Published by the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare) and the Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, Washington, D.C.

Edited by Roy A. GrossnickDesigned by Charles Cooney

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402

CONTENTS

I. The Early Period 3

II. The Navy’s First Airship 4

III. The B-class 5

IV. Early LTA Training 9

V. World War I 11

VI. The C-class 17

VII. New Airship Classes in the Post-WW I Period 18

VIII. The Demise of the Kite Balloon 20

IX. The Switch to Helium 22

X. The Development of LTA’s Home Baseand the Rigid Airship Program 23

XI. Pre-WW II Blimps and the Evolution of the K-class 34

XII. WW II Airships and Their Operations 37ZP-32 Operations 46ZP-41 in South America 49ZP-21 in the Caribbean 51ZP-14 in the Atlantic and Europe 56ZP-12 Operations 60

XIII. Final LTA Operations in WW IIand the Amazing Statistics They Compiled 62

XIV. Post-WW II Development and Operations 63

xv . Airships in the Postwar Period 67

XVI. LTA Records Set in the 1950s 68

XVII . The Demise of LTA and a Possible Revival 75

Introduction

T he dawn of aviation began with lighter-than-air craft and gliders.They were in the forefront of what eventually led to the Wright

brothers’ activities at Kitty Hawk.The Navy’s early use of lighter-than-air craft may be traced back to the

American Civil War. However, it was a short-lived affair and these LTApossibilities were not pursued after the war. With the advent of airplanesin naval service, the Navy again turned its interest to lighter-than-air craft.The Navy’s lighter-than-air program blossomed and its fleet of airshipsbecame the largest the world has ever seen. During the era of the giantrigid airships, the Navy built some of the largest airships in the world.Many achievements were recorded by the Navy’s LTA branch and newrecords were set, records which still remain unbroken today.

This monograph is intended to provide an overview of the Navy’sinvolvement with balloons, airships and their operations, which showstheir failures and accomplishments and their contributions to the Navy’smission of guarding the sea lanes of America. It is not an in-depth study ofthe LTA program, but provides an overall look at the history of LTA in theNavy. Various aspects of the LTA program have had extensive coverage,especially the rigid airship era; however, the entire history of LTA in theNavy has not been told under one cover.

The Navy’s LTA program technically ended in the 1960s. But theevolutionary trends that can be seen in history could possibly bring backcertain functions of LTA and make them viable in today’s world ofsupersonic flight and space travel.

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free balloon was a provision for trainingt w o o f f i c e r s i n L T A o p e r a t i o n s .L ieutenant Commander Frank R.McCrary and Lieutenant L.H. Maxfieldwere ordered to Akron, Ohio, where theycompleted their training in the latter partof 1915. The Navy’s LTA program was“off the ground” in three categories: non-rigid airships, free balloons and kiteballoons.

While at Akron, Lt. Maxfield observedthe test ing of the ki te bal loon inNovember and accepted the free balloonfor the Navy on December 14. The kiteballoon was accepted on December 22and shipped to Pensacola, arriving thereApril 5, 1916, accompanied by Goodyearrepresentatives. They instructed theofficers and ground crew in its handling,and inflated the balloon. It was leftmoored at a height of about 200 feet atthe air station after the course wasfinished. Two days later, on April 7, astrong wind hit Pensacola and tore thekite balloon from its moorings, inflictingconsiderable damage. However, it wasrepaired and, later in the year, two morekite balloons were ordered.

Because of the damage to the kiteballoon, the tes ts tha t had beenscheduled aboard USS North Carolinawere delayed. Eventually, after repeatedrequests by Capt. Bristol, the kite balloonwas tested aboard USS Nevada andOklahoma. Robert R. Paunack (NavalAviator No. 27) was assigned to Nevadafor duty in LTA (in November 1917 hewas designated an LTA pilot).

The tests on Nevada, which werec o m p l e t e d N o v e m b e r 1 8 , 1 9 1 6 ,demonstrated that kite balloons couldprovide an added advantage for

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A naval observer disembarks from his balloonafter an antisubmarine patrol. Duty as anobserver in kite balloons during WW I wasa hazardous job.

battleships in gunfire spotting andscouting/reconnaissance. However,tests conducted on Oklahoma a few dayslater disclosed problems in the operationof kite balloons from battleships. Theballoons posed an increased hazard tothe ship when carrying hydrogen; it tooktoo long to inflate the balloons; theyleaked; they were easy targets forantiaircraft fire at ranges under 12,000yards; and, if kept inflated and moored tothe sh ip , the bal loons restr ictedmaneuverability.

