Goodyear Airdock

The Goodyear Airdock is a construction and storage airship hangar in Akron, Ohio.HistoryBuilt and previously owned by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, later Goodyear Aerospace, it was constructed from April 20, 1929 to November 25, 1929, at a cost of $2.2 million (26.4 million 2007 US Dollars adjusted for inflation). The building was designed by Albert Kahn of Detroit, Michigan. At the time it was built, it was the largest building in the world without interior supports, and provided a huge structure in which "lighter-than-air" ships (later known as airships, dirigibles, and blimps) could be constructed. The first two airships to be constructed and launched at the Airdock were USS Akron (ZRS-4) and its sister ship, USS Macon (ZRS-5), built in 1931 and 1933, respectively. These first two airships were approximately 785 feet (239.27 m) in length.The building has a unique shape which has been described as "half a silkworm's cocoon, cut in half the long way." It is 1,175 feet (358.14 m) long, 325 feet (99.06 m) wide, and 211 feet (64.31 m) high, supported by 13 steel arches. There is 364,000 square feet (34 000 m²) of unobstructed floor space, or an area larger than 8 football fields side-by-side. The Airdock has a volume of 55 million cubic feet (or about 1.5 million cubic meters). At the northeast end of the building a control tower and radio aerial are on top of the airdock. At each end of the building are two huge semi-spherical doors that each weigh 600 tons (544 000 kg). At the top, the doors are fastened by hollow forged pins 17 inches (43 cm) in diameter and six feet (1.83 m) long. The doors roll on forty wheels on specially-designed curved railroad tracks, powered by an individual power plant each, which can open the doors in about 5 minutes.