<p>Richard K. Smith was curious about the big rigid airships of the 1920s and 1930s. He wondered why they had disappeared from the scene of aeronautics. Two of them, the <i>Akron</i> and the <i>Macon,</i> had actually hangared airplanes. Why had such an airplane-carrying airship not been accepted? His inability to find answers to his questions in existing airship literature prompted his extensive research on the subject. As a result, this book is primarily an examination of the rigid airship's place in naval operations in the period 1919-1940, with specific focus on the flying aircraft carrier's development and performance during 1931-1935.</p>