USS ''Los Angeles'' was a rigid

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

, designated ZR-3, which was built in 1923–1924 by the

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

company in

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...

, Germany, as

war reparations War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. R ...

. It was delivered to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in October 1924 and after being used mainly for experimental work, particularly in the development of the American

parasite fighter A parasite aircraft is a component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship to support the primary mission of the carrier. The carrier craft may or may not be able to later recov ...

program, was decommissioned in 1932.

Design

The second of four vessels to carry the name USS ''Los Angeles'', the airship was built for the

as a replacement for the

s that had been assigned to the United States as war reparations following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and had been sabotaged by their crews in 1919. Under the terms of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

Luftschiffbau Zeppelin were not permitted to build military airships. In consequence ''Los Angeles'', which had the Zeppelin works number LZ 126, was built as a passenger airship, although the treaty limitation on the permissible volume was waived, it being agreed that a craft of a size equal to the largest Zeppelin constructed during World War I was permissible. The airship's hull had 24-sided transverse ring frames for most of its length, changing to an octagonal section at the tail surfaces, and the hull had an internal keel which provided an internal walkway and also contained the accommodation for the crew when off duty. For most of the ship's length the main frames were apart, with two secondary frames in each bay. Following the precedent set by LZ 120 ''Bodensee'', crew and passenger accommodation was in a compartment near the front of the airship that was integrated into the hull structure. Each of the five

Maybach VL I The Maybach VL I was an Otto cycle V-12 engine, made from 1924 in Germany. The airship LZ 126 was powered by five VL I engines which emphasised reliability and low fuel consumption. Technical description The VL I was a V-12 liquid-cooled fou ...

V12 engines occupied a separate engine car, arranged as four wing cars with the fifth aft on the centerline of the ship. All drove two-bladed pusher propellers and were capable of running in reverse. Auxiliary power was provided by wind-driven dynamos.

Operational history

ZR-3 USS Lss Angeles Delivery Flight Cover 1924

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00828, Lakehurst, Luftschiffe ZR-3 und ZR-1

''Los Angeles'' was first flown on 27 August 1924, and after completing flight trials began the transatlantic delivery flight on 12 October under the command of

Hugo Eckener Hugo Eckener (10 August 1868 – 14 August 1954) Schwensen Thomas Adam. p. 289 ostsee.de was the manager of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin during the inter-war years, and also the commander of the famous '' Graf Zeppelin'' for most of its record-set ...

, arriving at the US Naval Air Station at

Lakehurst, New Jersey Lakehurst is a borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 2,654,Althoff 2004, pp. 33–42. The airship was commissioned into the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

on 25 November 1924 at Anacostia, D.C. with Lieutenant Commander Maurice R. Pierce in command. On its arrival in the United States, its lifting gas was changed from

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

, which reduced payload but improved safety. At the same time the airship was fitted with equipment to recover water from the exhaust gases for use as ballast to compensate for the loss of weight as fuel was consumed, so avoiding the necessity to vent scarce helium to maintain neutral buoyancy. The airship went on to log a total of 4,398 hours of flight, covering a distance of . Long-distance flights included return flights to

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

. It served as an observatory and experimental platform, as well as a training ship for other airships. On 25 August 1927, while ''Los Angeles'' was tethered at the Lakehurst high mast, a gust of wind caught her tail and lifted it into colder, denser air that was just above the airship. This caused the tail to lift higher. The crew on board tried to compensate by climbing up the

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

toward the rising tail, but could not stop the ship from reaching an angle of 85 degrees, before it descended. The ship suffered only slight damage and was able to fly the next day. In 1929, ''Los Angeles'' was used to test the trapeze system developed by the US Navy to launch and recover fixed wing aircraft from rigid airships. The tests were a success and the later purpose-built s were fitted with this system. The temporary system was removed from ''Los Angeles'', which never carried any aircraft on operational flights. On 31 January 1930, ''Los Angeles'' also tested the launching of a glider over Lakehurst, New Jersey. On 25 May 1932, ''Los Angeles'' participated in a demonstration of

photophone The photophone is a telecommunications device that allows transmission of speech on a beam of light. It was invented jointly by Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Charles Sumner Tainter on February 19, 1880, at Bell's laboratory at 1325 ...

