It sounds like something you’d rather see in a typical science fiction movie, but as crazy as it sounds there was a period in history where flying aircraft carriers were indeed a thing! To enlighten you, these are airships specifically designed to transport small biplanes used by the US Navy in the early 20th century, or more specifically the 1920s to the mid-1930s. As part of the country’s military arsenal, those flying aircraft carriers did not become famous for any particular endeavor or achievement, and as a result of their failure to prove themselves as lasting and reliable means of reconnaissance and patrol missions, they were soon discontinued. Not that many of them were generally designed, even at a time when airships were in vogue. However, these unique and rather creative machines have their own piece of military history and as such, deserve to be highlighted in our little article here.
The first attempts to attach small reconnaissance aircraft to airships were made only at the end of the First World War, namely in July 1917. Some of them were crowned with success, but the first really functioning such airships were constructed and put into operation only in 1929
We will get to those airships in a minute but first let’s just briefly explore the idea of the airships as a whole, so that we can better understand, why people tried to transform them into flying aircraft carriers. It was a well-known fact, that the Germans were keen on using airships as bombers in WW1 and I would argue that they were, to certain extend, successful. Here it is worth mentioning, that dirigibles were not only used for military operations, but also as transport vehicles. The British, who at the time were controlling around 25% of the world’s land surface, acknowledged that fact and decided that such a technological piece of machinery could be beneficial to “bringing the Empire together” or “connecting the Empire”.
That’s why they designed and constructed two airships, just for the sake of testing the technology. One of the ships managed to make a successful voyage from the British Isles to Canada and back, but the other one was involved in a horrible accident that took the lives of 48 people. After that the first airship was never used again and the British decided that it would be too dangerous to continue the experiment and soon gave up on the idea.
The Americans on the other hand, were the ones that actually thought of transforming the airships into fully functioning aircraft carriers. They wanted to attach small reconnaissance planes and later, if possible, bigger and better equipped fighters. The British and the Germans also tried it, during the war, but due to the overall largeness and vulnerability of the dirigibles, the experiments were discontinued. Also, a lot of resources were wasted and neither side could have afforded that.
The Yanks developed the conception of the so called “Mother Ship”, the idea being, that this huge airship would operate a small number of aircraft, that would be released in case of a specific military mission.
In 1929, the US Air Force designed a trapezoidal airship, which made it possible for fighters to “take off” but also to “land” in the airship, and all this happened in the air. At the top of the wings, the aircraft was equipped with an arrow, with which the pilot could “hook” the aircraft to the bottom of the airship. A trapezoidal system was first tested at the USS Los Angeles. After the Air Force concluded that the system was working, they proceeded to build two large airships, the USS Akron and the USS Macon, which were to act as flying aircraft carriers.
The USS Akron was launched in 1931 and the USS Macon in 1933.
The USS Akron and the subsequent USS Macon were filled with helium airships developed by the US Navy at the newly completed Airdock Goodyear-Zeppelin in Akron, Ohio. The construction was supervised by Karl Arnstein, one of the leading airship designers and a pioneer in the field, as well as 12 carefully selected engineers.
The airship’s heart resembled an airplane hangar. Each airship could carry up to five Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk fighters, light fighters loaded with two .30-caliber Browning machine guns.
The system of taking off and landing was relatively simple, strangely enough. When a pilot took off, the bottom of the airship was opened and the when the aircraft gained enough power, it was released from the hook that had kept him stable. Same when landing. A pilot should have had already reduced the speed enough, so that he could attach the plane to the hook and be pulled back into the “Mother Ship”.
Unfortunately, both of the previous mentioned airships met a tragic faith.
On April 3, 1933, the USS Akron was on a mission to calibrate its radio equipment off the coast of New Jersey when it encountered an air pocket with extremely strong ups and downs and incredible turbulence. The crew lost control of the airship and it sank in the ocean. The accident killed 73 people, and only three miraculously survived.
On February 12, the USS Macon was flying over the Pacific Ocean when a storm caused unexpected damage – the upper fin completely failed. Shortly after that the dirigible sank into to the ocean with the majority of the crew managed to survive the accident. In fact, only two people lost their lives on that day.
These two tragic events where the primary reason, why the US military command decided, that flying aircraft carriers would not be reliable, not only in combat, but also for daily usage. It was put an end to the experiment an instead focused on the development of the ocean-going aircraft carriers. Moreover, with the introduction of more technologically advanced aircraft and the air-to-air and air-to-ground missile systems, the need of flying aircraft carriers simply disappeared.
However, humans still have not entirely given up on the idea of developing a flying aircraft carrier. Take for example the concept of a special Boeing 747 equipped with a large flying hangar for maintaining and launching fighter jets. This idea was popular in the early 70s, if anyone is interested. Although it is speculated, that in the future something like that could be experimented with, I doubt it would be soon.