WesWorld

July 2nd, 1928, Washington D.C.
Congress has narrowly passed the Naval Adjustment Act into law. Opposition from mid-western states and anti-militarists made the votes in the House and Senate extremely close. The final bill provides for the replacement of thirty three aging destroyers as well as refits for many of the Navy’s battleships. A proposal to construct a new fifteen inch naval gun was rejected in the final draft of the bill in an attempt to win support from Midwestern congressmen who oppose increased naval spending. They claim that it only benefits coastal states at the expense of the Midwest. The Army’s new funding bill passed as well today, after the eighteen inch coast defense gun program was also removed from the bill. Scrapping of the old destroyers will begin early in the New Year according to a Navy spokesman.

July 4th, 1928, Washington D.C.
An impressive air show was the highlight of our nation’s one-hundred and fifty-second birthday. The flyover of all three of our great airships, including the heroic Susquehanna, was preceded by aerobatic displays from Navy and Army planes. Navy fighters also made dockings and un-dockings to the airships as they circled the capital. President Coolidge, his cabinet, and numerous members of Congress watched from a reviewing stand on the mall. Today also happened to be the President’s fifty-sixth birthday. Newly promoted Captain Byrd and Colonel Lindbergh joined the VIP’s on the stand and received congratulations from the President for their recent landing at the North Pole. President Coolidge leaves for Kansas City on Friday for the Republican National Convention while the Susquehanna will start her voyage back to California this weekend as well and may fly over Kansas City on the way.

July 12th, 1928, Kansas City, Missouri
The Republican Convention concluded today with the surprise nomination of President Coolidge to run for re-election in November. Vice-President Dawes was also re-nominated. The President had previously announced he had no intention of running for a second full term but was apparently persuaded by his fellow Republicans to run again after they were unable to come to an agreement on an alternate candidate. Commerce Secretary Hoover had been a favored candidate at the beginning of the year, but withdrew from consideration due to the injuries he received in a fall last winter in Washington. If Coolidge is reelected and serves the entire term he will be the longest serving President in United States history. The airship Susquehanna flew over the city late this afternoon just prior to the final vote by the delegates. She then sailed off to the south towards Fort Worth and the final leg of her voyage home to San Diego.

Friday, July 13th 1928, Emporia Kansas
Disaster in the skies of south-eastern Kansas! The airship Susquehanna crashed Thursday evening near Emporia after a series of severe thunderstorms spawned numerous tornadoes in the area. At least a dozen of her crew are confirmed dead, including her veteran captain, Commander H.W. Hoyt. Several other crewmen are missing. The storms also devastated several small farming towns and caused severe damage in Emporia and there are many reports of deaths and injuries there.
The airship had flown over Kansas City earlier in the day on Thursday, then was to continue on to Fort Worth before the final leg of her flight back to San Diego after completing her flight to the North Pole last month. The airship left the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst New Jersey on Monday and had been on a route that took her over Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Kansas City.
It is still unclear exactly how the Susquehanna was destroyed, though some witness report the ship was caught in violent winds from at least two nearby storms and was ripped apart. Army and Navy personnel are en-route to the scene of the disaster.

Sunday, July 15th, 1928, Emporia, Kansas
More details are emerging about the loss of the airship Susquehanna here Thursday. It appears that the vessel was caught between a pair of rapidly developing tornadic thunderstorms whose winds made it impossible for her to escape. The airship was ripped in half, with the forward hull crashing just west of Emporia, while the stern drifted nearly fifteen miles south of the Kansas farming community before it came to rest. A total of twenty men were killed, several more injured. It is reported that the ship’s captain, H.W. Hoyt, survived the crash of the forward hull, but was killed while trying to assist trapped crewmen from the ship when winds sent the wreckage crashing into a barn. Leaking fuel ignited a fire which destroyed the forward hull and accounted for many of the casualties. Lt. Ivars Briars was the senior officer in the rear section of the doomed airship and helped to free-balloon the hull to a safe landing in a field. Incredibly, several photos of the storm and the airship were captured by media who had been following the airship’s flight across the country. The pictures show the ship near a massive tornado which apparently ripped it in two. Some members of Congress are questioning the wisdom of sending the airship across the continental United States instead of having it fly the longer, but safer route across southern Mexico. Senator Copeland of New York claimed the route was a publicity stunt by President Coolidge since the airship had over flown the Republican convention in Kansas City earlier in the day.