The report by Captain Wells, C.O. ofOklahoma, suggested that if some of theproblems could be corrected the kitebal loon might be of value to thebattleship. These reports failed tomention that when the balloons wereraised for scouting/reconnaissance,al though they provided increasedobservation ranges, they also revealedthe position of the battleship to theadversary. The issue of kite balloons onboard ships continued throughout WW I.

II. The Navy’s First Airship

Development of the Navy’s first airshipp rog ressed u n d e r u n f a v o r a b l econditions. The specifications that hadbeen drafted called for some unique andadvanced features which had not beentested. Other requirements were notstringent enough to make the airshipviable in even normal operations. Amongthe ideas suggested were a control carcapable of resting on water and movingthrough the water at slow speeds;swivel-type twin screws; and a means ofmooring securely to a mooring mast.Some of these advanced ideas were laterdeveloped and successfully implementedbut not until many years afterward.

These design problems, coupled withthe fact that no U.S. manufacturer hadthe technical data or know-how to buildan airship, produced disastrous resultsfor the Navy’s first airship. Developmentwas further complicated by restrictionsimposed by European countries onairship technology because of theoutbreak of war. When the U.S. enteredWW I, it began to receive some technicaldata on LTA but that was after the Navy’sfirst lighter-than-air craft, the DN-1 (anon-rigid airship), had been built.

The Connecticut Aircraft Companyreceived the contract to build the DN-1 onthe basis of its lowest bid. Thedesignation stems from D for dirigible, Nfor non-rigid and “1” as the Navy’s firstairship. Years later, the DN-1 becameknown as the A-type blimp even thoughn e v e r o f f i c i a l l y a s s i g n e d t h e Adesignation. She was the only airship ofthis type/class ever built.

The DN-1 was to be built in four to fivemonths, with delivery in October 1915.Construction proceeded at a snail’s pacewith numerous delays, due to materialproblems and the lack of technicalengineer ing abi l i ty of Connect icutAircraft Company personnel. This wascompounded by the lack of qualified LTAengineers in the Navy Department.During construction of the DN-1, theNavy authorized the building of a floatinghangar to house the new airship. Thehangar was completed and delivered toPensacola in early 1916 long before theDN-1 arrived. The airship was shipped inNovember 1916 and arrived at Pensacolain December, but was not ready for flightuntil April 1917, the month the U.S.entered WW I.

Lt.Cdr. Frank R. McCrary, pilot of theDN-1, had been assigned duty with theConnecticut Aircraft Company during herconstruction. Flight tests were conductedat Pensacola and revealed that theairship was overweight, the envelope

leaked and the power plant functionedpoorly. One of the two engines had to beremoved to make the DN-1 light enoughto get off the ground. Her first flight wason April 20, 1917. Two other flights weremade and, during an attempt to tow herover water, the airship was severelyd a m a g e d . B e c a u s e o f h e r p o o rperformance, she was considered notworth repairing. She was deflated, laterremoved from the inventory and brokenup.

The development of the Navy’s firstairship was an inept experiment in LTA.However, t he DN-1 p rog ram d idunderline the need for technical skillsand knowledge to construct airships, aswell as qualified personnel to operatethem.

III. The B-class

In the summer of 1916, even beforeconstruction on the DN-1 was completed,design studies were going on in theBureau of Construction and Repair (Bu. ofC&R) for a future class of dirigibles. Theneed for these studies was reinforcedwhen Admiral Benson (the first CNO)directed the Bu. of C&R on October 2,1916, to prepare designs for two trainingdirigibles and one rigid dirigible. OnOctober 19, 1916, the General Boardendorsed the development of zeppelinsand other mobile LTA craft as a matter of

The Connecticut Aircraft Companyreceived the contract to build the DN-1 onthe basis of its lowest bid. Thedesignation stems from D for dirigible, Nfor non-rigid and “1” as the Navy’s firstairship. Years later, the DN-1 becameknown as the A-type blimp even thoughn e v e r o f f i c i a l l y a s s i g n e d t h e Adesignation. She was the only airship ofthis type/class ever built.

The DN-1 was to be built in four to fivemonths, with delivery in October 1915.Construction proceeded at a snail’s pacewith numerous delays, due to materialproblems and the lack of technicalengineer ing abi l i ty of Connect icutAircraft Company personnel. This wascompounded by the lack of qualified LTAengineers in the Navy Department.During construction of the DN-1, theNavy authorized the building of a floatinghangar to house the new airship. Thehangar was completed and delivered toPensacola in early 1916 long before theDN-1 arrived. The airship was shipped inNovember 1916 and arrived at Pensacolain December, but was not ready for flightuntil April 1917, the month the U.S.entered WW I.

