USS Macon Airship Crash Site Explored in New Video

September 2, 2015 - A team of oceanographers recently captured new footage of a sunken U.S. Navy airship off the coast of California, the USS Macon, one of whose propellers is on display in EAA’s museum.

The USS Macon, designated ZRS-5, was launched as a flying aircraft carrier in March 1933, and at 784 feet long,  the massive airship was only about 100 feet shorter than the Titanic. In order to fly, it was fitted with eight 560-hp V-12 Maybach engines and, initially, eight 16 1/2-foot Hartzell propellers.

The airship crashed during a storm off California’s cost in February 1935. Despite 74 of the USS Macon’s 76 crewmembers surviving the incident, its wreckage was not located until 1991.

To learn more, read the U.S. Naval Institute’s news article,  or to see one of its propellers up close and personal, plan a visit to EAA’s AirVenture museum in Oshkosh. And with countless artifacts on display, you never know what other pieces of history you might come across.