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2 – Moffett Field Hangar 3
II.

The Home of the Macon

An exterior view of Hangar 1 showing its long, metal facade and the tall, curved doors located at the end of the huge white building.
Oblique view of west facade. View toward southeast - Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Hangar No. 1, Cummins Avenue, Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County, CA, William A. Porter, 2005. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HAER, CA-335-A-10

Hangar 1

The awe-inspiring rigid airship, named the USS Macon, was 785 feet long, 132 feet wide, and 146 feet tall. The Department of the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks designed an enormous 1,113-foot-long hangar with an 8-acre footprint to protect the dirigible at Naval Air Station Sunnyvale. Completed in 1933, its Streamline Moderne architectural style mirrored the Macon’s sleek lines and metallic finish. Hangar 1, and a nearly identical structure in Akron, Ohio, where the Macon and the USS Akron were built, are two of the largest clear-span, or column-free, interior spaces in the United States.

The construction of Hangar 1 began in 1931. It cost $2.25 million and required about 20,000 tons of steel and approximately 25,500 cubic yards of concrete. The structure consists of 14 hinged steel parabolic trusses stabilized with x-bracing. Upper areas are accessed via catwalks interwoven with the trusses. Two- and three-level spaces along the east and west walls contained machine shops, maintenance shops, laboratories, offices, classrooms, and storage rooms. The silver-painted exterior of Hangar 1 was originally made of an innovative, fire-resistant material called Robertson Protected Metal (RPM). The uppermost portion of the hangar’s exterior was clad in redwood sheathing covered with RPM. Long bands of rectangular, steel­-framed windows provide the interior with natural light.

Pedestrian and vehicular doors line the east and west facades. Huge, 500-ton, "orange peel" doors, located at each end of the building, allowed the Macon to enter and exit the hangar with ease. A nine-story mooring mast pulled the dirigible along tracks that extended outside to mooring circles located on either end of the structure.

Hangar 1 was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, designated a Naval Historical Monument, and declared a California Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the San Francisco section, American Society of Civil Engineers.

In 2002, it was determined that Hangar 1 contained asbestos, lead, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are potential health and environmental hazards. The Navy addressed those issues by preserving and decontaminating historic artifacts; removing the hangar’s roof, siding, windows, doors, and other exterior components, which were contaminated with toxic chemicals; demolishing the interior structures of the hangar; and coating the structure with epoxy to ensure the chemicals would not pose a risk. In 2022, a comprehensive remediation, clean-up, and restoration project was initiated to preserve the structure and establish a revitalized new era for Hangar 1.

Key Facts

Construction
1931–1933


Architects
Staff architects and engineers of the Department of the Navy's Bureau of Yards & Docks, Twelfth Naval District Public Works Office at San Bruno, California


Designer-in-charge

Rear Admiral A.L. Parsons, 
Chief of the Bureau of Yards & Docks


Officer-in-charge of construction
Lieutenant Commander Earl L. Marshall


Principal designers
Ernest L. Wolf, civil engineer, Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, Ohio

Dr. Hugo Ekener, engineer, Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, Ohio


Architectural style

Streamline Moderne


Construction cost
$2.25 million


Contractors
Raymond Concrete Company:
general site grading, concrete slab floor and foundations, installation of tracks for the doors and the tug

Wallace Bridge & Structural Steel Company: steel frame

Siems-Helmers, Inc.: Robertson Protected Metal (RPM) wall cladding

E. C. Nichols: lights and power system

Otis Elevator Company: installation of the two parabolic-track elevators 


Height
198 feet from the floor to the top of the trusses  


Length
1,133 feet


Width
308 feet


Area of Building Footprint
323,062 square feet or approximately 8 acres


Construction type
Steel-frame


Original exterior skin
Fire-resistant Robertson Protected Metal (RPM)


Original exterior skin on uppermost 70 feet
Robertson Protected Metal (RPM) over 2-inch redwood sheathing


Original flat portion of roof
Redwood sheathing covered with five-ply roofing materials composed of layers of asphalt, felt, and gravel


Number of steel parabolic trusses
14


Foundation
Reinforced-concrete perimeter wall foundation with reinforced concrete pilings


