The
Goodyear Airdock is an
airshipAn airship or dirigible is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust...
storage and construction
hangarA hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but wood and concrete are other materials used. The word hangar comes from a northern French dialect, and means "cattle pen."...
in
Akron, OhioAkron is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. In 2008, its population was estimated to be 207,510. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland to the north and Canton to the south, approximately 60 miles west of...
.
Built and previously owned by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, later
Goodyear AerospaceGoodyear Aerospace Corporation was the aerospace and defence subsidiary of Goodyear.The company was established in 1917 as the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation. It became Goodyear Aircraft Corporation on December 5, 1939 in response to a contract from the Glenn L. Martin Company to design and build...
, it was constructed from April 20, 1929 to November 25, 1929, at a cost of $2.2 million (26.4 million 2007 US Dollars adjusted for inflation). The building was designed by
Karl ArnsteinKarl Arnstein was one of the most important 20th century airship engineers and designers in Germany and the United States of America. He was born in Prague, Bohemia He developed stress analysis methods that have been incorporated into airships and airplane materials. Arnstein was the chief...
of the Wilbur Watson Engineering Company of
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
. At the time it was built, it was the largest building in the world without interior supports, and provided a huge structure in which "lighter-than-air" ships (later known as
airshipAn airship or dirigible is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust...
s, dirigibles, and blimps) could be constructed.
The
Goodyear Airdock is an
airshipAn airship or dirigible is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust...
storage and construction
hangarA hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but wood and concrete are other materials used. The word hangar comes from a northern French dialect, and means "cattle pen."...
in
Akron, OhioAkron is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. In 2008, its population was estimated to be 207,510. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland to the north and Canton to the south, approximately 60 miles west of...
.
History
Built and previously owned by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, later
Goodyear AerospaceGoodyear Aerospace Corporation was the aerospace and defence subsidiary of Goodyear.The company was established in 1917 as the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation. It became Goodyear Aircraft Corporation on December 5, 1939 in response to a contract from the Glenn L. Martin Company to design and build...
, it was constructed from April 20, 1929 to November 25, 1929, at a cost of $2.2 million (26.4 million 2007 US Dollars adjusted for inflation). The building was designed by
Karl ArnsteinKarl Arnstein was one of the most important 20th century airship engineers and designers in Germany and the United States of America. He was born in Prague, Bohemia He developed stress analysis methods that have been incorporated into airships and airplane materials. Arnstein was the chief...
of the Wilbur Watson Engineering Company of
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
. At the time it was built, it was the largest building in the world without interior supports, and provided a huge structure in which "lighter-than-air" ships (later known as
airshipAn airship or dirigible is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust...
s, dirigibles, and blimps) could be constructed.
The first two airships to be constructed and launched at the Airdock were
USS Akron (ZRS-4)USS Akron was a helium-filled rigid airship of the United States Navy that was lost in a weather related accident off the New Jersey coast early on April 4, 1933, killing 73 of the 76 crew and passengers on board...
and its sister ship,
USS Macon (ZRS-5)USS Macon was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting. It served as a flying aircraft carrier, launching Sparrowhawk biplanes. In service for less than two years, in 1935 Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast, though most of her crew...
, built in 1931 and 1933, respectively. These first two airships were approximately 785 feet (239.27 m) in length.
The building has a unique shape which has been described as "half a silkworm's cocoon, cut in half the long way." It is 1,175 feet (358.14 m) long, 325 feet (99.06 m) wide, and 211 feet (64.31 m) high, supported by 11 steel arches. There is 364,000 square feet (34 000 m²) of unobstructed floor space, or an area larger than 8 football fields side-by-side. The Airdock has a volume of 55 million cubic feet (or about 1.5 million cubic meters). At the northeast end of the building a control tower and radio aerial are on top of the airdock. At each end of the building are huge semi-spherical doors that each weigh 600 tons (544 000 kg). At the top, the doors are fastened by hollow forged pins 17 inches (43 cm) in diameter and six feet (1.83 m) long. The doors roll on forty wheels on specially-designed curved railroad tracks, powered by an individual power plant each, which can open the doors in about 5 minutes.
The Airdock is so large that temperature changes within the structure could be very different from that on the outside of the structure. To accommodate these fluctuations which could potentially cause structural damage, a row of 12 windows 100 feet (30.48 m) off the ground were installed. Furthermore, the entire structure is mounted on rollers to compensate for expansion or contraction resulting from temperature changes. Rumors (dating back to 1930) state that it actually rains inside the structure. When the
humidityHumidity is the amount of water vapour in the air. In daily language the term "humidity" is normally taken to mean relative humidity. Relative humidity is defined as the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapour in a parcel of air to the saturated vapour pressure of water vapour at a prescribed...
is high in the Airdock, a sudden change in temperature causes
condensationCondensation is the change of the physical state of aggregation of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase and the reverse of evaporation. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, bypassing the liquid phase, the change is called deposition...
. This condensation falls in a mist, creating the illusion of rain, according to the designer.
When
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out, enclosed production areas were desperately needed, and the Airdock was used for building airships. The last airship built in the Airdock was the U.S. Navy's ZPG-3W, built in 1960. The building later housed the photographic division of the Goodyear Aerospace Corporation.
In 1980, the Goodyear Airdock was designated a
Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the
American Society of Civil EngineersThe American Society of Civil Engineers is a professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. It is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. ASCE's vision is to have engineers positioned as global leaders who strive toward...
.
The Airdock has more recently served as the site of the 1986 kickoff rally for the United Way of
Summit CountySummit County is an urban county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 542,899. In 2007 the population was estimated to be 543,487 . Its county seat is Akron...
, where 200,000 members of the public visited.
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
spoke during his
1992 election campaignThe United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush; Democrat Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot....
, bringing some 30,000 visitors to the site.
In 1987, the
Loral CorporationLoral Corporation was a small Bronx defense contractor on the verge of bankruptcy in 1972 before it was acquired by Bernard Schwartz, who over the course of the next two decades built it into a major player in the global aerospace and defense industry, acquiring 16 other defense and aerospace...
purchased Goodyear Aerospace and the Goodyear Airdock as a result of
James GoldsmithSir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived eurosceptic...
's
greenmailGreenmail or greenmailing is the practice of purchasing enough shares in a firm to threaten a takeover and thereby forcing the target firm to buy those shares back at a premium in order to suspend the takeover....
ing of Goodyear. The Loral Corporation (and its holdings, such as the Goodyear Airdock) was purchased by
Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin is a multinational aerospace manufacturer, global security and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed with Martin Marietta. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Lockheed Martin employs 146,000 people...
in 1996. The Airdock is not open to the public, but it can be seen by those traveling on
U.S. Route 224U.S. Route 224 is a spur of U.S. Route 24. It currently runs for 289 miles from New Castle, Pennsylvania at Pennsylvania Route 18 to Huntington, Indiana at U.S. Route 24. It passes through the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana...
east of downtown Akron.
External links