered the Macon's remains in the middle of a deep-sea reservation area. Its existence is the only reason why what Grech calls a "unique time capsule from another era" has remained untouched for more than 70 years. If commercial fishing had been allowed in the area, dragnets would long since have destroyed the ghostly remains at the bottom of the ocean.

In late September of this year, scientists from MBARI and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) joined forces with the US Navy. They left Monterey on board the research ship Western Flyer in order to systematically survey the area. Until then, the scientists had to work with low-resolution sonar images of the wreckage, but now an underwater robot, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Tiburon, was able to explore the Macon's final resting site -- and take close-up pictures.

A chapter in the history of military technology

"The primary goal of the mission is to conduct comprehensive documentation of the site of the USS Macon's loss that can be used to evaluate the archaeological context of the craft," according to a NOAA statement. But the scientists are also secretly hoping to find the Macon's tail fin -- the part that turned out to be the weakest link in the construction, during the airship's final, ill-starred ocean flight.

Grech, the project's director, says he's noticed changes since his last visit. "A lot of the wreck is covered up," Grech told the New York Times. "It's easy for sediment to build up over time, and some large objects have moved."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,441035,00.html

retmil46 · #2 10-15-2006, 09:10 PM

If I remember correctly, there were at least 3 or 4 of these - Akron, Macon, Shenandoah, and Los Angeles. Los Angeles was actually built by the Germans as war reparations for WWI, other 3 we built ourselves. Akron and Macon were the only ones equipped with fighter planes. Los Angeles was the only one not lost to accident, eventually dismantled.

If you've ever seen the Mythbusters episode about helium-filled footballs, the hangar they were doing their tests in was actually built to house one of these giants.

As far as how far back we were planning for a possible war with Japan in the Pacific, try the end of the Spanish-American War (1898) - over 40 years before. Do a search on "Plan Orange". I actually have a rather thick and detailed book on it, picked it up at the Arizona Memorial when my last boat pulled into Pearl for a couple weeks back in '94.

t walgamuth · #3 10-15-2006, 11:28 PM

there was a big article in i think smithsonian a few years back about those dirigibles. they werent strong enough to stay together in a storm and broke up in storms, each of them.

fascinating design ideas though.

tom w

Hatterasguy · #4 10-15-2006, 11:42 PM

Very interesting.

Such a shame Zeppelin's never succeded, what an amazing craft. To big for there own good it seems.

79-240d-project · #5 10-16-2006, 12:44 AM

There was a very interesting Nova episode shown on PBS last week about the Hindenburg. A NASA expert on hydrogen spent years investigating the airship accident and came to the conclusion that the doped fabric covering the airship was the real cause of the fire that destroyed the craft.

The fabric was doped in a mixture of powered aluminum and iron oxide. The basic components of solid rocket fuel. Add static electricity and the fabric would burn at a fantastic rate. They showed a test with an actual piece from the Hindenburg and even after 46 years it went up in flames with just a spark.

t walgamuth · #6 10-16-2006, 09:11 AM

you sure that wasnt magnesium instead of aluminum?

tom w

79-240d-project · #7 10-16-2006, 10:45 AM

Yes, I am sure is was aluminum.