Number of concrete piles
968


Floor
8-inch concrete slab


Weight of each “orange peel” door
500 tons


Time required for mechanical doors to fully open
12 minutes


A newspaper article with an image of a dirigible, a drawing of Hangar 1, and a map of the Sunnyvale site. The headline is U.S. to Build $5,000,000 Dirigible City As Pacific Base for Akrons Giant Twin.
“U.S. to Build $5,000,000 'Dirigible City' As Pacific Base for Akrons' Giant Twin,” The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, June 7, 1931. Courtesy The Press Democrat
An exterior view of Hangar 1 showing a portion of its long, metal facade and the tall, curved doors located at the end of the huge white building.
View of Bay 11 and north doors on east facade. View toward west - Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Hangar No. 1, Cummins Avenue, Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County, CA, William A. Porter, 2005. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HAER, CA-335-A-20
The vast, empty interior space of Hangar 1 and its exposed steel structural system, two rows of long windows, and tall doors at the end of the building.
Interior of Hangar 1. View toward south, Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Hangar No. 1, Cummins Avenue, Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County, CA, William A. Porter, 2005. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HAER, CA-335-A-21
The interior of the curved, metal doors at the end of Hangar 1, which are attached to metal wheels that roll along curved tracks in the concrete floor.
Detail of south door framing and tracks. View toward southeast - Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Hangar No. 1, Cummins Avenue, Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County, CA, William A. Porter, 2005. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HAER, CA-335-A-26
The south end of Hangar 1 with most of its metal panels removed and its steel structure exposed. A parked, white, P-3 Orion airplane is on the right.
Hangar 1 skinning removal and P-3 Orion aircraft, J.P. Wiens, 2011. Courtesy NASA Ames Research Center Photograph Library Collection, photo no. ACD11-0105-010
A birds-eye-view of Hangar 1 with all of its exterior metal panels removed and its entire enormous steel structure completely exposed.
Un-skinned Hangar 1 at Moffett Federal Airfield, Paul Langston, 2014. Courtesy NASA Ames Research Center Photograph Library Collection, photo no. ACD14-0030-006

Shenandoah Plaza

The plan of Hangar 1 was oriented parallel to the site’s prevailing winds, in order to aid the ascent and descent of the USS Macon. All of the other original facilities at Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, including administrative buildings, a hospital, and residences, were aligned with that main axis. The master plan, designed by the Department of the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks, features a symmetrical configuration of elegantly ornamented Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings with cream-colored stucco facades and red-tiled roofs situated around a wide grassy mall, known as Shenandoah Plaza. The campus’s utilitarian structures feature an unadorned Streamline Moderne aesthetic. The contrast between the modern monumentality of Hangar 1 and the adjacent low-rise buildings creates a dramatic and memorable vision as one enters the main gate of Moffett Field. The Shenandoah Plaza Historic District, consisting of the elliptical shaped plaza, 22 buildings, including Hangers 1, 2, and 3, and their ancillary structures and roads, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 1994. The listing was based on Criterion A: “for the association with coastal defense and naval technology that has made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history;” and Criterion C: “reflecting the distinctive type, period, method of construction and high artistic values that are represented in the 1933 station plan and buildings.”

An open lawn with a view of the long façade of Hangar 1 behind a building with a tile roof and bell tower. An anchor is displayed in the foreground.
Hangar 1 from Shenandoah Plaza. View toward northeast. - Naval Air Station Moffett Field, Hangar No. 1, Cummins Avenue, Moffett Field, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County, CA, William A. Porter, 2005. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HAER, CA-335-A-11
A landscape plan with the location of Hangar 1 and the trees, buildings, and roads flanking a large, central open space, known as Shenandoah Plaza.
Landscape Plan, U.S. Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, California, Department of the Navy Bureau of Yards & Docks, 1933
A birds-eye view of enormous Hangar 1, its adjacent airfield, and the roads, buildings, and central open space of the area called Shenandoah Plaza.
Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, looking northeast, U.S. Navy, 1935. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.113

The USS Macon

The USS Macon (ZRS-5) rigid airship was created to help defend the West Coast from submarine attacks. Designed to be an aircraft carrier in the sky, its speed, silent motion, long range, and onboard Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk fighter planes, which were dramatically deployed from its belly via a “trapeze” hook, allowed the Macon to patrol thousands of miles without refueling. Only 97.5 feet shorter than the RMS Titanic, the massive Macon captured the public’s imagination during its brief sixteen-month tenure of service.

The dirigible was constructed with four-sided, box-type, duralumin girders and “deep section” frames, or rings, which created its form. The crew moved throughout the spaces within its internal metal hull via catwalks, girders, and cables. The structure was covered in cotton cloth that was painted with a plasticized lacquer called “aircraft dope,” which was aluminized to deflect the sun’s rays and created a shimmering vision while the Macon cruised across the horizon.

Germany’s infamous Hindenburg Zeppelin was kept aloft with flammable hydrogen and met its scorching end at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937. American airships took flight using non-burning helium, a gas which only the United States possessed at that time. The USS Shenandoah and the USS Los Angeles, commissioned in 1923 and 1924, set high ambitions for the Navy’s new lighter-than-air (LTA) fleet. Both dirigibles were constructed in Germany and were a part of that nation’s World War I reparations to the United States. The Goodyear-Zeppelin Company of Akron, Ohio built the USS Akron in 1931 and the Macon in 1933.

Unfortunately, disaster struck nearly all of those enormous airships. The Shenandoah crashed in Noble County, Ohio on September 3, 1925. The USS Los Angeles was grounded in 1932 and was eventually dismantled in 1939. The Akron’s tragic final flight was on April 4, 1933 off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Due to a deferred repair to two of its damaged tail fins, the Macon plunged into the Pacific Ocean on February 11, 1935 during a storm near Point Sur, California. That devastating event compelled the United States Government to end its rigid airship program, and Naval Air Station Sunnyvale and Hangar 1 were transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corp on October 25, 1935. Six years later, the attack on Pearl Harbor would be the catalyst for the launch of a new lighter-than-air era of nimble blimp squadrons based in monumental wood hangars that were quickly constructed across the country.

