Editing USS Akron (section)

==Construction and commissioning==
Construction of ZRS-4 was begun on 31 October 1929 at the [[Goodyear Airdock]] in [[Akron, Ohio]], by the [[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company|Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation]].<ref>{{cite web | publisher =via [[Akron-Summit County Public Library]] | title = Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, Facts About the World's Largest Airship Factory & Dock | url=http://www.summitmemory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/fulton&CISOPTR=97&CISOSHOW=93 | access-date = 2008-11-15}}</ref> Because it was larger than any airship previously built in the US, a special hangar was constructed.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FigDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Popular+Science+1932+plane&pg=PA20 "A Nine Acre Nest For Dirigibles"] ''Popular Science Monthly'', September 1929</ref> Chief Designer Karl Arnstein and a team of experienced German airship engineers instructed and supported design and construction of both [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] airships USS ''Akron'' and USS ''Macon''.<ref>Smith (1965). pp. 7, 8, 34 & 161</ref>

On 7 November 1929, [[Rear Admiral]] [[William A. Moffett]], the chief of the U.S. Navy's [[Bureau of Aeronautics]], drove the "golden rivet" into the main ring of ZRS-4. Erection of the [[wikt:hull|hull]] sections began in March 1930. [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[Charles Francis Adams III|Charles Francis Adams]] chose the name ''Akron'' (for the city near where it was being built), and [[Assistant Secretary of the Navy]] [[Ernest Lee Jahncke]] announced it in May 1930.<ref name=rs/>{{rp|33}}

[[File:ZRS-4 USS Akron duralumin sample.jpg|thumb|left|Sample of the [[duralumin]] from which the frame of USS ''Akron'' was built]]

On 8 August 1931, ''Akron'' was launched (floated free of the hangar floor) and [[ship naming and launching|christened]] by First Lady [[Lou Henry Hoover]], the [[First Lady of the United States|wife]] of the President of the United States, [[Herbert Clark Hoover]]. The maiden flight of ''Akron'' took place around [[Cleveland]] on the afternoon of 23 September with Secretary of the Navy Adams and Rear Admiral Moffett on board. The airship made 10 trial flights, including a {{convert|2000|mi|km|adj=on}} journey over a period of 48 hours to [[St. Louis]], [[Chicago]], and [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin|Milwaukee]]. On 21 October, ''Akron'' left the [[Goodyear Zeppelin Air Dock]] for the Lakehurst [[NAS Lakehurst |
Naval Air Station (NAS)]], with Lieutenant Commander [[Charles E. Rosendahl]] in command, arriving the next day. On [[Navy Day]], 27 October 1931, ''Akron'' was commissioned as a Navy vessel.<ref name=rs/>{{rp|37–43}}