Akron's construction depended on a transatlantic industrial partnership. Goodyear Zeppelin, combining Goodyear Tire and Rubber with the German Zeppelin firm, won the 1928 order for Akron and Macon. The design specified a 60-by-75-foot internal hangar for four or five small aircraft and a retractable trapeze for launching and recovering them in flight. The project brought procurement, foreign expertise, new alloys, and an operational requirement together in the world's first purpose-built flying aircraft carrier.
Chapter · 41:51-45:11
How Goodyear and Zeppelin turned an airship concept into Akron
The Navy's 1928 design competition joined Goodyear's American industrial base to Zeppelin expertise and specified an internal hangar with an in-flight trapeze.