By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Pew PatriotsPew PatriotsPew Patriots
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Guns and Gear
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
Reading: Remembering the Shenandoah, the Navy’s first rigid airship
Share
Font ResizerAa
Pew PatriotsPew Patriots
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Guns and Gear
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
Search
  • Home
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Guns and Gear
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
Remembering the Shenandoah, the Navy’s first rigid airship
Tactical

Remembering the Shenandoah, the Navy’s first rigid airship

Jimmie Dempsey
Last updated: September 4, 2025 12:19 am
Jimmie Dempsey Published September 4, 2025
Share
SHARE

On Sept. 3, 1925, the airship Shenandoah ZR-1 — translated to “daughter of the stars” — crashed in three sections over Noble County, Ohio.

Designated by the U.S. Navy as an aircraft for use in long distance reconnaissance missions, the Shenandoah was one of five naval airships that sparked excitement within both the military and civilians alike.

Seen at the time as the future of aviation, these airships, however, had short and perilous careers.

This past Labor Day weekend, the airship’s crew was remembered at the National Shenandoah Monument in Ava, Ohio, for their contribution — and sacrifice — in the name of aviation.

German Zeppelins usher in airship era

During the First World War, America and its allies had taken notice of the German’s terrifying use of bomb-dropping Zeppelins over England.

In the early hours of Oct. 20, 1917, French aviators managed to force down the German Zeppelin L-49. Landing relatively intact, “the capture,” according to the Air and Space Museum, “of an intact Zeppelin provided an incredible wealth of information regarding the construction of the craft.”

In 1922, aeronautical engineer Starr Truscott wrote about the importance of this capture, stating:

“Among the information obtained during 1918 were sets of plans and descriptive booklets as made by the French from the German Airship L-49, which had been forced down intact at Bourbonne Les Bains on October 20, 1917.  This was the first comprehensive information regarding the actual construction of a Zeppelin which had been obtained….As a result of the study of this information and that received from various other sources it was concluded that the surest method of constructing a successful airship would be to copy as closely as possible the L-49.  The plans appeared to fairly complete and the information regarding the structure and materials comprehensive.  It was accordingly recommended to the Secretary of the Navy that the construction of one rigid airship, in general a copy of the L-49, be approved. 

This recommendation was approved on August 9th, 1919 by the Secretary of the Navy, and the arrangements to begin construction of what would be the USS Shenandoah was started immediately.”

The Shenandoah enters the scene

In the States, the 680-foot ZR-1 was in trials for airworthiness. Her maiden September 1923 flight marked the first airship to carry an American crew, and the first to use non-flammable helium.

The use of hydrogen was first considered, as it was cheaper than helium and a very effective lifting gas, but after a series of accidents with the highly combustible gas in 1922 and 1923, the Navy opted to use helium.

“After its christening in 1923,” according to the Air and Space Museum, the Shenandoah “went out on a series of short flights to both train the crew and test the utility of the ship as reconnaissance aircraft. This included practicing moorings at Lakehurst[airship base in New Jersey] as well as moorings with the US Navy’s first fleet airship tender USS Patoka, a converted Navy oil replenishment ship.”

Shenandoah (ZR-1) in flight approaching Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, circa 1924. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

The silver, sleek hull of Shenandoah made a first transcontinental flight to the West Coast in September 1924. Arriving at San Diego’s budding air station on North Island, the ill-prepared mooring crew let the rear gondola hit the ground, bending a vertical girder.

Repairs were made and within a week Shenandoah rose over San Diego Bay to join her battle fleet in military exercises off San Pedro, CA.

Shenandoah made a successful flight home to Lakehurst only to find that it was being sent out on publicity tours promoting the U.S. Navy’s airship program.

In the early hours of Sept. 3, “flashes of lightning lit the morning horizon. Shenandoah’s five Packard engines struggled and she slipped sideways over the hilly Ohio landscape. A powerful air current that thrust her upward at too great a speed — conditions no airship was designed to endure — captured the struggling sky giant,” write authors Rick Archbold and Ken Marschall in “Hindenburg: An Illustrated History.”

Wreckage of Shenandoah’s after section, surrounded by sightseers and their automobiles, soon after the airship crashed in southern Ohio. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)

“Lansdowne didn’t wait for the plunge to begin, but quickly ordered the release of water ballast in hope of slowing the fall. She rose again when the updraft current caught the ship. Again and again she rose and fell. Navigation was pointless. The rigid structure was being twisted and wrenched by the force of the storm.”

The externally attached control gondola broke first first, taking Cmdr. Lansdowne with it. The stern section, carrying 22 crew, rose again to 2,000 feet, then leveled and floated to earth a half-mile from where the ship split in two. They survived with minor injuries.

Other members of the crew had a wildly different experience, with Lt. Thomas B. Hendley later reporting: “At the first nose dive I noticed that the air was unusually hot and sticky. But after turning and twisting to an altitude of about 7,000 feet we struck a current of cold air… After the ship broke, I clung to a girder until we hit the earth. We lifted again and drifted for a short distance and came down once more in the tree tops. We bounced and tossed about. The girder to which I was clinging snapped off several tree tops and realizing that my chances of being killed by being brushed against those limbs were just as good as by chancing a drop to earth, I let go and landed safely.”

The bow floated on until a local farmer fired his shotgun at the envelope, bringing others to safety.

Fourteen of the Shenandoah’s 45 airmen died. Despite this unfolding tragedy, it was, miraculously, a number far fewer than the fate that would meet its sister ships. The other four crashed not long after they were commissioned.

On the 100th anniversary of the crash, a commemoration took place at the National Shenandoah Monument, where guests recognized the section of Ohio State Route 78 near Sharon, Ohio, which was recently dedicated to the disaster.

Bold signage displayed in the rural farmland nearby marks the three sites where Shenandoah last touched the earth.

Read the full article here

You Might Also Like

Hegseth directs 20% cut to top military leadership positions

Military to screen for gender dysphoria amid transgender ban, per memo

‘My Dead Friend Zoe’ is a veteran’s ghost story that refuses to fade

First Look: Benelli Nova 3 Shotgun

Army will end most of its ceremonial horse programs

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We Recommend
20 years later: Survivors recall the storm that changed the gulf coast
News

20 years later: Survivors recall the storm that changed the gulf coast

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey September 4, 2025
Trump asks Supreme Court for urgent ruling on tariff powers as ‘stakes could not be higher’
Pro-life group urges Senate to press RFK Jr. on abortion pill safety, demand safeguards return
Clinton and Kennedy heirs weigh in on running for Nadler’s New York seat
Fox News Channel finishes summer 2025 trouncing ABC, NBC, CBS in primetime
Remembering the Shenandoah, the Navy’s first rigid airship
Ostap Hel Navo Jumps from We Line to Civivi
Guns and Gear

Ostap Hel Navo Jumps from We Line to Civivi

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey September 3, 2025
Former NFL player Micheal Barrow arrested after chaotic family altercation at Florida airport
News

Former NFL player Micheal Barrow arrested after chaotic family altercation at Florida airport

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey September 3, 2025
Podcast ‘500 Letters to Nana’ explores 1 soldier’s personal war
Tactical

Podcast ‘500 Letters to Nana’ explores 1 soldier’s personal war

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey September 3, 2025
Pew Patriots
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
  • Guns and Gear
2024 © Pew Patriots. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?