PART 4
The Thirties
1930-1939
T he Thirties began quietly with an international
treaty extending previous agreements to reduce naval
armament, but as the years passed they quietly dissi-
pated as the nations of the world moved inexorably
toward war.
In the United States, the period began with disturb-
ing indications of a dark economic depression that
soon became harsh reality. Forced by this circum-
stance to effect rigid economies, the expansion of
Naval Aviation was slowed, the aircraft inventory was
barely sufficient to equip operating units, research and
development programs suffered, and operations were
curtailed drastically. But as the nation began its pro-
gram to recover prosperity through the initiation of
public works, money was made available for more
naval aircraft, for new ships and for modernizing naval
air stations. The upward swing began.
In spite of the hardships, there were surprising gains
in aviation technology. Engineers and aircraft manu-
facturers produced more dependable products, aircraft
equipment and components were refined and
improved, and aircraft performance rose sharply.
Better radios of reduced size, more accurate bomb-
sights, supercharged power plants, controllable-pitch
propellers, efficient retractable landing gear and fold-
ing wings; all contributed to the improvement of air-
craft performance and made airplanes better instru-
ments of war. Hydraulic arresting gear and catapults
were installed aboard aircraft carriers. Better methods
of recovering battleship and cruiser observation planes
were developed. The feasibility of instrument flight
was demonstrated ashore and at sea. Radio controlled
planes of dependable performance were put to practi-
cal use as targets for AA gunners. Engineers and
designers learned more about the value of streamlin-
ing and clean design.
In operations, there was a change as whole
squadrons began to turn in the record performances
previously accomplished by individual pilots. Tactical
innovations of the 1920s became fleet doctrine. Three
new aircraft carriers joined the fleet, raising the opera-
tional total high enough to equip peacetime forces
with a respectable seagoing air arm. Naval Aviation
acquired broader respect and, as it achieved promi-
nence in both fleet organization and operations,
became a truly integrated arm of naval power.
Only in the field of lighter-than-air were there seri-
ous setbacks. Crashes of the Akron (ZRS-4) and the
Macon (ZRS-5) sounded the death knell of the Navy's
rigid airship program; and in spite of favorable reports
from investigating committees, continued successes in
Germany, and repeated recommendations as to its
value in specialized operations; the rigid airship was
finished. By association, the non-rigid airship almost
followed it into oblivion.
As the decade drew to its close, the ominous rum-
blings of limited wars, that had echoed across both
oceans throughout the period, grew louder. Naval
expansion was authorized; the pilot training program
was stepped up. Ships that would make history in World
War II were designed and laid down. Aircraft that would
operate from their decks, in the bold advance across the
Pacific, were on the drawing boards; and some were
getting their feel of the air. As the rumblings burst forth
into the full force of a European war and the United
States declared its neutrality; the Navy, strongly bol-
stered by aviation, patrolled the Atlantic seaboard in
operations that were strangely similar to those which the
same units would later perform under conditions of war.
1930
16 January Lexington completed a 30-day period in
which she furnished electricity to the city of Tacoma,
Wash., during an emergency arising from a failure of
the city's power supply. The electricity supplied by the
carrier totaled 4,251,160 kilowatt-hours.
29 January Hydraulic arresting gear, a type which
eventually proved capable of great refinement to
absorb the energy of heavy aircraft landing at high
speeds, was reported to be under development at NAS
Hampton Roads, Va.
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