Lt.Cdr. Frank R. McCrary, pilot of theDN-1, had been assigned duty with theConnecticut Aircraft Company during herconstruction. Flight tests were conductedat Pensacola and revealed that theairship was overweight, the envelope

leaked and the power plant functionedpoorly. One of the two engines had to beremoved to make the DN-1 light enoughto get off the ground. Her first flight wason April 20, 1917. Two other flights weremade and, during an attempt to tow herover water, the airship was severelyd a m a g e d . B e c a u s e o f h e r p o o rperformance, she was considered notworth repairing. She was deflated, laterremoved from the inventory and brokenup.

The development of the Navy’s firstairship was an inept experiment in LTA.However, t he DN-1 p rog ram d idunderline the need for technical skillsand knowledge to construct airships, aswell as qualified personnel to operatethem.

III. The B-class

In the summer of 1916, even beforeconstruction on the DN-1 was completed,design studies were going on in theBureau of Construction and Repair (Bu. ofC&R) for a future class of dirigibles. Theneed for these studies was reinforcedwhen Admiral Benson (the first CNO)directed the Bu. of C&R on October 2,1916, to prepare designs for two trainingdirigibles and one rigid dirigible. OnOctober 19, 1916, the General Boardendorsed the development of zeppelinsand other mobile LTA craft as a matter of

great importance to the Navy. It alsoapproved the acting secretary of war’srecommendation to establish a jointcommittee of Army and Navy officers toc o n s i d e r t h e e n t i r e s u b j e c t o faeronautics.

The specifications for the trainingdirigible requested by the CNO in Octoberwere modified on December 13, 1916, torequire a top speed of 45 miles per hour; a12-hour endurance at 35 miles per hour;a crew of three; a radio range of 150miles; and the capability of landing at seaand for being towed.

By January 6, 1917, plans were at anadvanced stage and were submitted forapproval, carrying the designation “B”type. This quick response by the Bu. ofC&R was facilitated by early planningwhich had begun in the summer of 1916.The plans were approved by the GeneralBoard on January 26 and by theSecretary of the Navy on January 27,1917.

It was initially planned to order one or

two of these new dirigibles as testmodels. However, on February 4, 1917,the Secretary of the Navy instructed Bu.of C&R to order 16 B-class dirigibles forimmediate construction. Two days later,spec i f i ca t ions were sen t to f i vecompanies along with a suggestion thattheir representatives meet on February12 with the Chief of the Bureau. The fivecompanies were Goodyear, Goodrich,Connecticut Aircraft Company, CurtissAeroplane and Motor Corporation, andU.S. Rubber Company. This order for 16dirigibles was beyond the capability ofany one company. In addition, only theConnecticut Aircraft Company had anyexperience in building an airship. At theFebruary 12 conference, a committeewas set up by the companies and theyagreed that each would bid only for theportion of the contract it felt capable ofmanufacturing. The committee woulda r range the b ids , and make theundertaking a joint effort by pooling allr a w m a t e r i a l s , i n f o r m a t i o n a n d

Top, a close-up view of the DN-1 inside the floating hangar. Center, this was the Navy’s first and only floating LTA hangar. It wasspecially constructed for use by the DN-1 and later used for the operation of B-class airships during WW I. Above the DN-1 duringflight tests conducted at NAS Pensacola, Fla., in April 1917.

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experience during construction. Americawas close to entering the war in Europeand patriotism and cooperation, evenamong rival companies, were at theirpeak.

On March 19, contracts were awardedfor the B-class airships as follows: nine toGoodyear, two to Goodrich, three toCurtiss and two to Connecticut Aircraft.The U.S. Rubber Company confined itsinvolvement to providing fabric to theConnecticut Aircraft Company. Curtisswas involved primarily in the building ofthe cars, power plants and fins for theairships manufactured by Goodyear andGoodrich. Thus, the initial contract forthree airships received by Curtiss waslater turned over to Goodrich.

The Connecticut Aircraft Company wasthe only American manufacturer that hadconstructed an airship, but Goodyear hadconsiderable experience in building freeballoons for the Navy. Goodyear’sexperience placed it in the best positionto begin immediate work on the B-classairships. On April 1, 1917, at its ownexpense, Goodyear began constructing ahangar, a hydrogen-generating plant andtest facilities at Akron. Goodyear also hadtwo able aeronautical engineers, R.H.Upson and R.A.D. Preston, to assist in thedevelopment of the B-class.

