USS Macon (ZRS-5)

Uncommon card · No. 177287

USS Macon (ZRS-5) was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting and served as a "flying aircraft carrier", carrying up to five single-seat Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk parasite biplanes for scouting or two-seat Fleet N2Y-1s for training. In service for less than two years, the Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast in February 1935, though most of the crew were rescued. The wreckage is listed as the USS Macon Airship Remains on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Macon and her sister ship USS Akron were among the longest and most voluminous flying objects in the world. Although the hydrogen-filled, Zeppelin-built Hindenburg and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II were some 20 ft (6.1 m) longer, the two American-built naval airships still hold the world record for the largest helium-filled rigid airships.

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph, Public domain