Pencil; Hoover for President 1928

Museum personnel found this souvenir from the 1928 Presidential Campaign inside the U.S. Navy Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk fighter during its refurbishment in 2006. It was probably lost by a pilot or mechanic in the 1930s.

This pencil, marked "Hoover for President 1928," was found inside the Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk fighter during its refurbishment in 2006. It was most likely lost by a pilot or mechanic during the 1930s.

Operating from U.S. Navy airships during the early 1930s, diminutive Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawks tested one of the more imaginative ideas in aviation history. Deployed with the U.S.S. Akron and Macon, they turned these airships into flying aircraft carriers. The airplanes, which could be released and recovered in flight, were to be used for attack, for defense of the airships, and to greatly increase search range for the Navy's giant, helium-filled dirigibles.

Eight Sparrowhawks were produced for this purpose. The first arrived at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey, in June 1932, and experimental trials with airship-based fighter support were brief. The Akron was lost in a storm on April 4, 1933; the Macon crashed off the California coast on February 12, 1935. Before these accidents, not a single Sparrowhawk was lost. However, with only three remaining, and no dirigible from which to operate, the aircraft were relegated to utility flying.