81821969561
Description: Airship USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in a near-vertical position, after her tail rose out-of-control while she was moored at the high mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey.
At 13:29 a sudden cold weather front hit Los Angeles; the resulting increase in the buoyancy of the airship, warmed by sunlight, pushed it upward. The tail freely went up while the nose remained tied to the tower. The captain requested permission to disengage from the tower, but the ground crew “saw no need for it”. Winds threw the tail further upward; The ship captain sent the men into the tail, but Los Angeles kept rising until reaching a nearly vertical (88 degrees) nose-down position. The airship slowly rotated back; the captain called his men back and released aft balance, saving Los Angeles from a tail-first impact. Los Angeles survived the accident and served until 1932, performing 331 flights without major accidents or fatalities.
Date liked: 2014/04/08 23:04:06
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Liked from: STML
STML reblogged from: kenyatta
Tagged:
vintage photography 142
aviation history 29
airship 24
historical photograph 17
1920s 16
dirigible 13
aeronautics 10
military aviation 7
us navy 5
mooring mast 4
