USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)

The USS Shenandoah, the first in a line of four United States Navy rigid airships, was actually based upon a crashed World War I era zeppelin: the Zeppelin Company's "L-49". When the U.S. Navy decided to build a zeppelin of their own, they had already had blimps for some time. A good portion of these blimps were stationed at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Also, the only hangar large enough in which to assemble a zeppelin was Hangar Number One, built in 1921, at Lakehurst. The assembly of the Shenandoah took place at Lakehurst between 1922 and 1923.

The USS Shenandoah took to the sky for the first time on September 4, 1923. She was destroyed in a violent storm over Sharon, Ohio on September 3, 1925 with the loss of fourteen of her 39 sailors. This disaster led Army Colonel Billy Mitchell to criticize the military's incompetence, leading directly to his court-martial and the end of his military career.

It is interesting to note that the "L-49", after which the "Shenandoah" was modeled, was a German altitude climber. It was designed specifically for being able to fly above where enemy aircraft could reach it while on bombing runs over Britain. Altitude climbers were made so light they were scarcely structurally sound and they were short an engine. The Germans knew this and treated these airships with kid gloves, while the Allies, including the US in the instance of the "Shenandoah", did not know this and treated the airships in the way they saw the Germans handle their more sturdy airships. With this in mind it is no wonder that she broke up in severe weather.