
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1990                   TAG: 9006270005
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Short

LITTLE SUBMARINE FINDS LAST OF NAVY DIRIGIBLES

After 55 years at the bottom of the sea, the last U.S. dirigible and two rare Sparrowhawk scout planes have been located in 1,500 feet of chilly water by a tiny Navy submarine.

The 785-foot-long Macon was returning to Moffett Field, about 45 miles south of San Francisco, when it was damaged in a storm on Feb. 12, 1935, and settled into the sea. It was carrying a crew of 83 and four Sparrowhawks.

Lifeboats saved 81 of the crew, but the Macon slid beneath the surface about 100 miles south of San Francisco and disappeared. It was spotted on Sunday by the three-man crew of the titanium-hulled Seacliff, which had been commissioned to find the wreck.

"It's a delightful surprise!" said squadron leader Henry Miller, now 87, the only Macon crewman still alive.

The discovery is a "tremendous find for aviation museums," said John Sanders, a spokesman at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. Only one intact Sparrowhawk exists, on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

by CNB