The USS Macon dirigible soars above the huge open doors of Hangar 1, a circular gasholder tower,  water tower, and a line of 21 Navy sailors.
Dirigible USS Macon arrives at Hangar 1 from Opalocka, Florida, U.S. Navy, 1934. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.45
19 Navy officers wearing dark formal uniforms and white hats pose in 2 rows under the USS Macon dirigible moored inside Hangar 1.
USS Macon’s officers pose below the dirigible’s control car inside Hangar 1, circa 1933-1934. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, Harold B. Miller Collection, photo no. NH 77424
The USS Macon dirigible attached to a mooring mast inside Hangar 1. Light through the hangar windows reflects off of the silvery surface of the Macon.
USS Macon docked inside Hangar 1, U.S. Navy, 1934. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.244
The USS Macon dirigible soars high above an open landscape. Two small planes that were deployed from the belly of the Macon, fly below the airship.
USS Macon conducts initial operations with her Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk aircraft over New Egypt, New Jersey. The two planes, visible below the airship, were piloted by Lieutenant D. Ward Harrigan and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Frederick N. Kivette, U.S. Navy, 1933. Courtesy National Archives & Records Administration, photo no. 80-G-441983
The USS Macon dirigible, seen from below, descending toward a tall mooring mast. Men standing on top of the tower guide a cable attached to the Macon.
USS Macon mooring at the south circle of Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, U.S. Navy, 1934. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.26
The USS Macon dirigible entering Hangar 1 through its enormous open doors. The inside of the huge hangar is dramatically illuminated.
Hangar 1 with the dirigible USS Macon, U.S. Navy, circa 1934. Courtesy National Archives & Records Administration, photo no. 80-CF-416.3-5
115 Navy officers and crew members pose in 4 rows under the USS Macon dirigible moored inside Hangar 1.
Officers and crew of the USS Macon below the dirigible inside Hangar 1, 1934. U.S. Navy Photo. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.46
Three crew members of the USS Macon, stand on the narrow catwalk between the metal structural ribs of the huge rigid airship.
“Chick” Solar, Bill Herndon, and Ed Morris on the port catwalk of the USS Macon (ZRS-5), circa 1933-1935. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, Edward Morris Collection, photo no. UA 490.15
A birds-eye view of the USS Macon dirigible attached to a mooring mast on the airfield near the huge open doors of Hangar 1.
USS Macon moored at the south end of Hangar 1, U.S. Navy, 1934. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.65
A single propeller biplane, with a pilot in the cockpit, hangs high in the air from the trapeze hook attached to the bottom of the USS Macon dirigible.
Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk fighter (Bureau # 9057), piloted by Lieutenant D. Ward Harrigan, U.S. Navy, hanging from the trapeze of the USS Macon during flight operations, U.S. Navy, 1933. Courtesy National Archives & Records Administration, photo no. 80-G-441979
The USS Macon attached to its mooring mast. The full length view of the dirigible is taken from inside Hangar 1, through its huge open doors.
USS Macon moored at the south circle, viewed from inside Hangar 1, U.S. Navy, 1934. Courtesy Naval History & Heritage Command, photo no. UA 51.01.35

The USS Macon
Key Facts


First Flight
April 21, 1933


Commissioned
June 23, 1933


Arrival at Moffett Field
October 15, 1933


Origin of Macon name
The largest city in the district of Georgia Representative Carl Vinson, Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Naval Affairs


Construction cost
$2,450,000


Construction location
Akron, Ohio


Builder
Goodyear-Zeppelin Co., a joint venture of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio and the Zeppelin Company of Friedrichshafen, Germany


Length
785 feet


Width
132 feet, 10 inches


Range
6,835 miles


Ceiling
26,000 feet


Flight team
12 officers and 45 crewmembers


Number of Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk fighter planes that could be stored inside the Macon
5


Number of Browning 0.30-caliber machine guns
8


Fully loaded weight
400,000 pounds


Total number of flights
54


Number of scouting flights for the Pacific Fleet
8


Date of crash
February 11, 1935


Location of crash
Point Sur, California


Lives saved
81


Lives lost
2


Gas volume
6.5 million cubic feet of non-flammable helium stored in 12 large cells made from gelatin-latex fabric


Power plant
8 gasoline powered, reversible Maybach VL-2 12-cylinder water-cooled inline engines (560 hp each), driving three-bladed fixed-pitch, rotable metal propellers


Total horsepower
4,500


Fuel capacity
60 tons


Height
146 feet, 5 inches


Dead weight
108.2 tons


Structure
Duralumin ring frames and girders, covered with a fabric envelope


Top speed
75.6 knots, or 87 miles per hour


Cruising speed
55 knots or 63 miles per hour


Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk
Key Facts


Length
20 feet, 7 inches


Wingspan
25 feet, 5 inches


Empty weight
2,114 pounds


Loaded weight
2,776 pounds


Cruising speed
125 miles per hour


Range
297 miles


Service ceiling
19,200 feet


Number of Browning .30-caliber machine guns
2


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