The first B-class airship, designatedthe B-1, was completed by Goodyearbefore the company had finished theconstruction of its LTA facilities. Sincetesting facilities were not available andthere wasn’t adequate shelter to inflatethe B-1, Goodyear used the facility set upby Goodrich near Chicago. The first testflight was arranged to ensure the designwas operable and also to benefit theother contractors who were building theairship. The B-1 was transported fromAkron to a shed at “White City,” locatedon the southside of Chicago. It wasinflated and on May 24, 1917, two shortflights were made. Ralph H. Upson,Goodyear’s airship engineer, was at thecontrols during the flights and wasfavorably impressed.

On May 29, the B-1 was taken up foranother test flight, and Upson was againat the controls. During the flight, Upsondecided it would be safer to fly to Akronrather than land at the small field nearChicago. He headed the B-1 towardsAkron at midnight and landed in ameadow 10 miles from Akron at noon onMay 30. Had the oil supply held out,Upson could have landed the airship atthe Goodyear field. This was a precedentsetting flight, establishing a world’s longdistance record for non-rigids at that

time. The B-1 was the first of its class,built in two months from designs thatused mostly theoretical and experimentalcalculations. To set a record on a testf l i g h t w a s i n d e e d a r e m a r k a b l eachievement and boded well for thefuture of the B-class, as well as LTA in theNavy. This success gave the contractorsthe confidence needed to go ahead withthe construct ion of the previouslyuntested airship. The first, the B-1, wasdelivered on July 19, 1917, and shippedto Pensacola on August 7, 1917.

B-class airships were used extensivelyduring WW I, primarily as trainers butalso for coastal patrol. None were evershipped to Europe during the war.

Changes and improvements weremade to the airships as more of thembecame operational. Suggestions for thechanges first came from the contractors

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and later from the Navy pilots who weretrained to operate the B-class dirigibles.Various improvements in the B-classdesign led to an increase in speed fromthe original 40 mph to 48 mph, using thesame engine. All the airships, includingthe first group, had a useful lift in excessof the original designed load. B-classairships were used for coastal patrolduring WW I at the following naval airstations: Chatham, Montauk, Rockaway,Cape May and Key West. NAS HamptonRoads had B-class airships assigned butused them primarily for experimentation.Those used for coastal patrol flew over13,600 hours or roughly 400,000 miles.

One of the major functions of the B-class was as a trainer. Many of the pilotstrained on the B-class went on to duty atAmerican naval air stations in Europeflying European built airships.

The contract for the 16 B-class airshipsordered on March 19, 1917, was fulfilledwith the delivery of the last airship inJ u n e 1 9 1 8 . I t w a s a n a m a z i n gaccomplishment, considering the designwas new; there was no advance testingof an experimental model; no Americancompany had built a successful airship;and it was during the war, when men andmaterial were at a premium. The 16 B-class airships, designated B-1 through16, were assigned bureau numbers A-235 t h rough 250 . A f t e r t he wa r ,Goodyear rebuilt three B-class gondolaswhich were given the designation B-17through 19 and assigned bureaunumbers A-5464, 5465, and 5467. Oneother B-class airship was ordered, the B-20, which had a modified configuration.

Technical data for these B-classairships vary because the envelopes

produced by the three companies,Goodyear, Goodrich and ConnecticutAircraft Company, were of differentdimensions with later improvements indesign.

IV. Early LTA Training

On September 4, 1915, Goodyearsigned a contract with the Navy tomanufacture a free balloon. Included inthis contract was a provision proposed byGoodyear whereby they would train twoofficers to operate the free balloon. Thetwo officers assigned to Goodyear for thetraining were Lt.Cdr. F.R. McCrary and Lt.L.H. Maxfield, both of whom becameprominent figures in Navy LTA. Theywere ordered to Akron in August 1915 tobegin LTA training for the Navy.

In March 1916, Capt. Bristol reportedto the Secretary of the Navy that the

hydrogen plant at Pensacola was inoperation and the free balloon was “inhand.” The first flight of the free balloonwas on May 5, 1916. This began LTAtrain ing at Pensacola which wasconducted by McCrary and Maxfield inaccordance with a syllabus proposed byCapt. Bristol in January 1916. Twoofficers from each class of students atPensacola were to be instructed in freeballooning as part of preliminary trainingin the operation of airships.

