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<\/a>The 785ft long USS Macon floats its mooring at Moffett Field, in California<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Shortly before plunging into the sea, the Macon had parts of its frame fracture and damaged its tailfin as it travelled from the east coast to the west.\u00a0It also had to dump 9,000lb of ballast and 7,000lb of fuel after flying over mountains in Arizona meant it had to fly 3,000ft above its maximum pressure level.\u00a0And the two major disasters \u2013 each within two years of the vessels being commission – meant the Macon was the last rigid airship built for the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n Germany, which had pioneered this travel revolution, continued to fly civil airships, however during an era when fix-wing aircraft were still in their infancy.\u00a0Its Graf Zeppelin completed the first passenger flight across the Atlantic in 1928 \u2013 earning the crew ticker-tape parade down New York\u2019s Canyon of Heroes.\u00a0But increasing safety fears, combined with the Great Depression damaging the global luxury travel market, hit the airship industry hard.<\/p>\n However, it was the fate of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg, the world\u2019s largest airship of any kind, that irrevocably shattered public faith in hydrogen-filled airships.\u00a0<\/span>A total of 35 people died after the flammable gas exploded just as the Hindenburg landed at Lakehurst, New Jersey following a flight from Berlin.<\/p>\n The USS Macon in Hangar One at Moffett Field, California<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n In the aftermath, German operators tried to substitute cheap hydrogen with expensive helium, which was inflammable.\u00a0But the U.S. controlled global production of the gas and, despite now only having a few limited military blimps, refused to grant an export licence.\u00a0Also, the design of fixed-wing aeroplanes had become so technologically advanced by then that they had effectively become obsolete.<\/p>\n The U.S. and other naval powers concentrated on building ships that would serve as aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n