Editing USS Akron (section)

===Aftermath of loss===
{{See also|Cathedral of the Air}}

[[File:ZRS-4 USS Akron Memorial Cover 1933.jpg|thumb|upright|Franked USS ''Akron'' penalty cover with 1933 Memorial Day cachet autographed by its only three survivors, and postmarked at Lakehurst on 24 June 1933, the day ''Macon'' first arrived there]]''Akron''{{'}}s loss spelled the beginning of the end for the rigid airship in the U.S. Navy, especially since one of her leading proponents, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, was among the dead. President Roosevelt said, "The loss of the ''Akron'' with her crew of gallant officers and men is a national disaster. I grieve with the Nation and especially with the wives and families of the men who were lost. Ships can be replaced, but the Nation can ill afford to lose such men as Rear Admiral William A. Moffett and his shipmates who died with him upholding to the end the finest traditions of the United States Navy." The loss of the ''Akron'' was the largest loss of life in any airship crash.<ref name="worstairshipdisasters">{{cite web | title = 10 Worst Airship Disasters in History | date= 7 November 2012 | url= http://alizul2.blogspot.com/2012/11/10-worst-airship-disasters-in-history.html | access-date = 2013-03-03}}</ref>

''Macon'' and other airships received life jackets to avert a repetition of this tragedy. When ''Macon'' was damaged in a storm in 1935 and subsequently sank after landing in the sea, 70 of the 72 crew were saved.

Songwriter Bob Miller wrote and recorded a song, "The Crash of the Akron", within one day of the disaster.<ref name="newsweek-song">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/67642|work=Newsweek |title=Come All You True People, a Story to Hear|date=November 2007 |access-date=2008-01-25}}</ref>

In 2003, the U.S. submarine {{ship|American submarine|NR-1||2}} surveyed the wreck site and performed sonar imaging of the ''Akron'''s girders.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Undersea Warfare|publisher=United States Navy|first=JO1 (SW / AW) Mark A. |last=Savage, USN|title=NR-1's Summer of Military Missions and Scientific Exploration|number=2, ''Winter 2003''|quote=The first stop for NR-1 and its crew was off the coast of New Jersey at the site where the Navy dirigible USS ''Akron'' (ZRS-4) crashed shortly after midnight on 4 April 1933. [...] NR-1 made a single pass along the wreckage of the airship at a depth of approximately {{convert|120|ft|m}}, while the crew obtained imagery of the hulk using the submarine's side-looking sonars. "It was neat to see something of historical significance like that," McKelvey said. "Akron was really a very technologically advanced weapon system for the Navy at the time. We were able to get some very good images of the wreck," McKelvey continued, "but the visibility was too poor to do very extensive surveys. We saw that the actual ship itself was built of an aluminum alloy called duraluminum and we were able to see some of the girders. They looked like I-beams with holes drilled out of them to make them lighter and still retain their strength."}}</ref>