San Diego History Talk: The Short and Perilous Career of U.S. Naval Airships

Germany's use of the terrifying, bomb-dropping Zeppelins slipped over England's unprotected cities in little-known aerial battles of the Great War. And the U.S. was keeping tabs. From 1921 to 1935, the U.S. Navy maneuvered five lighter-than-air flying giants. Alas, to a catastrophic end, spare one. The U.S. Bureau of Aeronautics had selected San Diego as the site of the West Coast terminus for trans-continental airship flight. These airships occasionally called on our growing metropolis, landing at Kearny Field (now Miramar Marine Corps Station) and North Island's budding air station.

 

Author Bio:

Karen Scanlon is a freelance writer, educator, and historian who writes extensively on the maritime history of San Diego. In other directions are her published works in children's curriculum, and stories about people you'd want to know. Karen and twin sister Kim volunteer at Cabrillo National Monument tending the lens and lantern of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. The two co-authored the book, Lighthouses of San Diego. Karen is the proud recipient of The Martha Washington Medal awarded by Sons of the American Revolution for her work on the 1905 naval disaster aboard USS Bennington in San Diego Harbor.