Major collection of covers from the USS Macon zeppelin, 1932-1935. There are 500 covers in this collection, thought to not have any duplicates. The cover colletion reflects cover collectors excitement over collecting special cachet covers for every event during this short-lived blimp's life. The Macon was built from 1931-1933 in Akron, Ohio. Iwas officially christened March 11, 1933. It was named after Macon, Georgia. This was the political district that the head of the House of Representatives Committee on Naval Affairs was from. The zeppelin first flew jaut after the Akron crash disaster April 21, 1933. It was airborne for 13 hours carrying 105 people aboard. It was comissioned into the Navy in June, 1933. Later that month, the zeppelin went to New Jersey, whre it remained for teh rest of the summer performing training flights. In october, 1933, the Macon went transcontinental to California, its "new" permanent home. It was baseed at Moffett Field in Santa Clara County. It was damaged in a transcontinental flight in April 1934 during horrendous weather. Fixed and fully operational, it flew again in California. On February 12, 1935 in a storm off Bug Sur, the blimp was again damaged, landed in the water off the Monterey coast and sunk. Two crew were killed, and 81 rescued. This collection has covers from the entire life span of the Macon. It includes a well used copy of the book: Mellone's USS Macon Akron; Photo Encyclopedia of the USS Akron and USS Macon Event Covers by Ullmann, 1996.
Provenance: John Reynolds Collection
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