The first formal training syllabus forpilots had been issued by the Bureau ofNavigation in June 1914. A revisedsyl labus was proposed by Lt .Cdr.McCrary on May 16, 1916, and approvedby Commander Henry C. Must in,C o m m a n d a n t o f t h e P e n s a c o l aAeronaut ic Stat ion. Capt . Br is to lapproved th is LTA sy l l abus andit was included in the second

revision of the training syllabus andapproved by Secretary of the NavyJosephus Daniels on June 3, 1916. Thesyl labus issued by the Bureau ofNavigation included meteorology, thehandling of free balloons, the solving ofproblems relat ing to pi lot ing andnavigation, and theoretical instruction inweather forecast ing and study ofweather maps. Student pilots wererequired to complete flights coveringinstruction in ascension, control ofballast under varying air conditions,methods of sounding air currents andc h e c k i n g d e s c e n t , r e a d i n g o finstruments, keeping the log, navigation,valving, use of appendix and drag rope,making a landing and ripping the bag.O n e o f t h e f l i g h t s r e q u i r e d a nintermediate landing wherein theinstructor was dropped off and thestudent continued on a solo flight for notless than one hour.

With the declaration of war by the U.S.on April 6, 1917, the need for NavalAviators and their training becamecrucial. When the contract for the B-classairships was signed, the need for airshippilots became critical. The only qualifiedairship pilot at that time was Lt.Cdr.McCrary. After McCrary and Maxfieldhad qualified as pilots in free ballooningat Goodyear in 1915, McCrary wasass igned tempora ry du ty a t theConnecticut Aircraft Company during the

The B-class airships continued to operatein the post-WW I period. This one, the B-8, ison a training flight at NAS Pensacola, Fla.

The first class of LTA students from Akron. Standing: Gartz, Whitehouse, Delano, Williams, Talbot, Little, Brewer, Hamlen, Strader,Crompton and Chadwick. Sitting: Pennoyer, Norfleet, Culbert, Preston (of Goodyear), Maxfield (C.O.) and Coil. The mascot isMaxfield’s “Lanny.”

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construction of the DN-1. Later he servedat NAS Pensacola as executive officerand as pilot of the DN-1, which he flew inA p r i l 1 9 1 7 . B y v i r t u e o f t h e s eassignments and as pilot of the DN-1, heis credited as being the first LTA pilot inthe Navy.

When Goodyear signed the contract forB-class airships, it proposed a pilottraining program. On May 29, 1917, acontract was let for Goodyear to trainNavy personnel in free ballooning and aspilots of kite balloons and airships.G o o d y e a r h a d a l r e a d y s t a r t e dconstruction of a training field afterearlier negotiations and was ready toreceive the students at facilities located afew miles from Akron, which laterbecame known as Wingfoot or WingfootLake. By early June 1917, when the firstLTA class began training, the hangar wasalmost complete, shops had beencompleted and equipped, the hydrogenplant was ready, and the barracks for thestudents and officer quarters werefinished.

Goodyear provided the equipment,supplies and instructors for flight trainingand some of the instructors for theground school subjects. The Navyprovided instructors for navigation,seamanship, signaling, communicationsand drill. Lt. Maxfield had been assignedas officer-in-charge of the Navy’s LTAcontingent/school at Goodyear. His staffconsisted of Lieutenants Warren G. Child

and Robert R. Paunack; LieutenantsJunior Grade Emory W. Coil, Ralph G.Pennoyer and Joseph P. Norfleet; andEnsign Frederick P. Culbert. Theseofficers, including Lt. Maxfield, wereinstructors but were not qualified asairship pilots. However, Maxfield,Paunack and Chi ld were al readydesignated Naval Aviators, HTA (heavier-than-air). All officers initially assigned toAkron did not remain there for the entiretraining period of the first LTA class.During that time, many of the officersalso qualified as LTA pilots. The studentsin the first LTA class included Colley W.Bell, Arthur D. Brewer, Noel Chadwick,George Crompton, Merrill P. Delano,Richard C. Gartz, Warner L. Hamlen,Charles G. Little, Ralph M. Strader,Andrew B. Talbot, William P. WhitehouseII and Arthur S. Williams.

The first class received preliminaryground school training and all otheressential background training prior toactual LTA flying. This procedurechanged as the Navy geared up andorganized its flight training program forboth LTA and HTA. Ground school andother essent ia l f l ight t ra ining wasconducted at other facilities such as MIT,and then the men were transferred to therespective flight training centers foractual flight instruction. When the firstclass of LTA students completed groundschool, they moved on to kite balloonsand from there they progressed to free

balloon flying. The final stage of trainingwas in the B-class airship since it was theonly type available.

LTA training was conducted at manynaval air stations at the beginning of WWI, inc luding Pensacola, Chatham,Montauk, Rockaway, Cape May,Hampton Roads and Key West .E v e n t u a l l y , L T A t r a i n i n g w a sconcentrated at Akron, Pensacola andRockaway. Naval Aviation personnelwere also trained by the British andFrench at their air stations during WW I.A formal syllabus was prepared by Lt.Cdr.J. P. Norfleet in July 1918 for all phasesof LTA training.

