On this day in 1924, LZ-126 arrived at Lakehurst for delivery to the U.S. Navy, to become U.S.S. Los Angeles (ZR-3).
These are two photos from my collection showing the German crew who flew the ship across the Atlantic.
LZ-126 had arrived from Germany inflated with hydrogen, which was carefully released so the ship could be operated with helium, but the Navy did not have enough helium to inflate two large airships at the same time so the ship’s first flight under American command had to await the return of U.S.S. Shenandoah, which was still on a cross country flight, so the helium in Shenandoah’s gas cells could be transferred to the new ship.
There is quite a heritage of California zeppelin flights including USS Shenandoah, the Graf Zeppelin (during its world circumnavigation), USS Akron (?) and of course the USS Macon based out is Sunnyvale. With a Goodyear New Zeppelin likely based or at least visiting California, perhaps it could drop a memorial wreath along one or several of these flight paths or visit Moffer field in honor of the Macon?
Dan:
I recently got the book “The Zeppelin Story” by Thor Nielsen. According to the author some “good luck charms” were carried on board this particular flight – a lucky wooden swallow by Max Pruss and Hans von Schiller (according to Nielsen they had previously carried this swallow on all the sorties they flew during WWI and had glued it back together after it had gotten hit by flak on one such mission), and a teddy bear by Dr. Eckener. Is this true? Or is Thor Nielsen into creative writing here?