L-8
L-8, later called America and nicknamed the Ghost Blimp, was a United States Navy L-class airship built by Goodyear in 1937. On August 16, 1942, two crewmen disappeared over the Pacific while on a coastal patrol near San Francisco.
The flight began at Treasure Island at 6:03 a.m. L-8 was seen near the Farallon Islands, where a Liberty ship and a fishing boat watched it descend close to the water to inspect an oil slick. At 11:15 a.m., L-8 reappeared off Ocean Beach, drifted over San Francisco, and then crashed in a Daly City street. The two crewmen, Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody and Ensign Charles Adams, were never found. Searches found no parachutes or life raft, and officials concluded the incident was not caused by enemy action or misconduct.
An official Navy investigation determined that the crew’s disappearance was abrupt and not the result of a crash at sea. A theory safe to state is that one crew member opened the rear hatch to deploy a marker, slipped, and fell while the other attempted a rescue, causing both to fall overboard.
L-8 and other Goodyear blimps were mainly used for training and coastal anti-submarine patrols during the war. In April 1942, L-8 had delivered B-25 modification parts to the aircraft carrier Hornet after the Doolittle Raid.
After the war, L-8’s gondola was sold back to Goodyear and later became America (N10A), an advertising blimp, from 1969 until 1982. The gondola was then donated to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, where it is on display.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:25 (CET).