The number of officers trained asairship pilots or in free and kiteballooning is difficult to trace becausetraining took place at so many differentsites. It is generally estimated that over170 were trained as pilots in the B-classairship. The total number of pilots trainedas airship pilots and as free or kite balloonpilots is far greater than this. There were57 dirigible and 12 free balloon officerpilots trained, while in the StudentReserve 205 dirigible and 222 kite or freeballoon pilots were trained at Akron orPensacola during the war. It is significantto note that during this training programfor LTA pilots at Akron there were nofatalities.

Training operations are being conducted by aB-class airship at the Akron airfield. Goodyearnot only trained many of the Navy’s LTApilots during WW I but it also built many ofthe B-class airships at Akron.

The Capitaine Caussin, in her hangar at NAS Guipavas, France, was one of several different typesof French airships operated by U.S. Naval Aviation forces in France during WW I and in the post-war period.

V. World War I

Opera t i ons du r i ng WW I we reconducted exclusively in the NorthAtlantic and some of its connectingbodies of water, such as the EnglishChannel, Bay of Biscay, Gulf of Mexicoand Caribbean Sea. There were twotheaters of operations: the easternseaboard of the Americas and Europeanwaters. Convoy duty was the connectinglink between the two.

On the eastern seaboard of theAmericas, LTA was operational at NavalAir Stations:

Chatham (non-rigid airship and kiteballoon);

Key West (non-rigid airship and kiteballoon);

Cape May (non-rigid airship);Montauk (non-rigid airship and kite

balloon);Coco Solo (kite balloon);Pensacola (non-rigid airship and kite

balloon);Hampton Roads (non-rigid airship and

kite balloon);Rockaway (non-rigid airship and kite

balloon); andHalifax (kite balloon).

The air station at Akron was devotedexc lus ive ly to t ra in ing , and NASPensacola primarily to training with abrief period during the war when itssecondary mission involved someoperational patrolling. NAS HamptonRoads se rved as a t ra in ing andexperimental stationduring the early partof the war, later becoming an importantpatrol station for seaplanes and LTA.Several other air stations served in atraining capacity as well as in theirprimary mission of patrol. NAS Rockawaytrained some dirigible pilots and was theprimary advanced training center for kiteballoon pilots.

The need for patrol stations wasenvisioned prior to America’s entry intothe war. Plans were drawn up toestablish air stations to patrol and defendthe eastern coast of the United Statesand ad jacen t wa te rs aga ins t t hesubmarine threat and to minimize thedamage against shipping. Some of the airstations were engaged initially in trainingand later included patrol duty.

The first positive data concerningGermany’s decision to wage submarinewarfare in the western Atlantic wasreceived in May 1918. Prior to this, U.S.Naval Aviation had concentrated onproviding trained aviation personnel and

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Right, an LTA hangar atNAS Hampton Roads, Va.,circa 1918. Note theairship being inflated inthe hangar. Below center,close-up view of theCapitaine Caussin’s controlcar and its crew.

equipment overseas to take part in theantisubmarine warfare (ASW) campaignagainst German subs in Europeanwaters.

Airships and kite balloons were used inpatrol operations by the nine air stationslisted above. These were primarilyAmerican-built. However, some of thekite balloons were of British or Frenchdesign built in the U.S. All the airshipsassigned to air stations in the UnitedStates were of the B-class except theBritish dirigible O-SS, bureau number A-1029. The O-SS was destroyed by a firein the summer of 1918 shortly after it hadbeen received at NAS Hampton Roads.

The LTA craft (airships and kiteballoons) were used in conjunction withseaplanes and flying boats to help protectshipping by detecting the presence andposition of submarines and warningsurface vessels of the threat, as well asattacking the submarine with bombs orguns. The location of mines and theirdestruct ion were other importantmissions for LTA. The dirigibles wereused to great advantage in patrol andescort work. The cruising radius wasmuch wider than that of seaplanes,which provided longer escort capabilityand thus more protection. Their ability tohover enabled them to detect objectswhich might otherwise have escaped thevigilance of observers in the more rapidlymoving planes.

The B-type dirigible was handled by acrew of three: a pilot, an assistant pilotand an engineer. The kite balloon wasdesigned to carry as crew a kite balloonpilot and an observer. In many instances,during actual operations, the kite balloonheld only one person who probably actedas both. Armament and equipment for

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dirigibles on patrol consisted of thefollowing: Lewis guns and bombs (bombswere fused for contact or hydrostaticse t t i ngs ) ; rad io t ransmi t te rs andreceiving apparatus; flashlights andflares; very pistols with red and greencartridges; life preservers, emergencyrations and water; aircraft signal booksand local charts; carrier pigeons; andphotographic apparatus.

