Uss los angeles airship plans

Swearingen Lt. Sullivan Lt. Cockell Ens. Zock Ens. Adams, Charles E. Cox Coxswain Baldwin, Harry M. AMM3c Avn. Mate 3d Bartens, Charles F. Mate 3d Bernard, Martin J. Cox Coxswain Carroll, Ansel F. Mate 3d Cavadini, Cesare P. ACMM Avn. Mate Conover, Wilmer M. Mate 2d Danley, Charles W. AMM2c Avn. Mate 2d Fickel, Wesley S.

Mate 3d Gavigan, Eugene M. Mate 3d Goode, Peter A. Cox Coxswain Jandick, Paul A. AMM1c Avn. Mate 1st Jennings, James C. Mate Johnson, Rufus B. Mate 2d Lane, Carl W. Mate 3d Leonard, John F. Mate 2d Leonard, John J. CY Liles, Leon D. Mate 3d McCracken, John C. Mate 3d Magnuson, Fridolf R. Mate 3d Manley, Harley E. Mate 2d Miller, Martin 0. Mate Moser, George W. Mate 2d Peak, Richard S. Mate 1st Sprague, Xensel A.

Boorda Admiral Jay L. Johnson Admiral Vernon E. Clark Admiral Michael G. Greenert Admiral John M. Campa Jr. Beldo Carl M. Brashear Jesse L. Brown Samuel L.

Gravely Jr. Rosemary Mariner Bernice R. Walters Nordstrom M. Elaine Toms Chancellor A. Upshur - David Henshaw - Thomas W. Gilmer John Y. Mason George Bancroft - William B. Preston - William A. Graham - John P.

Kennedy - James C. Robeson - Richard W. Thompson - Nathan Goff, Jr. Whitney - Benjamin F. Tracy - Hilary A. Herbert - John D. Long - William H. Moody - Paul Morton - Charles J. Bonaparte - Victor H. Metcalf - Truman H. Newberry - George von L. Matthews - Dan A. Kimball - Robert B. Anderson - Charles S. Thomas - Thomas S. Webb - William L. Ball - Henry L. Pirie, Jr. England Susan M. Livingstone acting Hansford T. Stackley acting Richard V. Spencer - Thomas B.

Modly acting James E. McPherson acting Kenneth J. Braithwaite Thomas W. The discrepancy is readily explained by the fact that in August, the Graf Zeppelin passed through Oklahoma on the last leg of its "Round the World" flight.

The Graf Zeppelin actually circled near Perry, OK, a bit off course, thinking they were near Oklahoma City, the planned city for the flyover. The Graf Zeppelin did not pass over Tulsa. So here is a graphic from Google Earth as Tulsa appears today from about the same perspective, only I've removed a few 3D buildings to better represent the way it looked in I find several buildings in this Google Earth representation which are the same as in the photo.

Most prominent, the tall building on the left was built in and was known as the Exchange National Bank of Oklahoma. It is at S. Boston St, Tulsa. The 22 story central tower was added in The other tower to the right is the Philtower also completed in , at S.

Boston in Tulsa. The known distance between the tops of these two towers, feet, allowed me to estimate exactly where the USS Los Angeles was when the photo was taken. This next graphic is my estimate:.

The red shape near the top of this image is, of course, the USS Los Angeles, and the 2 green rectangles in the center are the two prominent towers in the photo. Frankfort Ave and E 4th St. Now this is interesting: The two towers, the Exchange National Bank and the Philtower, are only feet apart, yet the Exchange National Bank central tower had just added a new feature added in - the spire was reportedly to be a mooring tower for airships! It is unlikely the USS Los Angeles was making this visit to the Tulsa area because of the presumed mooring on the bank building, though it is clear that the Los Angeles did not attempt mooring with the mast at the top of the bank if it was a mooring!

This means that the tail section, if the mooring was permitted, could have impacted the top of the Philtower under unfavorable wind conditions! I did find several references making the same claim that a US Navy Zeppelin moored there in the s, but they don't say what airship it was, nor was I able to find any truth to the claim.

