On this theory Navy airships, even though semi-military, got some support during the reaction period, because they might blaze a trail later for commercial lines--which, with ships and crews and terminals, would be available in emergency as a secondary line of defense, like the merchant marine.
The little non-rigid blimps remained the neglected Cinderellas of post-war days.
The Goodyear Company at Akron, which had built 1000 balloons of all types and 100 airships during and after the war, stepped into the picture during this period with a modest program of its own. The first of the Goodyear fleet, the pioneer, helium-inflated Pilgrim, now in the Smithsonian Institute, was built in 1925.
[Illustration: The Atlantic crossing of the Graf Zeppelin in 1928 and its round-the-world flight in the following year gave new stimulus to all aeronautics. With a relatively tiny Goodyear blimp as escort, the Graf lands at Los Angeles after crossing the Pacific.]
[Illustration: At Lakehurst the Graf tries out the "Iron Horse," the U.S. Navy's mobile mooring mast, finds it highly useful, utilized masting equipment thereafter to compile an unusual record for regularity of departures, even under highly unfavorable weather conditions. (U. S. Navy photo)]
[Illustration: The U.S.S. Akron, first result growing out of renewed interest in aeronautics after the reaction period, goes on the mast inside the Goodyear air dock, prior to leaving for her trial flights.]
[Illustration: No large ground crews are needed with the mobile mast. Even the mighty Akron swings around easily at anchorage, heads into the wind like a weather vane, its control car resting on the ground.]
In building this ship, Mr. Litchfield and his company indicated their belief in the value of big airships for trans-oceanic travel, for which the blimps would provide inexpensive training for pilots, and experience in operating under varying weather conditions.
The Pilgrim, the Puritan, the Vigilant, the Mayflower and the rest of the Goodyear fleet which followed--named after cup defenders in international yacht racing--would also uncover during the course of day-after-day operations, improvements in ships and operating technique, which would be available to its customers, the Army and Navy.