An outer cover of high-quality cotton cloth was sewn, laced or taped to the duralumin frame and painted with aluminum dope.

[6] The membranes were washed and scraped to remove fat and dirt, and then placed in a solution of water and glycerine in preparation for application to the rubberized cotton fabric providing the strength of the gas cells.

[6] The membranes were wrung out by hand to remove the water-glycerine storage solution and then rubber-cemented to the cotton fabric and finally given a light coat of varnish.

[4] Los Angeles—the next rigid airship to enter Navy service, originally built by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in Germany as LZ 126—was at first filled with the helium from Shenandoah until more could be procured.

Helium cost $55 (equivalent to $840 in 2019[11]) per thousand cubic feet at the time, and was considered too expensive to simply vent to the atmosphere to compensate for the weight of fuel consumed by the gasoline engines.

Her pre-commissioning trials included long-range flights during September and early October 1923, to test her airworthiness in rain, fog and poor visibility.

At this time, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics and staunch advocate of the airship, was discussing the possibility of using Shenandoah to explore the Arctic.

With its endurance and ability to fly at low speeds, the airship was thought to be well suited to such work and President Calvin Coolidge approved Moffett's proposal.

Zeppelin test pilot and commander Anton Heinen, who was aboard when the incident occurred, rode out the storm for several hours and landed the airship safely the next morning, while being blown backwards.

Technical difficulties and lack of support facilities in the fleet forced the ship to depart the operating area ahead of time to return to Lakehurst.

Although this marred the exercises as far as airship reconnaissance went, it emphasized the need for advanced bases and maintenance ships if lighter-than-air craft were to take any part in operations of this kind.

In July 1924, the oiler USS Patoka put in at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for extensive modifications to become the Navy's first airship tender.

Shenandoah engaged in a short series of mooring experiments with Patoka to determine the practicality of mobile fleet support of scouting airships.

[14] On 2 September 1925, Shenandoah departed Lakehurst on a promotional flight to the Midwest that would include flyovers of 40 cities and visits to state fairs.

While passing through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence over Ohio early in the morning of 3 September, during its 57th flight,[2] the Shenandoah was caught in a violent updraft that carried the ship beyond the pressure limits of its gas bags.

3 is approximately six miles (9.7 km) southwest in Sharon Township at the northern edge of State Route 78 on the part of the old Nichols farm where the nose of Shenandoah's bow was secured to trees.

[15] Among the survivors was Frederick J. Tobin, who later commanded the Navy landing party for the arrival of the zeppelin Hindenburg on May 6, 1937, when the airship exploded into flames, and led rescue operations in response.

On Saturday, 5 September 1925, the St. Petersburg Times of Florida reported the crash site had quickly been looted by locals, describing the frame as being "[laid] carrion to the whims of souvenir seekers".

Also looted were many of the ship's 20 deflated silken gas cells, worth several thousand dollars each, most of them unbroken but ripped from the framework before the arrival of armed military personnel.

Still, a local farmer on whose property part of the vessel's wreckage lay began charging the throngs of visitors $1 (equivalent to about $17 in 2023) for each automobile and 25¢ per pedestrian to enter the crash site, as well as 10¢ for a drink of water.

[17]: 2 On 17 September the Milwaukee Sentinel reported that 20 Department of Justice operatives had been summoned to the site and that they, along with an unspecified number of federal and state prohibition agents, had visited private homes to collect four truck loads of wreckage along with personal grips of several crew members and a cap believed to have belonged to Commander Lansdowne.

[21] After the disaster, airship hulls were strengthened, control cabins were built into the keels rather than suspended from cables, and engine power was increased.