A 1929 hangar built for sky leviathans — and the blimps that still fly from Wingfoot Lake
The Goodyear Airdock in Akron is 1,175 feet long and 211 feet tall — once the largest building in the world without interior supports. It was built in 1929 to house the USS Akron and USS Macon, helium dirigibles 785 feet long that the Navy intended as flying aircraft carriers. Both crashed; both are at the bottom of the Pacific. But the Airdock survives, and the Goodyear blimps still operate from the Wingfoot Lake hangar nearby. From the cockpit on approach to KAKR, the Airdock looks like an upturned ship hull dropped into northeast Ohio. If you're lucky, you'll share the pattern with Wingfoot One, Two, or Three — the modern semi-rigid descendants of those lost giants.