The Airships That Launched Fighter Planes From Their Bellies

The USS Akron and USS Macon were unlike anything else in the sky- 785-foot U.S. Navy airships designed to carry, launch, and recover fighter planes in mid-air. Using a trapeze system beneath their hulls, pilots could hook onto the airships and be pulled directly into an internal hangar. And remarkably, the system actually worked. So why did America's incredible flying aircraft carriers disappear after just a few years? This is the story of the Akron and Macon, the disasters that doomed them, and an aviation concept that was decades ahead of its time.