When the USS Macon met its end, the Navy's zeppelin ambitions died with it.The USS Macon was one of only two flying aircraft carriers ever built. The other was her sister ship, the USS Akron.The Macon was built by Prague-born engineer Dr. Karl Arnstein in Akron, Ohio. Her first flight was in April 1933. Both the Macon and the Akron were capable of carrying small F9C “Sparrowhawk” propeller planes, which were launched and retrieved during flight.
The Macon was 785 feet long. The wreck site of the Macon was finally discovered in 1990, 55 years after it sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. A fisherman who had marked the exact coordinates where he'd lost a net assisted the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Navy with locating the site.