technology. Floating over the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

plant in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, the crew of the ship engaged in an on-air conversation with a WGY radio announcer using a beam of light. As the terms under which the Allies permitted the United States to have ''Los Angeles'' restricted its use to commercial and experimental purposes only, when the U.S. Navy wanted to use the airship in a

fleet problem The Fleet Problems are a series of naval exercises of the United States Navy conducted in the interwar period, and later resurrected by Pacific Fleet around 2014. The first twenty-one Fleet Problems — labeled with roman numerals as Fleet Proble ...

in 1931 permission had to be obtained from the Allied Control Commission. ''Los Angeles'' took part in Fleet Problems XII (1931) and XIII (1932), although as was the case with all U.S. Navy rigid airships, demonstrated no particular benefit to the fleet.Behrends, Werner ''The Great Airships of Count Zeppelin'' (2015) Raleigh, NC: Lulu.com, p. 102 ''Los Angeles'' was decommissioned in 1932 as an economy measure, but was recommissioned after the crash of in April 1933. She flew for a few more years and then retired to her Lakehurst hangar where she remained until 1939, when the airship was struck off the Navy list and was dismantled in her hangar. ''Los Angeles'' was the Navy's longest-serving rigid airship. Unlike ,

R38 The ''R.38'' class (also known as the ''A'' class) of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were ...

, ''

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

'', and , the German-built ''Los Angeles'' was the only Navy rigid airship which did not meet a disastrous end.

Gallery

File:Berlin 1924 - ZR III (1).jpg, LZ 126 over Berlin, 1924 File:LosAngeles Panama 1929 1.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' in Panama, 1929 File:Interior passengers cabin of the airship Los Angeles.jpg, Passenger cabin of the airship, 1924 File:Zr3nearvertical.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' lofted nearly vertical in the 1927 weather-related docking-mast mishap. File:Prüfling glider attached to USS Los Angeles.jpg, An RRG Prüfling glider attached to USS ''Los Angeles'' for carriage and drop tests. File:ZR-3 on USS Saratoga.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' anchored to . File:Uss los angeles airship over Manhattan.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' over Manhattan, New York, 1930 File:LosAngeles Panama 1929 2.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' in Panama 1929 File:USS Los Angeles ZR-3 (15323626075) (cropped).jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' in flight File:USS Los Angeles (ZR-3), USS Patoka (AO-9) and USS Lexington (CV-2) off Panama in 1931.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'', and off Panama City, Panama, about 1931. File:US Capitol on 25 November 1924 with the USS Los Angeles ZR-3 26474u (cropped).tiff, USS ''Los Angeles'' flies above the US Capitol File:USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) 6a32983u original.jpg, USS ''Los Angeles'' enters storage hangar for the first time at Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1924 File:Z.R. 3 in Amerika - Sonderblatt - Sondermeldung zum Rundfunkempfang - Dresdner Anzeiger - 15. Oktober 1924 - 10 Uhr 30 vormittags - Bild 001.jpg, Z.R. 3 in America - Special sheet of the Dresdner Anzeiger

Notes

Bibliography

* Althoff, William F. ''Sky Ships''. New York: Orion Books, 1990. . * Althoff, William F
''USS Los Angeles: The Navy's Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology.''
Dulles, Virginia: Brassey's, 2004. . * Hart, Larry. ''Pictures From the Past: A Schenectady Album.'' Schenectady, New York: Old Dorp Books, 1992. . * Provan, John. ''LZ-127 "Graf Zeppelin": The story of an Airship, vol. 1 & vol. 2'' (Amazon Kindle ebook). Pueblo, Colorado: Luftschiff Zeppelin Collection, 2011. * Robinson, Douglas H., and Charles L. Keller. ''"Up Ship!": U.S. Navy Rigid Airships 1919–1935.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1982. .

External links

Photo gallery of USS ''Los Angeles''

– a dedicated web portal for Zeppelin mail and airship memorabilia

– a research group for airship memorabilia and Zeppelin mail

– page at Navy Lakehurst Historical Society
Picture of the 25 August 1927 nose stand

at Naval Historical Center
1925 eclipse footage shot from ship

"Queen of Dirigibles Ready for U.S."
May 1924, ''Popular Science Monthly'' excellent drawing showing size comparison between earlier dirigibles and battleships
"Flying with an Airship Captain"
Mar 1930, ''Popular Science Monthly'' Article detailing the operation of Los Angeles {{DEFAULTSORT:Uss Los Angeles (Zr-3) 1920s German aircraft Los Angeles (ZR-3) 1920s United States military trainer aircraft Zeppelins