A Firsthand Account of an Airship's 1920s Crossing of the U.S.

One hundred years ago, on September 4, 1923, the first American-built rigid airship took to the skies of Lakehurst, New Jersey, on its first flight.

The USS Shenandoah would crash two years later, on its 57th flight. But during its relatively short life, the Shenandoah achieved several firsts. It was the first rigid airship to be inflated with helium instead of hydrogen, and it was the first to use a water-recovery apparatus for the continuous recovery of ballast from the exhaust gas of fuel burned. The Shenandoah completed the most extended operation accomplished by an airship up to that time, logging 740 hours in the air and covering about 28,000 miles on flights designed to train crewmen in the new science of handling large airships on naval missions.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will commemorate the USS Shenandoah with an online interactive experience that launches on October 10, 2023, to mark the centennial of the airship’s christening. (At the time, Shenandoah was believed to be a Native American word that means “Daughter of the Stars.”) Visitors to the website will be able to engage with the story of the USS Shenandoah through recently digitized artifacts from the Museum’s collection, many of which have never been on public display.Among the items are an experimental high-frequency radio receiver recovered from the crash site and a letter written by the radio’s operator, George Conrad Schnitzer, who was killed in the crash. (Schnitzer dropped letters to friends and family whenever the Shenandoah passed over his hometown, Newport, Rhode Island.)

“Small personal items can allow us to connect to artifacts and historical incidents,” says Tom Paone, curator of the Museum’s lighter-than-air collection. “Many are not familiar with what it was like to fly an airship, but they do know what it is like to write a letter or receive an invitation to a major event.”

For a deeper dive visit our USS Shenandoah online experience.

This article is from the Fall issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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This article was originally published with the title "Dive Deeper into the USS Shenandoah"