July 19th, 1928, Houston Texas
Democrats have selected their candidates for President and Vice-President after three days of intense debate here in Houston. Front-runner, Governor Smith of New York, withdrew his name from consideration after many southern Democrats raised doubts about his opposition to prohibition and rumors of connections to rum-runners and organized crime in New York City. It is also believed that they objected to his being a Roman Catholic and the fact that he is the son of Irish immigrants. Northern Democrats fought fiercely for Smith, but it was finally decided to seek a compromise. Democrats nominated the former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt for President, and Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia was their Vice-Presidential nominee. Roosevelt had been considered the likely replacement for Smith as Governor of New York and was the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Democrats in 1920. There are reports that he had suffered a mild case of Polio in the past few years, but seemed quite vibrant and animated in his acceptance speech. Representative Vinson recently came into the spotlight during the Drayton Hearings in Congress and has served since 1914, when he replaced Representative Hardwick who filled the seat of the late Senator Bacon. Vinson was the youngest man ever to serve in Congress when he was sworn in at the age of 30. It is hoped that the combination of the two will help deliver the Northeast and the South to the Democrats this November.
Roosevelt’s acceptance speech contained a vicious attack on President Coolidge. “This President has wasted the lives of over one hundred of our brave sailors and airship men for the political convenience of himself and his party. After the terrible attacks of October 1926, he used it as an excuse to smother the rights of all Americans, especially the working man, in favor of big business. This must and will end this November!”

Sorry for laughing about such a serious matter, but when looking at the third accident photo for the first time, it almost looks like it comes out of a Monty Python episode. :-)
IC:
Japan sends its condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic accident.
While a few were hoping to introduce the airship into the skies of the Empire, it now seems more unlikely than ever that aiships will fly from/to/over Japan.

Quoted

Friday, July 13th 1928

Looks like they should have chosen a different day to fly through the area. :-)

Its a slightly more realistic view to airship development, but still extremely funny.

I've removed the pictures. It was not my intent for them to be funny. As for the future of the airship program, there will be changes in how they are operated, but not in their continued development. ZR-2 was the most logical candidate for loss since she was the structurally weakest ship in my fleet. The real one never even finished its trials before it crashed in the UK thanks to a shoddy design and an inability to recognize that it was based on a design with a VERY limited flight envelope.

Sorry If I've caused a problem, but seeing an airship ripped in half by a tornado and both parts still floating(ish) is not an everyday occurence.

Hopefully those nice sensible Democrats will get in.

Put them back in! Put them back in!!
Call it an artist impression and blame the artist for the odd picture. :-)

The two sections of the Shenandoah came down about 15 miles apart when she was wrecked in Ohio in 1926 (in our timeline). There will be repercussions from the crash, both operational and political (especially political).

When the Hindenburg crashed people litrerally were screaming in the theaters, days even weeks after the accident because no one had ever seen such a terrorizing spectacle on film or even first hand before.
It would be the equivilent of us watching the 9/11 tragedy on TV.

Even the incident where 3 American ground crewmen where hoisted upward with Akron terrorized people as they watched two men fal to their deaths.

The political fallout from this incident will definately be quite significant reaching as far as Germany, Great Britian, Iberia and Atlantis.

The big problem the picture has (and what makes me give the impression MP was at work here) is the shadow on the airship. I think at that angle, the bottom would have the similar lightness as the top of the airship. Also it looks like a clean straight cut. I'd expect that the tornado would rip part of the skin to pieces.
Of course, creating something like that is not that simple so like I said, we'll just blame the artist who did the rush job for the newspaper (after all it was done in less than two days).