In the 1920s the US Navy became interested in rigid airships for ocean patrol. In 1923 the ZR-1, USS Shenandoah, was built and stationed at Lakehurst Field in New Jersey. Then in 1924 the ZR-3, USS Los Angeles was built and also stationed at Lakehurst. To encourage the Navy to station airships in the San Francisco area a group of local citizens raised $480,000 and bought 1,000 acres of farmland on the banks of San Francisco Bay. They then donated this land to the Navy as a home for the ZRS-5, USS Macon. It was originally called Naval Air Station Sunnyvale but after Rear Admiral William Moffett was killed in the crash of the ZRS-4, USS Akron, it was renamed in his honor. To house the Macon, an enormous hanger, Hangar One, was built to house the airship. Here are two photos of Hangar One that I took.
The hangar covers over 8 acres of floor space, is 1,133 ft long, 308 ft. wide and 198 ft. high. Both Hangar One and the USS Macon were completed in 1933. Unfortunately, all of the Navy's plans came to nothing as the three large airships thy had built crashed, the USS Shenandoah in 1925, the USS Akron in 1933 and the USS Macon in 1935. After this Moffett Field was transferred to the US Army who used it as a training base.
After the start of World War II, the Navy regained control of the field for use in anti-submarine warfare. The Navy's premier anti-submarine patrol aircraft, the P-2V Neptune and P-3C Orion were stationed here. Here is a photo I took of a Orion outside the museum.
In 1994, the Navy left Moffett Field and it was turned over to NASA's Ames Research Center.
In 2012, the exterior skin of Hangar One was removed as part of a restoration project. In 2014, NASA leased Moffett Field and Hangar One to Planetary Ventures a subsidiary of Google and they are in the process of cleaning up hazardous chemicals from the hangar in preparation for restoration.
Adjacent to the Moffett Museum was a lot with some historical NASA aircraft, including this U-2.
And this F-104 Starfighter.
After this we did some grocery shopping at the Moffett Field Commissary and then called it a day.
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