The U.S.S. Los Angeles mooring to the U.S.S. Saratoga
This search was brought on by a post on another blog claiming that an airship mooring to an American ship was photoshopped and never happened. It all started with the first photo. In the end I’m still not sure if the first photo is ‘real’ … structurally it seems improbable, and imo, it would be an unsound action.
In all my searching I found no record of the first photo in any historical military sites I visited so I ended up with even more doubts about its authenticity. But it was what started my search.
The USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) has engines with props that would most likely hit the carrier island. The carrier island has various projections that would easily hit the airship, which is very thin-skinned.
I am convinced it is fake as I have found multiple documentation and photos of airships MOORED TO THE STERN of ships but no other photos of an airship moored amidship like the first photo. I found a video of the Los Angeles approaching and landing on the stern of the Saratoga but that video clip doesn’t show the Los Angeles in the middle of the ship like the first photo. it looks like a touchdown and then a release.
ZR-3, USS Los Angeles, was a zeppelin built in Germany for the United States Navy as part of a reparations payment. She was our longest-serving airship from 1924-1939. Her landing onboard the USS Saratoga on 28 January 1928 was supposedly the only American airship landing on a carrier. There possibly were others during the World War II years, but I haven’t found any documented yet.
I did find a photo of an airship, SSZ-59, making a landing on the H.M.S. Furious in 1918. See the very last photo in this post.
Excerpt from the “Department of the Navy — Naval Historical Center”
USS Los Angeles, a 2,472,000 cubic foot rigid airship was built at Friedrichshafen, Germany. Her construction was partially funded by German World War I reparations and was conditional on her being employed for “civil” purposes. Completed in August 1924 under the builder’s number LZ-126, she departed Germany in mid-October 1924 for delivery to the U.S. Navy. After a three day trans-Atlantic flight, the airship arrived at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, where her hydrogen lifting gas was replaced with non-flammable helium. This greatly increased her safety, but also significantly reduced her payload and range. In late November 1924 she was placed in commission as USS Los Angeles and began several years of flight activity to explore the potential of her type for commercial and Naval use. Between February and May 1925, she voyaged twice to Bermuda and one time to Puerto Rico, and made test moorings to the Navy’s floating airship base, the oiler Patoka*.
In June 1925, Los Angeles began an overhaul at Lakehurst, while her expensive helium gas was transferred to the older dirigible Shenandoah (ZR-1). The latter’s tragic loss, on 3 September 1925, produced a temporary shortage of helium, delaying Los Angeles’ return to flight service until March 1926. However, she was actively employed for six years after that, five of them as the Navy’s only rigid airship. During this time, in addition to her normal training and experimental duties, she was used to calibrate East Coast radio compasses, made several cross-country flights around the eastern and southern United States, landed briefly on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga on 27 January 1928 and then continued her work with Patoka. A unique incident on 25 August 1927**, in which she briefly rose tail-high to a near-vertical position while attached to Lakehurst’s tall mooring mast, demonstrated the dangers inherent with this type of facility and led to the adoption of the “stub” mast used for more than three more decades of dirigible and blimp operations.
Photo #1 - The photo that started the search, imo, photoshopped or otherwise altered.
Photo’s #2 - 5 are of the USS Los Angeles approach to the stern of the USS Saratoga (CV-3) and mooring to the stern. Below are the links to these photos:
#5 - https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-44000/NH-44096.html
The next link is a short video clip of the USS Los Angeles approaching the USS Saratoga and mooring to the stern:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8FmKw9JKD8&t=76s
Photo’s #6 and 7 are screenshots from the video clip.
The 8th photo is the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) rising out-of-control to a near-vertical position, while moored at the high mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, shortly after 1:30 PM on 25 August 1927. This incident resulted from the sudden arrival of a cold air front that lifted the airship's tail, causing it to rise before she could swing around the mast parallel to the new wind direction. Los Angeles suffered only minor damage, but the affair demonstrated the risks involved with high mooring masts.
The 9th photo is the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) flying over ships of the U.S. Fleet - circa 1930 - Photographed from USS Los Angeles - Ships below - USS Patoka (AO-9), Foreground, Carriers Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3) From what I could find this photo was taken in Panama Bay, Panama. January 1931.
The 10th photo is USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) with a Vought UO-1 Observation Plane attached to the trapeze system during mating experiments in the airship hangar at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, 15 December 1928.
The 11th photo is USS Los Angeles (ZR-3), which had been built in Germany as Zeppelin airship LZ-126 on the left and the German Dirigible Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127) (at right) in the airship hangar at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. Photo is dated 7 August 1929.
The 12th and 13th photo’s are the USS Los Angeles moored to the USS Patoka (AO-9), off of the Panamanian coast, February 1931, The Patoka was a converted oiler with a proper mooring mast constructed on the stern.
An experimental landing on the deck of H.M.S. Furious, by the non-rigid airship SSZ 59 in 1918. This test was carried out in the Firth of Forth to try out the possibility of taking these small airships to sea with the Fleet. The test was a success, but further experiments were prevented by the signing of the Armistice in 1918.
No comments:
Post a Comment