ZMC-2

The Aircraft Development Corporation ZMC-2 was the first and only metalclad airship ever built. It was first flown in 1929, and flew safely for over ten years. As a sub-scale test vehicle, it was considered to be very successful, but the company that built it did not weather the Great Depression well, and by the time a successor might have been built, there was little interest in pursuing it.

The ZMC-2 was nicknamed the "Tin Bubble" and was also sometimes called a "tinship". It was not made of tin, but of duraluminum, an aluminum alloy. It was strange-looking for a blimp, being teardrop-shaped, and had eight small stabilizer fins, four of which had rudders.

The US-Navy had classified this airship as a blimp.

It was scrapped in 1941 for its metal content.

External links

• Lakehurst: International Airport (a picture of the ZMC-2 is near the bottom of the page)

• ZMC-2 in hangar, under the nose of the Hindenburg (large version of picture above)

• The ZMC-2 shown here on a flight over Washington, DC

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