Goodyear Airdock facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Goodyear Airdock
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The Goodyear Airdock
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 Location in Ohio
Location in the United States
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| Location | S side of the Akron Fulton International Airport, Akron, Ohio |
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| Built | 1929/30 |
| Architect | Karl Arnstein, Paul K. Helma, Wilbur J. Watson |
| NRHP reference No. | 73002259 |
| Added to NRHP | April 11, 1973 |
The Goodyear Airdock is a giant building in Akron, Ohio. It was built to construct and store huge airships. When it was finished in 1929, it was the biggest building in the world without any inside supports!
What Does the Goodyear Airdock Look Like?
This building has a very special shape. Some people say it looks like half of a silkworm's cocoon. It is really big! The Airdock is 1,175 feet (358 meters) long. It is also 325 feet (99 meters) wide and 211 feet (64 meters) high.
The Airdock is held up by 13 strong steel arches. Inside, there is a huge open space of 364,000 square feet (34,000 square meters). This is bigger than eight football fields placed side-by-side! The building's total space is about 55 million cubic feet.
At one end of the building, there is a control tower. At each end, there are two enormous round doors. Each door weighs 600 tons (544,000 kg). These doors roll on 40 wheels along special curved tracks. Each door has its own power system. This allows them to open in about 5 minutes.
The Airdock is so big that the temperature inside can be very different from outside. To help with this, 12 windows were put in, 100 feet (30 meters) off the ground. The whole building also sits on rollers. This lets it slightly expand or shrink when the temperature changes. If the air inside is very humid and the temperature suddenly changes, it can create a mist. This mist looks like rain falling inside the building!
History of the Goodyear Airdock
In 1929, a company called Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation wanted a place to build "lighter-than-air" ships. These ships are also known as airships or blimps. They asked Karl Arnstein to design the building. His idea came from plans of an airship hangar built in Germany in 1913.
Building the Airdock started on April 20, 1929. It was finished on November 25, 1929. The cost was about $2.2 million at that time.
The first two airships built here were the USS Akron in 1931 and its sister ship, the USS Macon, in 1933. Both of these airships were about 785 feet (239 meters) long.
During World War II, there was a great need for places to build things. The Airdock was used to build more airships. The last airship made here was the U.S. Navy's ZPG-3W in 1960. Later, the building was used by the photography part of Goodyear Aerospace.
In 1980, the Goodyear Airdock was named a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. This means it is a very important building in engineering history.
More recently, the Airdock has been used for large public events. In 1986, 200,000 people visited for a United Way event. In 1992, Bill Clinton spoke there during his election campaign. About 30,000 people came to see him.
In 1987, the Loral Corporation bought Goodyear Aerospace, which included the Airdock. Then, in 1996, Lockheed Martin bought Loral Corporation. The Goodyear Airdock is not open to the public today. However, you can see it if you travel on U.S. Route 224 east of downtown Akron.
