Imagine being in Long Beach on October 16, 1924 and looking up into the skies to see the U.S. Navy airship USS Shenandoah dirigible floating over you. These days Angelenos are used to seeing the Goodyear blimp, which is around 250 feet long, which is nearly the length of a football field. The Shenandoah, however, was 680 feel long, which made it the size of a battleship. One report I read said that thousands of locals lined the streets to witness the enormous dirigible glide silently over them as it set off for Tacoma, Washington and ultimately Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the center of the Navy’s lighter-than-air activities (which is where the Hindenburg met its fiery end in 1937.)

Lew I. said: “By contrast, the longest passenger airliner today is the Boeing 747-8 at 250.3 feet.”

Torr said: “The USS Shenandoah was destroyed in a squall line over Ohio in September 1925. I read the Wikipedia article on it. The accident which is covered at the bottom of the article, was absolutely incredible that as many survived as did given that it physically broke up into multiple pieces in flight. Many of the crew members literally rode down the pieces they happen to be trapped in. Truly incredible!”

And here is The Shenandoah moored in San Diego at the North Island Naval Air Station earlier that month: