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Home Town Greenville, Ohio
Last Address Arlington National Cemetery
Date of Passing Sep 03, 1925
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
LCDR Zachary LANSDOWNE Naval Aviator No. 105
Awarded the Navy Cross during peacetime Killed in the crash of the Shenandoah ZR-1
Lieutenant Commander Zachary Lansdowne, USN (December 1, 1888 - September 3, 1925) was a United States Navy officer and early Naval Aviator who contributed to the development of the Navy's first lighter-than-air craft. He died in command of the airship USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), which crashed in Ohio on September 3, 1925.
Born in Greenville, Ohio, Lansdowne was appointed to the United States Naval Academy September 2, 1905 and commissioned Ensign June 5, 1911. He subsequently served on the destroyer USS McCall (DD-28), and in the Ohio Naval Militia. After completing his aviation training, he became Naval Aviator 105.
Lansdowne was assigned to duty with the Royal Naval Air Service during and after World War I, to study dirigibles. He was awarded the Navy Cross --For distinguished service...as one of the crew of the British airship R-34, which in July 1919, made the first successful nonstop passage from England to the United States.-- He married Margaret Kennedy Ross (September 30, 1902-June 9, 1982) on December 7, 1921 in Washington D.C. She was later remarried John Caswell Jr. on February 27, 1927. {Caswell died on December 23, 1954 in Washington D.C.} On February 11, 1924 Landsdowne took command of the rigid lighter-than-air ship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), and was killed when she crashed at Ava, Ohio, September 3, 1925. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The crash of the Shenandoah was the trigger for Army Colonel Billy Mitchell to heavily criticize the leadership of both the Army and the Navy, leading directly to his court-martial for insubordination and the end of his military career.
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The USS Lansdowne (DD-486), a Gleaves-class destroyer, and Lansdowne Airport in Youngstown, Ohio were named in his honor.
Born on December 1, 1888, Zachary Lansdowne was an early Naval Aviator and a friend of Army General Billy Mitchell.
He died in Ohio on September 3, 1925 in the crash of the dirigible USS Shenandoah. He was in command of the ship when it was struck by violent thunderstorms. A portion of the crew was killed (14 of 42 on board) and some of the others are buried near him in Section 4 of Arlington National Cemetery.
Zachary Lansdowne was one of the most promising officers in the U.S. naval air service when he was killed in the crash of the dirigible Shenandoah September 3, 1925, near Ava, Ohio. Lansdowne was just 36 when he died, but he already had earned national recognition. Probably following the example set by his uncle, Harry Knox - an Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Lansdowne enrolled in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated with the class 1909.
He soon attained the rank of lieutenant and because of his exceptional fitness and ability was chosen as the American representative and observer to accompany the crew of the first airship, the British R 34, to fly across the Atlantic Ocean non-stop from East to West. He was climbing to fame when he was chosen commander of the Shenandoah. While flying the ship westward from its base at Lakehurst, he and his crew were struck by a squall of cyclonic proportions. The dirigible was torn apart, killing Lansdowne and thirteen members of his crew. Lansdowne's remains are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The subsequent Navy hearings untangled slowly, revolving about Lieutenant Commander Lansdowne. An engineer with extensive wartime airship experience in England, Lansdowne had proposed several design changes for the Shenandoah, one of which was later thought to be a direct cause of the disaster. The airship contained 18 automatic gas valves that controlled the amount of helium in the gasbags, thereby enabling the ship to maneuver up or down. Lansdowne contended, accurately, that too much valuable helium was being wasted in this system. At his suggestion, 10 of the valves were removed and the remaining eight were converted to manual operation. The Navy concurred, estimating that these changes would allow for a safe rise at cruising height of only 400' per minute, but in the hysteria hat followed the disaster, some thought that it was Lansdowne's own suggestion that "sealed the fate of his command."
The surviving officers remained overly loyal to their commander. In fact, they created suspicion by their attempts to disprove the accusation. To complicate matters further, souvenir hunters had been much too thorough, ravaging the wreckage for anything of interest -- including all of the valves. Investigative experts had to rely on theory alone to prove the valves capable of releasing sufficient gas to accommodate the effects of the storm.
But the experts' testimony became the decision of the court --aerodynamic forces had brought the ZR-1 to the ground. The gasbags had not burst from pressure. The ship had not been mishandled. There had been no explosion. The 28 survivors in the three twisted hull sections had, in fact, owed their lives to the Navy's foresight and innovation; gas bags were filled with rare, inert helium, not hydrogen.
