THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609080271
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 84 lines
RETIRED Navy Cmdr. John Fahey of Virginia Beach stumped me with a question.
He wanted to know if I could tell him what kind of U.S. Navy planes performed missions without wheels or pontoons.
I gave up.
``It was an F9C Sparrowhawk,'' he said. ``The Sparrowhawks were fighter planes hooked on to trapezes beneath the Macon and Akron - both lighter-than-air Naval airships.''
Each of the giant Navy rigid airships - used in the 1930s - carried five of the fighter planes, he explained.
``The airships were like airborne aircraft carriers,'' he continued. ``Once on board the flying aircraft carriers the planes' landing gear would be removed and belly tanks substituted to increase the planes' fuel capacity and extend their range.''
The giant airships were used on scouting missions and, after completing operations, the planes would return to the rigid dirigibles and attach themselves by hooks to the trapezes.
When their assignments were over, the Sparrowhawks would be re-fitted with wheels while the dirigibles were in flight. Then the Sparrowhawks descended to airfields, landing like other planes. The Akron and Macon - about 785 feet long - would dwarf blimps sporting advertising which can be seen in the skies today.
Those giant airships contained 6.5 million cubic feet of helium compared to the 100,000 to 200,000 cubic feet used in today's advertising blimps.
As you've probably guessed, Fahey, a former ODU professor of Russian language and literature, has more than a passing interest in lighter-than-air craft.
He piloted blimps and free balloons (no engine) from 1942 through 1954 as a Navy aviator.
But these days he is more involved with airships, blimps, balloons, rigid and nonrigid lighter-than-air craft, than ever. He's president of The Naval Airship Association, an organization of more than 1,200 members. Many are airship veterans like Fahey. But anyone interested in Navy lighter-than-air craft can join.
The Navy decommissioned its last airship in July 1962, and Fahey regrets their passage into history.
He misses the sight of those ghostly airships casting their haunting shadows on the ground and water, misses their silken whiteness on moonlit nights as they prowled the sky like inflatable toys above the sprawling convoys of merchant ships during World War II.
More than 200 airships saw service with the Navy over the years, but their anti-submarine service was most important during World War II. On June 16, 1942, thousands of Hampton Roads residents lined the Virginia Beach shoreline watching Navy ships and a blimp dropping depth charges while attempting to find submarines that had sunk four or five ships during a two-day period off the Virginia capes.
``The Virginian-Pilot carried a story and a photo showing the crowds extending for miles along the beach,'' Fahey said, handing me a clipping from the newspaper of June 17.
``Immediately after that episode Congress appropriated funds for 200 additional lighter-than-air ships,'' he added.
One of the more interesting lighter-than-air ships seen in Hampton Roads during the 1920s and 1930s was the 658-foot-long Los Angeles which could be seen on patrol between Cape Charles and Cape Henry.
``It was one of two airships used by the Navy which had a companion vessel on the water. The Los Angeles was accompanied by the airship tender Patoka,'' he said.
The Patoka - equipped with a mooring tower on her stern similar to a shore mooring mast - was accessible whenever the airship was aloft at sea.
Fahey's association is undertaking an oral history project, interviewing the eight Navy men still living who served aboard the Akron and Macon - those aircraft-carrying airships of yesteryear. The association is also producing a video titled ``Lighter Than Air: The Leading Edge of Flight.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
VICKI CRONIS
The Virginian-Pilot
John Fahey's Naval Airship Association is interviewing men who
served on the Macon and the Akron, which is pictured in the
background.
FILE PHOTO
The 658-foot-long Los Angeles, which patrolled between Cape Charles
and Cape Henry during the 1920s, is shown moored to its companion
vessel, the USS Patoka. by CNB