Mechanical Equipment for Handling Large Rigid Airships

The paper describes the development of the equipment used at the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, N. J., for docking and undocking the U. S. S. Akron. The main feature of the plan is a stern handling beam or long horizontal girder lying athwartship beneath the stern of the airship, holding the ship from each side with a cable system from heavy trucks moving along outward-lying tracks, and a floating support resting on a castoring taxying wheel and placed under the reinforced lower fin. This stern handling beam moves out of the hangar following the mobile mast to which the airship is moored. When a circular track is reached, the airship is positioned in the proper wind direction.