Close-up view of engine and cowling, and swiveled landing wheel.
With a drogue or sea anchor to hold the airship steady, supplies or personnel may be taken aboard at sea. (U. S. Navy photo)
A newly-hatched airship breaks its shell at Akron, will try its wings then join the Navy.
He put the question to his men in 1930, offering cash prizes for the best solution. Out of many ideas, one clear-cut line of progress appeared. This was to make the ground crew truck a maneuvering base, with a mast on top, which could be folded down when not in use. The truck then could not only hold the ship on the ground, but guide it in and out of the hangar with more security than by using a large number of men. Extra wheels mounted on outriggers kept the truck from being turned over by side gusts. In succeeding years the ground crew truck became a traveling mooring point which could follow the ship across country, give it anchorage when night fell, and at the same time act as a traveling supply depot, machine shop, radio cabin, and crew quarters.
A portable mast, built in sections, high enough for ships to mast at the nose, was the next step. It could be set up on an hour’s notice, anchored by guy wires and screw stakes for more extended operations. Gradually the airship became independent of the hangar, came to use it only for overhaul and the purification of its helium gas. The blimp could be fueled and serviced completely in the open.
Lacking a dock in San Francisco, at the time of the Exposition in 1939, the Goodyear blimp Volunteer moved up from Los Angeles, based on a mast for five months. The only time it sought shelter was when a splinter from the propeller pierced the bag, causing a leak. The ship flew 60 miles down the bay to the Navy base at Sunnyvale, like a boy coming in from play to have a splinter removed from his finger, went back again, didn’t even stay over night.
In the winter of 1940-41 the “Reliance” which had been spending its winters in Miami, using a wartime Navy hangar which the city had moved up from Key West, found that building commandeered for defense work. So a mast was set up on the Causeway, and the ship operated with no other home than that for six months, saw no shelter from the time it left Wingfoot Lake in early December till it returned at the end of May.
The Navy had a different problem as it moved into the non-rigid picture in the early 1930’s. Its problem was only incidentally to operate away from its base at Lakehurst. Ships were getting larger in size, and masts were needed where they could be moored outdoors, or taken in and out of the hangar. The solution was a smaller replica of the rigid airship’s “Iron Horse” except that it moved on large rubber tires, and was towed in and out by tractor, rather than carrying its own power plant.