The three types of patrol missionsassigned to LTA craft operating off thecoast of the United States were standardpatrol (routine search in an assignedarea); emergency patrol ( f lown inresponse to the sighting of a submarine,to an SOS, or on a search and rescuemission); and escort patrol (escort forships and convoys).

The majority of naval patrols conductedduring the submarine campaign of 1918off the East Coast of America producedvery few encounters with Germans u b m a r i n e s . T h e p a t r o l s w e r esuccessful, however, because they werea deterrent to offensive operations byGerman submarines.

The connecting link for Naval Aviationbetween the eastern coast of the UnitedStates and the shores of Europe wasprimarily the kite balloon. The balloonswere used in a limited role by ships thatescorted the convoys across the Atlantic.

U.S. Naval Aviation’s LTA activities inthe European theater began with theassignment of Lieutenant ZacharyLansdowne and Lieutenant Junior GradeRalph Kiely to England for dirigible pilottraining in August 1917. Both mencompleted their training and weregraduated at Cranwell, England, onNovember 15. In September 1917, Cdr.McCrary and Lt.Cdr. Maxfield were

a s s i g n e d t o t h e U . S . A v i a t i o nDetachment in Paris. The two menrepresented the U.S. Navy duringconferences with the French on theestablishment of a U.S. dirigible stationin France.

The first contingent of dirigible pilotsarrived in Europe in November 1917 —all were from the first LTA class at Akron.They included: Ensigns Strader, Talbot,Whitehouse, Brewer, Little, Deland andHamlen. Ens. Hamlen was ordered toHeadquar te rs , Par i s , f o r du ty i nconnection with dirigible operation,schools and training. The other six wereordered to Paimboeuf for LTA operations.This was the beginning of U.S. LTAoperations in Europe that continued untilDecember 1918, when two U.S. airshipsescorted President Woodrow Wilson onhis arrival there after the war ended.

In the European theater during WW ILTA operated only from air stations inFrance and Great Britain, carrying outASW, patrolling and escorting convoys inthe waters of the Bay of Biscay, English

Left, a view of NASBrest, the primaryAmerican kiteballoon station inFrance. Note thekite balloon in theupper right-handcorner. Below,one of the French-built and American-operated airships onpatrol off the coastof France duringWW I.

Channel and St. George’s Channel. TheU.S. naval air stations were Brest,Paimboeuf, Guipavas, Gujan, La Pallice,La Trinite (all located in France) andCastletownbere (Berehaven) located inIreland. Several other air stations hadb e e n p l a n n e d b u t t h e y n e v e rmaterialized.

NAS Pa imboeu f was the mos ts i g n i f i c a n t s t a t i o n f o r d i r i g i b l e

Two French airships,the AT-1 and VZ-3,on the field at NASPaimboeuf, France.These airships weretransferred to U.S.naval forces andplayed an importantrole in patroling theBay of Biscay.

dirigible station under U.S. Navy controlwere discussed in October 1917between the French and the Americansrepresented by Cdr. McCrary and Lt.Cdr.Maxf ie ld, but progress was slow.Lieutenant F. P. Culbert was assigned toPaimboeuf for flight duty with the Frenchon November 10, 1917. He was followedb y a n A m e r i c a n d e t a c h m e n t o nNovember 30, 1917. Permission wasobtained on December 2, 1917, for Lt.Culbert and three other personnel toreceive flying instruction in Frenchdirigibles at Paimboeuf. On January 4,1918, Maxfield arrived to take commandof the American detachment there. TheFrench Astra Torres dirigible (AT-1)arrived on January 30 from Rochefortwith Americans comprising part of thecrew, followed on February 3 by theZ o d i a c V e d e t t e d i r i g i b l e ( V Z - 3 )transferred from the French station atGuipavas.

The f i rst patrols were made onFebruary 24, 1918, while the dirigiblesand air station were still under Frenchcontrol. As more Americans arrived, theFrench g radua l l y w i thd rew the i rpersonnel for duty elsewhere. Duringthis period of transition, the station wasunder dual control.

Paimboeuf was established as anAmerican naval air station on March 1,1918, the same day the French ceded thedirigible AT-1 to the Americans, the firstto be received by U.S. Naval AviationForces in France. Lt.Cdr. Maxfield wasdesignated commanding officer, Lt.Culbert execut ive of f icer and sixmembers of the first LTA class fromAkron were assigned as pilots there. TheAT-1 under American control made herfirst flight on March 3. On March 20 theFrench transferred the VZ-3 to Americancontrol.

