As the US Navy’s newly built USS Akron flys overhead, the Akron Municipal Airport and its distinctive architecture stand proudly below in this vintage Akron Postcard. Opening in 1929, the Akron Municipal Airport at one point was a U.S. naval air station, known as Naval Air Station Akron. Today the airport is known as the…
A US Navy Corsair Fighter, built by Goodyear Aircraft flies over the Rubber Bowl Stadium. Goodyear Aircraft produced more than 4,000 Corsair fighter planes. During the height of production, it was common for Akronites to see these “warbirds” flying above the city.
The USS Macon was built at the Goodyear Airdock in Springfield Township (Akron) by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. This was by far the biggest airship ever to be built in America. A team of experienced German airship engineers—led by Chief Designer Karl Arnstein—instructed and supported design and construction of both the U.S. Navy airships Macon and Akron.
The USS Los Angeles was decommissioned in 1932, but was recommissioned for a period after the USS Akron crashed in April 1933. The airship was struck off the Navy list in 1939 and dismantled in its hangar, thus ending the career of the Navy’s longest-serving rigid airship.
