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Hangar One, Moffett Field
Driving south of San Francisco on Highway 101 it's hard to miss the enormous Hangar One at Moffett Field. One of the largest unsupported structures in the world, its interior can hold 10 football fields and it is so tall that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling. Hangar One was built to accommodate the lighter-than-air blimps and dirigibles of the 1930s and it became the home of the world's largest airship, the 785-foot USS Macon.
Filled with helium, rather than the hydrogen that caused the Hindenburg to explode, the Macon carried a crew of 100 as well as five Sparrowhawk fighter planes in its belly. In 1935 during its 45th flight the airship ran into a storm off Carmel and was driven into the ocean killing two of its crewmen. Its submerged wreckage was not discovered until 1991.
After the Macon crash the lighter-than-air program ended and Moffett Field became a training center for the Army Air Corps. After WWII the airfield became a NASA station and in 1994, home for the NASA/Ames Research Center. Today, Hangar One is closed but the Moffett Field Museum next to the giant structure is open for the public to visit. One private company at Moffett Field offers airborne tours of the Bay Area via the blimp shown above.
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4 Comments:
Oh cool, and that's a great shot...
It'd be great fun to go up in that airship, but I suspect it probably costs a bloody fortune to ride it.
I LOVED your quote from George Sterling... I know exactly what he is expressing because I spent my formative years growing up in Pacific Grove, just over the hill from Carmel Valley. On Sundays our family would often take a drive out into beautiful Carmel Valley, and more often than not my dad would stop at the Begonia Gardens out there and we would inevitably come home with more color for the garden...
Just one very minor detail to correct -- the Macon went down off Point Sur Lighthouse, about 20 miles south of Carmel... (not a big deal, but just thought you would want to know)
LOVE your blog, Mr. Fog Bay -- always look forward to your posts!
I was hoping to sneak in a 20-mile fudge to make the Sterling quote work better but I didn't count on my eagle-eyed readers.
Thanks for the compliment.
BTW you're right, the blimp ride fares range from $375 to $950 per person.
You cleared up a mystery for us. I was remarking to my family that I keep seeing this blimp canvasing above our neighborhoods. I guessed that Google was photographing their "streetview" shots for their maps.
For $950 that blimp better take me to Paris for the weekend, not that it could.
Totally cool and this brings back such memories. Hanger One is and was a great landmark to me, along with the Ames Research buildings when I was growing up in Sunnyvale. My dad was stationed at Moffett and we shopped at the Commissary and PX all through my childhood. Driving on the base and driving around was fabulous. I still have the softest spot in my heart for the Naval people, they were all great people. I loved saluting back as we were waved onto the base.
Once, and only once, my dad took into Hanger One and I was dissapointed, no airship, but it was incredible to see. It's really huge.
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