Here's a medallion I picked up years ago of the USS Macon and USS Akron airships. The medallion is larger than a silver dollar. Working at NASA Ames, every day I saw the Hangar built to house the Macon. It was MASSIVE, over 8 acres in size, over 6 football fields could fit in it, and so large fog could form in it. It needed to be this big because the Macon, and her sister ship Akron, were 784' in length X 132' in width X 146' in height. They had a maximum speed of 87 mph. The Macon and the Akron were designed as FLYING aircraft carriers in the early 1930's. They carried up to 5 biplanes each, hence the biplanes in the medallion. The Akron was launched in 1931 and crashed in 1933. The Macon was launched in 1933 and crashed in 1935. That pretty much stopped the US military interest in large airships, (although dirigibles were used during World War II to look for submarines). The images were taken by Bob Campbell, and I think he did an excellent job.
That is a sweet medal. There is an old airship hanger not far from me...it's currently being used as an air museum. Not the best museum, I think the building is cooler than the collection in it.
Awesome medallion. I visited NASA Ames one time (incredibly cool and impressive) and also had a friend who used to work there. The size of the wind tunnels is crazy!
I worked at Ames in 1979-80, doing software for wind tunnel visualization. When were you there Skyman?
I was going by Moffat Field a few weeks ago and was surprised to see the airship hanger was just the metal framework. The Navy has stripped the hanger as part of their toxic cleanup of the site and a Google subsidiary has been chosen to restore it and to assume control of Moffat's two runways.
I don't currently have it with me Chris, so I don't know which company produced it. I was there in 1987-1988, and I volunteer there now as a teacher.
Nice medal! I worked near Moffett Field for many years. The nearby Air Force "Blue Cube" satellite control building has also been demolished.
