The USS Shenandoah: The First US-Built Rigid Airship

The USS Shenandoah was the first US-made rigid airship for the United States Navy. She was the first of four Navy airships but was destroyed only two years after being in service while flying through a squall. On her 57th flight, she was destroyed in Ohio in September 1925. While the USS Shenandoah has been mostly forgotten now, she was big news at the time. One hundred years later, the world is entering something of a back-to-the-future moment with many large cargo-carrying airships under development.