As the summer of 1919 began the U.S. Navy was working on plans to enlarge its lighter than airship fleet. The plan was to construct a base at Lakehurst and there to construct a rigid dirigible that would be a copy of a captured German Zeppelin. These hydrogen-filled airships had bombed London and carried a larger payload with a greater range than any known airplane.

But several events that summer would show the dangers of hydrogen and help change the course of the Navy’s plans.