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The USS Los Angeles Flying Over Southern Manhattan
Public domain photo from the Naval Historical Center
After a Transatlantic flight to Lakehurst, New Jersey, the airship was commissioned in the U.S. Navy on 25 November, 1924. The aircraft logged a total of 4,398 hours of flight, covering a distance of 172,400 nautical miles.
On August 25, 1927, while tethered at the Lakehurst high mast, a gust of wind caught the tail of the Los Angeles and lifted it into colder, denser air that was just above the airship. This caused the lifting of the tail to continue. The crew on board tried to compensate by climbing up the keel toward the rising tail, but could not stop the ship from reaching an angle of 85 degrees, before it finally descended. Amazingly, the ship suffered only slight damage and was able to fly the next day.
It was decommissioned in 1932 as an economy measure. It never flew again, and was dismantled in 1939.
