WesWorld

Wednesday, November 5th 1930
The State Department and the Navy announced today that the carriers Sacket’s Harbor and Lake Erie and their escorts will remain in Manila to assist in anti-piracy operations in the South China Sea. The ships were making a port visit after participating in this year’s SATSUMA naval exercise. Several battleships also taking part will return to the US as scheduled. A Navy spokesman said that the battleships would not be of much help in hunting any pirate forces but the carriers and their cruiser and destroyer escorts would be perfect for the mission. The recent disappearance of the American freighter Capillo was the primary motivation for offering assistance to the Filipino government. Secretary of State Hull said in a statement: “Free trade on the high seas is vital not just to the United States, but to the Philippines as well and it is clear that the recent spate of incidents in the South China Sea pose a clear threat to the sea lanes in the region. The United States will not permit lawlessness to prevail on the high seas and threaten the trade routes between America and her allies.” With yesterday’s mid-term elections, Congressional reaction has been sparse since most Representatives and Senators are in the home districts. Senator Johnson (D. CA) did issue a brief statement saying “it is incumbent upon the United States, as a seafaring nation, to insure the safety of its citizens and its shipping wherever it may be. If these cowards terrorizing the seas of southeast Asia believe they can attack our vessels with impunity, they are sorely mistaken!”

Saturday, January 3rd, 1931
As nearly a quarter million people gathered around Fulton Field this morning, the Navy’s newest airship, the USS Akron, took to the air for the first time. The massive ship, more than seven hundred and fifty feet long, floated gently off the ground then, as her eight German-built Maybach motors roared to life, she set sail on a four-hour flight that took her over Cleveland and Lake Erie before returning to the Airdock. Secretary of the Navy Adams, as well as Admiral Moffett and Goodyear’s President Paul Litchfield were aboard as observers. Several Goodyear-Zeppelin engineers, including chief designer Karl Arnstein, were also on board to make sure everything went as planned. Reports are that the voyage went well, with the only minor problems reported. The Akron will conduct a series of test flights from her namesake city over the next month or so before moving to the Navy’s airship base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
The Navy also took the opportunity to announce their decision to build a new airship base in central Florida. The new base, located just outside the city of Orlando, will be located far closer to the Navy’s primary operational areas in the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Atlantic and Caribbean and is also closer to the major bases of Key West and Charleston. One criticism of the Lakehurst base has been its distance from the fleet, the nearest major fleet base being Norfolk, over two hundred miles away. The overall climate will also favor airship operations, though the risk of hurricanes will require the hangers to be reinforced. Winter operation at Lakehurst are frequently hampered by winter storms and high winds while the southern base will permit year-round operations. The Navy also announced that the small airfield at Charleston will be expanded to become a full Naval Air Station and will be equipped with a mooring mast and mooring circle and may eventually have an airship hanger as well. Admiral Moffett has expressed considerable interest in establishing a Naval Airship Yard and the Charleston Navy Yard is considered a leading contender. The plan calls for the modification of at least one drydock to allow the construction of airships. The fact that the Admiral is a Charleston native has not been lost on some members of Congress who would like to see any such facility built in their own districts.

Akron prepares for launch
Newsreel cameras rolled as the giant ship took her first flight: Clip 1 Clip 2

Thursday, February 5th, 1931
After making one last flight over her namesake city, the USS Akron departed for her new home at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The “Queen of the Skies” has spent the last month conducting trial flights around the Great Lakes and Midwest, the longest being a two day, two-thousand mile circuit as far west as St. Louis and Minneapolis, then back towards Chicago, and Detroit before returning to Akron. The most recent flight was also the first time she embarked and launched aircraft, a pair of Navy Vought trainers. The Navy plans to test several aircraft in order to find a suitable scout plane for use on the airship once it arrives in Lakehurst. While over Illinois, the Akron received an unusual guest. An Army fighter, based on the semi-rigid airship CS-1, launched from the Army ship and landed on the Akron as they sailed over Scott Field near St. Louis. It was quite an unusual example of inter-service cooperation, but the Army has a stake in the Akron’s success as well. They have plans for their own fleet of airships to help quickly transport supplies, men, and planes to the Pacific Islands and Alaska. After a brief visit, the Army fighter returned to her mother-ship as the Akron sailed north above the Mississippi. Akron should arrive at Lakehurst by sunset and people are already flocking to the base to welcome her and there is great anticipation in New York City and Philadelphia that the vessel will fly over before landing.

On her last trial flight over the Illinois countryside, with a plane about to land on the trapeze.

Preparing to depart for Lakehurst as the early morning sun warms her hull.

Friday. February 6th, 1931
Despite near freezing temperatures and cloudy skies, thousands gathered here at Lakehurst to welcome the Navy’s newest airship, the USS Akron, to her new home. Fog over Manhattan prevented a fly-over there, but Philadelphia came to a standstill as the silver giant gracefully floated overhead. The Akron’s arrival was somewhat bittersweet for the Navy, as it also marked the end of an era at Lakehurst. Once the new airship was secured in the hanger, her older sister, the venerable Shenandoah, moored alongside her, was formally decommissioned in a ceremony presided over by Admiral Moffett and Captain Zachary Lansdowne, who is credited with saving the ship from certain disaster when she was nearly torn apart in a storm over Ohio in 1925. The now retired airship will be used for a series of ground-based tests and training. It is highly unlikely that the vessel will ever take to the skies again due to her age and condition.

Akron over Philadelphia

The airship Akron prepares to moor at Lakehurst.

Tuesday, March 3rd, 1931
It was a busy day in the “lame-duck” session of the seventy-first Congress here in the nation’s capital. After a considerable amount of “back-room” deal-making, the Senate finally managed to ratify the North American Regional Cooperative Treaty by the narrowest of margins. The treaty required sixty-four votes to be ratified and it got exactly that amount. Eight Republicans split from the rest of their party to vote in favor of the treaty and five Socialists also joined Senate Democrats in supporting the treaty. This marks the end of a six-month battle in the Senate marked by fiery, often insulting, rhetoric between members ranging from accusations of “blind and ignorant isolationism” by supporters to “treasonously selling-out the future of the nation” from opponents.
The other major piece of legislation passed by Congress today had a much smoother journey through both houses. Congress officially named “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States. The piece has been in use by the Navy when raising the colors since 1889 and President Wilson made it the de-facto anthem in 1916.

Q2 and possibly the rest of 1931 will be pretty sparse for news. My "good" eye has had a major bleed so I can't see for shit right now. I've got my fonts jacked up to maximum size and that helps some, but any extensive writing is a no-no right now and until the blood dissipates.

Hi there...

Pretty cool news on the airship stuff. Too bad I can´t open the clips... :o/ Any help available?

Btw, how much of all this is historical?

Did you try saving the clips to your PC then running them from there? I couldn't get them to run directly either, but could save them to disk. Elements of the Akron stories are true, just time shifted a few months forward. There were nearly a quarter million people at the airfield for her first flight and the trials lasted about a month. She didn't launch her first planes for several months though due to Depression cutbacks which had the trapeze from the Los Angeles being reused on the Akron and that took awhile to install. I need to add the Army's airships to my encyclopedia along with the few Navy blimps in use. The Army airship mentioned in the story is a Wesworld creation but they certainly wanted their own zeps. Billy Mitchell was a staunch proponent of Army airships, claiming that the US could bomb Japan flat with a fleet of one hundred. And the national anthem story is historical and was a good piece of "fluff" to add in.

...and the first step towards Canadian global domination is sealed and approved by the United States Senate...

:B