List of airships of the United States Navy identifies the

airships An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

by type, identification, and class. The fabric-clad rigid airships were treated as the equivalent of commissioned warships, and all others were treated more like aircraft.

Rigid airship A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pressure air ...
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Metal rigid airships

* ZMC-2, a metalclad-airship built by the Aircraft Development Corp - 1929-41 (scrapped)

Fabric-clad rigid airships

* - 1923-25 (lost due to structural failure in line squalls) *

ZR-2 The ''R.38'' class (also known as the ''A'' class) of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were o ...

(see below) - 1921 (lost due to control inputs far in excess of structural strength) * - Only German-built (''as LZ 126'') US Navy rigid airship, served 1924-39 (decommissioned 1932, and dismantled 1940) * ** - aircraft carrier 1931-33 (lost in a storm 1933) ** - aircraft carrier 1933-35 (lost due to structural failure) ZR-2 was under contract from Britain, where construction had been started on it as the ''R38.'' ZR-2 was contracted for in October 1919 while under construction but crashed in 1921 before the US Navy could take delivery of it and did not officially receive its US designation, though it was painted in accordance with its planned Navy designation. On the fourth test flight of R-38, severe control inputs at low altitude and high speed caused the structural failure of the airship, with the loss of the majority of the crew. Sixteen of the men killed were USN training to fly the ship back to Cape May, NJ.

Semi-rigid airship A semi-rigid airship is an airship which has a stiff keel or truss supporting the main envelope along its length. The keel may be partially flexible or articulated and may be located inside or outside the main envelope. The outer shape of the ai ...
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O-1 Airship __NOTOC__ The SCDA O-1 was an Italian semi-rigid airship, the only true semi-rigid airship to serve with the United States Navy. Operational service The O-1 was ordered from Stabilimento Costruzioni Dirigibili ed Aerostati (SCDA) by the United ...

Blimp A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hy ...
s (non-rigid airships)

* A class blimp (experimental) * B class blimp (patrol & training) *

C class blimp The C-class blimp was a patrol airship developed by the US Navy shortly after World War I, a systematic improvement upon the B-type which was very suitable for training, but of limited value for patrol work. Larger than the B-class, these blimps ...

(patrol) * D class blimp (patrol) * E class blimp (trainer) *

F class blimp The F class of US Navy blimps comprised a single airship, built during World War I by Goodyear as one of a group of three small blimps offered to the US government. Two were purchased for the US Navy and one for the US Army. The Navy blimps wer ...

(trainer) * G class blimp (trainer & utility airship) (ZNN-GGrossnick, Roy A., "Kite Balloons to Airships. . . the Navy's Lighter-than-air Experience,", Washington, Government Printing Office, 1986
/ref>) (ZGT) **(ZPG-2, ZPG-2W) *

H class blimp The ''H'' class blimp was an observation airship built for the U.S. Navy in the early 1920s. The original "H" Class design of 1919 was for a twin engined airship of approximately 80,000 cubic feet volume. Commander Lewis Maxfield (who was to hav ...

(observation) * J class blimp (trainer) * K-1 blimp (experimental) (ZNP-K) * K class blimp (anti-submarine patrol) (ZNP-K) **(ZSG-2); (ZSG-3); (ZSG-4); (ZP5K) *

L class blimp The L-class blimps were training airships operated by the United States Navy during World War II. In the mid-1930s, the Goodyear Aircraft Company built a family of small non-rigid airships that the company used for advertising the Goodyear name ...

(trainer) (ZNN-L) *

M class blimp The Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio built the M-class blimp for the US Navy as the follow-on to the K-class anti-submarine warfare blimp used during World War II. It was a significantly larger airship, 50% larger than its predecessor. ...

(anti-submarine patrol) (ZNP-M) *

N class blimp The N-Class, or as popularly known, the "Nan ship", was a line of non-rigid airships built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio for the US Navy. This line of airships was developed through many versions and assigned various designat ...

(anti-submarine patrol & AEW) (ZPN-1. ZPG-1) **ZPG-3W, largest blimp ever built *

TC class blimp The TC-3 and the TC-7 were the two US Army Corps non-rigid blimps used for parasite fighter trials conducted in 1923–24. A single Sperry Messenger biplane was equipped with a skyhook to engage the temporary trapeze mounted to the control carri ...

- transferred from US Army *

MZ-3A The American Blimp MZ-3A is a blimp owned by the United States Navy from 2006 to 2017. It is a modified American Blimp Corporation A-170 series commercial blimp and given the USN type/model/series (T/M/S) designation MZ-3A and Bureau Number (B ...

(experimental) first Navy airship in 40 years

Footnotes

References

* Allen, Hugh, "The Story of the Airship (non-rigid), Akron, Ohio, 1943 * Althoff, William F., "Sky Ships" New York, Orion Books, 1990, * Grossnick, Roy A., "Kite Balloons to Airships. . . the Navy's Lighter-than-air Experience,", Washington, Government Printing Office, 1986 * Higham, Robin, "The British Rigid Airship, 1908–1931: A Study in Weapons Policy," London, G.T. Foulis & Co Ltd. * Mowthorpe, Ces, "Battle Bags," Phoenix Mill, Far Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, Allan Sutton Publishing, 1995 * Shock, James R., "U.S. Navy Airships 1915-1962, Edgewater, Florida, Atlantis Productions, 2001, * Vaeth, J. Gordon, "Blimps & U-Boats", Annapolis, Maryland, US Naval Institute Press, 1992, * Ventry, Lord & Kolesnik, Eugen M., "Airship Saga," Poole, Dorset, Britain, Blandford Press, 1982, {{US Navy navbox United States Navy Airships

Airships of the United States Navy Airships of the United States Navy

Rigid airship A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pressure air ...s