A test conducted by the Germans in WWII, blossomed into a major program by the US Navy during the 1930s. That program was the use of large dirigibles to carry scout planes as an extension of the fleet in order to locate enemy ships.

German attached a single aircraft to one of their zeppelins in order to help provide defense for what turned out to be a fairly vulnerable aircraft. It did not go too far as the war soon came to an end. The British picked up on this and made a major effort to figure how to allow their airships to have aircraft hook up and later release in order to extend the airship's scouting range. The lack of funding right after WWI eventually put an end to this program.

In the US, the Army, which had the majority of America's lighter than air craft took up where the British left off. The main issue was being able to regularly 'catch' and then release aircraft. During that time, Scott Field (about 4 miles from me) was the main Army lighter than air base and all of its experimental work on this took place in this area. Eventually, the Army was able to fairly reliably get a system that worked.

It was at this time that it was felt that the Navy should take over all dirigibles and thus the program of figuring how to get an operational, aircraft carrying vehicle. Using the USS Los Angeles a system was finally brought to fruition, however, the Los Angeles was unable to bring aircraft into the air ship. It was then that the Navy eventually built a proper airborne aircraft carrier that was able to hold up to six aircraft. The first was the USS Akron which was operational for several years before crashing in a storm. It was followed by the USS Macon, which had a similar, and fairly short operational career before the entire program was cancelled as it was finally realized that aircraft carrying dirigibles were a dead end.

This book is the most complete history of this subject. It is not only superbly researched, with nearly every flight documented, but has the greatest compilation of photographs concerning this subject that I have ever seen. It is a great read and I know that you will find it equally good. Highly recommended.

In all, it is the best book yet written on the type and is well worth picking up.

March 2026

Review book courtesy of  Casemate Publishers, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb books and DVDs. You can get this particular book at this link. This is also available as a digital download

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