Goodyear blimps and airship dock

Ohio inventions and firsts · Company innovation · 1925-1960

Goodyear blimps and airship dock

The Goodyear Airdock (built April-November 1929, 1,175 ft long, once the largest building in the world without interior supports) built the Navy airships USS Akron (launched 1931) and USS Macon; the first Goodyear blimp flew in 1925 and the last airship built there was the ZPG-3W in 1960.

At a glance

Year: 1925-1960
Company: Goodyear-Zeppelin
Place: Akron, Summit County ZIP 44306 · Akron · Summit County

The story

Airships needed a building big enough to build and house them. Goodyear, which made blimps starting in the 1920s, built the Goodyear Airdock in Akron in 1929. It was 1,175 feet long, 325 feet wide and 211 feet high, and at the time was the largest building in the world without interior supports.

The shape was inspired by an airship hangar built in 1913 in Dresden, Germany. It has 13 steel arches and doors in two semi-spherical halves, each weighing 600 tons.

Inside, Goodyear built the Navy airships USS Akron (1931) and USS Macon, and in 1960 the ZPG-3W, the last airship made there. Goodyear's first advertising blimp, the Pilgrim, appeared in 1925. An earlier incident is a warning: on July 21, 1919, the Wingfoot Air Express caught fire and crashed through a Chicago bank skylight, killing 13 people.

The Airdock was named a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1980. It now belongs to Lockheed Martin and is closed to the public, though in 2021 LTA Research and Exploration partnered with the University of Akron to develop electric-powered airships there.

Timeline

1919-07-21: The Wingfoot Air Express crashes through a Chicago bank skylight, killing 13. (Chicago, IL) source
1925: Goodyear's first commercial blimp, the Pilgrim, is introduced. (Akron, OH) source
1929: The Goodyear Airdock is built. (Akron, OH) source
1931: The USS Akron is built there. (Akron, OH) source
1960: The ZPG-3W, the last airship made in the Airdock, is built. (Akron, OH) source
1980: The Airdock is named a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. (Akron, OH) source
2021: LTA Research and Exploration partners with the University of Akron to build electric airships there. (Akron, OH) source

What it changed

The Airdock was the largest building in the world without interior supports when finished.
Its doors weigh 600 tons each.

Why it matters

Airship construction center.

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.