I'm guessing that plans to moor Airships on the tops of buildings, by this time, , was already abandoned nationwide. It would have simply been too dangerous. April update: I have finally seen photos of the inside of the tower of the Boston Building.

Richard Clark, of Channel 6 in Tulsa was fortunate enough to be provided the opportunity to see the inside of the tower and take photographs. Link to his story. I am sorry to say that the photos show absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the tower was ever intended as an airship mooring. If the tower had been designed for embarking and disembarking passengers, there would still today be evidence of something! Remnants of a grand staircase, or a trap door to the pinnacle for the ground crew to feed cables, or anchor points for heavy machinery including winches, or something to suggest the area was once "finished" so the wealthy airship passengers could ascend and descend safely in grand style.

Alas there is nothing remaining but the myth. The myth of a Navy Zeppelin mooring in the s may have its origin in a story called " South Boston" posted in the Tulsa World by Bill Underwood in February stating: "During the s, at least one Navy zeppelin briefly moored there.

In fact, the Tulsa Historical Society has a large photograph showing people hanging over the building's uppermost railings to grab hold of the lines hanging down from the giant airship. The Krupnick photo, does show people all over the top of the Exchange National Bank the South Boston Building - seen at left in the photo , but they were only trying to get a "close-up" view of the passing airship - they were decidedly NOT trying to grab lines!

They would risk certain death trying to grab lines dropped from a massive airship, while hanging onto the top of a building. Here is the Krupnick photo:. Photo credit: Lee Krupnick, Public Domain. It is believed the original of this photo is held by the Tulsa Historical Society.

What he found convinced me that the Krupnick photo is a composite of two photos. The Los Angeles flight record shows she only passed over Tulsa, it did not stop, it did not circle the city. I had previously assumed she circled the city to explain the different perspective of the Los Angeles between the Kupinick photo and the photo published in "This Land Press". The difference in perspective, I assumed, was attributed to a couple of hours time difference when the two photos were taken.

However, given this new evidence, it now seems that Mr. Krupnick made a photo composite, overlaying a print of the Los Angeles over a print of the Tulsa skyline. This would also explain the many visible differences between the two photos such as the American flag present in the This Land Press photo while the flag is missing in the Krupnick photo. From what I've read, the large windows at the top of the bank tower, visible in this photo taken from the south, were on three sides, but the fourth, the north side, was not a window, rather it was a door!

So the presumed intent was, possibly, that once moored, the gangway from the Los Angeles would be lowered, and that door would be the entrance to the tower by the passengers. Of course, the Los Angeles never moored here as by this time, mooring on commercial towers, high above the ground, was clearly understood to be a bad idea. Add to that, the predominant winds in Oklahoma shift often, so a mooring only on the north side of the tower would have been a bad idea in the first place!

Perhaps doors should have been provided on all 4 sides, or better yet, a completely circular access the way the British did it see below! John Hansford, Tulsa OK, was kind enough to send me a large selection of photos he took of the former Exchange National Bank, specifically of the tower. Here is one of the best:. Though I would very much like to say I can see mooring components in this photo, sadly, I see none.

The "cone" at the very top is the remnant of the mount for a broadcast antenna installed in but removed some decades later. One can imagine that the securing cable from the nose of a great airship would be grabbed and fed down the center of a similar "cone". Once secured, a gangway would be lowered from the nose of the airship and passengers would disembark through a door, lower down on the tower.

This would not be unprecedented as seen here in a photo of passengers embarking on the British R But note: Lines dropped from the R were handled by crews on the ground , not juggling their footholds at the top of a tower!

Only after the R was stabilized and slowed to a stop from the ground , would a line from the nose be attached to the top of the moor, and the airship carefully docked so passengers could safely embark or debark.

No such procedure would be possible at the S. Boston Building in Tulsa! The R mooring:. No modern "thrill ride" today can top the sweaty palms one would feel when passing on a narrow and dangerous pathway as this! Oh man! And they planned this sort of ingress and egress from the tops of buildings all over the country! It was in England, and it is part of my page on the R here: R Worth, Texas on 8 Oct,