This portion of the program constitutes tributes to each of the US Navy's dirigible fleet back between the wars, and these puppies were the germ from which the whole airship-themed bunch of rock songs sprung:
- The Shenandoah was the first, commissioned in 1923 and going down over Ohio in a fierce storm. Fourteen men died but, amazingly, 29 others lived, as the airship literally broke into several sections, some of which were subsequently piloted by airmen and guided to the ground by controlled venting of the helium cells (i.e., they literally slashed them with knives). Absolutely nuts.
- Also after two years in service, the Akron crashed off New Jersey in 1933, with the loss of 73 (of 76) lives, mostly to drowning.
- The Akron's sister ship, the Macon, also went down over the ocean, off Big Sur, CA in 1935, after a similar 2 year lifespan, but with the loss of only 2 men (as life rafts and flotation devices had been instituted).
- The Los Angeles was actually acquired as war reparation from Germany in 1924 and was decommissioned in 1932 (without actually crashing!) and dismantled in 1939, having outlived all her peers.
"Akron (Queen of the Skies)":
https://app.box.com/s/0umwkt3bv86knuqurhqc4i9q95eibw31
"Macon (The Happiest Ship)":
https://app.box.com/s/y5zxxsrwj9ncj5rhsj6ez0etx6och0jf
"Los Angeles":
https://app.box.com/s/43o0248l57dzn43cb7knly9msrur78qq
"Shenandoah (Daughter of the Stars)":
https://app.box.com/s/l2exjd9yn4uny4pdkp3xj4coh3n3ltt9
