USS Shenandoah Launched

On September 4, 1923, the USS Shenandoah, designated ZR-1, made its first flight, becoming the first rigid airship built in the United States. Inflated with non-flammable helium rather than hydrogen, the great dirigible was the Navy's pioneering venture into large rigid airship operations and was named with a word meaning daughter of the stars.

The Shenandoah was based in part on a German Zeppelin design and was intended to demonstrate the airship's potential for long-range naval scouting. Over the next two years it made a number of notable flights, including a transcontinental journey across the United States, capturing public imagination as a symbol of the Navy's aerial ambitions.

The airship's career ended in tragedy on September 3, 1925, when the Shenandoah broke apart in a violent storm over Ohio, killing fourteen of her crew. The disaster, like the later losses of the Akron and Macon, raised serious doubts about the safety of large rigid airships and contributed to the eventual abandonment of the program by the U.S. Navy.