USS Los Angeles: The Navy's Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology [Hardcover]

William F. Althoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2003

Aviation historian William Althoff tells the story of the U.S. Navy’s airship, USS Los Angeles, the most successful aircraft of its type ever flown. In dramatic detail, Althoff recounts how the U.S. Navy arranged for the famed German Zeppelin Company to build the ship, thwarted schemes by the U.S. Army’s Air Service to take control of it, and helped plan its record-breaking, historic four-day flight from Germany to the United States. After years of experiments meant to determine its military and commercial application, the airship ultimately failed to command a consensus in the Navy. “Relegated to a lower tier,” Althoff writes, “the rigid type receded to marginal relevance until, on the eve of World War Two, it vanished altogether.” In this book, the early achievements and unceremonious demise of the Los Angeles after a long career symbolize the airship’s unfulfilled promise. Nonetheless, the operational record of this one machine altered American naval aeronautics and greatly influenced transoceanic commercial air transport during a critical period of its development.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William F. Althoff enjoys dual careers as a geologist and historian. His research and writing concern U.S. naval aviation, polar aeronautics, and the history of technology. Althoff has logged numerous visits to the Arctic, working with Canadian and American officials, and, as a guest of the Russian government, conducted research at the renowned Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg. He was Ramsey Fellow in Naval Aviation History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He is the author of USS Los Angeles: The Navy’s Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology (Brassey’s, Inc., 2003).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.; 1st edition (November 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574886207
• ISBN-13: 978-1574886207
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,315,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Little Known Time of Navy Air History, April 15, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: USS Los Angeles: The Navy's Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology (Paperback)

Everyone knows about the Hindenburg and it's famous fire. People interested in airships know about the other failures such as the Macon and Shenandoah. Above them all, however, was the Los Angeles.

Built at the Zeppelin factory after World War I, this ship sailed the Atlantic and became an official Navy ship. In the early days of air craft technology it flew more than 300 flights, over 4,000 hours in the air, almost without incident. It taught us a lot about the design and operation of lighter than air aircraft.

This book is a complete history of the Los Angeles, but perhaps even more important, it fits the Los Angeles into the overall development of aviation during the years between the world wars. Here is a discussion on other lighter than air machines, and also on the developments in heavier than air conventional planes. This was the time when the Langley was built.

This was also the time of the battleship admirals who saw nothing of any value in operating in the air. This attitude would last until a little incident at Pearl Harbor.

The saddest part of the book is the section on the dismantling of the airship. On 24 October 1939 the Los Angeles was stricken from the active Navy ship list. Disassembly began immediately. Cdr. Jesse L. Kenworthy, Jr. was anxious to complete the project, and with on fanfare. He said that he was concerned with "the approaching need for additional hangar space." Selling it as scrap gave the Navy less than $4,000. So was destroyed an important piece of history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable Naval airship resource, February 5, 2011

By 

Spud - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: USS Los Angeles: The Navy's Venerable Airship and Aviation Technology (Paperback)

This is a truly remarkable resource not only for the USS Los Angeles dirigible. There is a history of the small Naval airship fleet as well. The complete Los Angeles log book is included with descriptions of its short career that included a whopping 331 sorties.
Steve Gerkin