NAS Paimboeuf engaged in a variety ofoperations with its assigned dirigibles.Besides patrol duties and training, the airstation performed experimental work. OnJune 9, a submarine listening device wastested aboard the AT-1. The AssistantSecretary of the Navy, F.D. Roosevelt,visited the station on August 17, 1918,and made a flight in the AT-1.

On October 1, 1918, another of theairships under American control, the AT-13, encountered a German submarineduring patrol operations. The airship hadescorted a southbound convoy from Brestand then returned to her area of patrol.En route, the AT-13 had conductedpractice shots with her 47mm gun. On

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the second round, the firing spring brokeand the gun was out of commission.However, the airship continued on to herpatrol station. The AT-13 picked up anorthbound convoy and began providingescort coverage. In order to avoid anapproaching storm, the airship left theconvoy for a short time, and it was duringthis time that she sighted the U-boat. Thesubmarine immediately fired on the AT-13. There was no damage to the airshipand, unable to return fire because of herinoperable gun, she rejoined the convoyto warn them of the submar ine’spresence and pursue her escort duties.The airships out of NAS Paimboeufcont inued thei r patro ls dur ing theremainder of the war but no othersubmarines were sighted.

When the Armistice was signed onNovember 11, NAS Paimboeuf had threeFrench a i r sh ips in i t s opera t inginventory. They were the AT-13, VZ-7and VZ -13 . The VZ -3 had beentransferred back to the French onSeptember 26, 1918, and the AT-1 hadbeen deflated and sent to the U.S. onSeptember 10, 1918. During the war, theairships operating out of NAS Paimboeufestablished record flight times forairships on station; an endurance flyingrecord for one of the French-typedirigibles; and second best to the otherFrench airship stations for total hours onstation during the month of October. OnDecember 16, 1918, the AT-13 returnedto Paimboeuf after flying escort for thearrival of President Wilson in France.

Two other air stations had beendesignated to operate airships in Europe,Gu ipavas and Gu jan . Gu jan wasestablished on February 3, 1918, andconstruction work began on February 20.Lieutenant L.L. Babbitt was assigned ascommanding officer. The air station wasscheduled to operate two dirigibles, butGujan never became operational andnever had an airship assigned. When theArmistice was signed there were threepilots detailed to the air station.

Construction on Guipavas began onMarch 11, 1918 and, on April 11,Lieutenant J. F. Maloney reported aboardas commanding officer. He was relievedby Lieutenant Commander Z. Lansdowneon October 30. Lieutenant Junior GradeM. P. Delano (a member of the first LTAclass at Akron) also arrived on October 30for duty as commanding officer of theCapitaine Caussin a French T-2 (Chalais-Meudon) type dirigible. The CapitaineCaussin was scheduled for assignmentto NAS Guipavas when the air station

became operational. She was flown bypilots and crew from NAS Guipavas priorto her transfer from the French to U.S.Naval Forces.

NAS Guipavas became operational onNovember 11, 1918, and CapitaineCaussin was officially ceded to the U.S.Naval Forces on November 23, to bemaintained and operated by Americanstation personnel. The Capitaine Caussinand AT-13 flew out of the air station insupport of President Wilson’s arrival onDecember 13, 1918, the last official flightof U.S. dirigibles in Europe.

LTA activities in Europe also involvedkite balloon operations at several airstations, including NAS Brest, La Trinitein France, and Berehaven (Castletown-bere) in Ireland. A kite balloon stationwas under construction at La Pallice,France, but never became operational. Akite station had been planned for LoughSwilly, Ireland, but the plans were laterabandoned. An LTA station that hadbeen planned for Rochefort, France, wasnever developed by the U.S. because ofthe German offensive in March 1918 andFrance’s need for the station.

U.S. LTA activities in Great Britainduring the war centered on the training ofNaval Aviators and personnel, and on kiteballoon operations at NAS Berehaven.American Naval Air personnel receivedsome dirigible training at Royal Naval AirStation (RNAS), Cranwell, England, whilemany kite balloon pilots were trained atRNAS Roehampton. There were nooperational patrols by U.S. dirigibles inGreat Britain. However, a British-builtairship of the Submarine Scout Zero typewas received and operated by the U.S. for

training purposes at RNAS Cranwell.This airship type was the only one tooperate in Europe during the war with anaircraft bureau number assigned, A-1030. All foreign-built airships operatedby the U.S. Navy in Europe used theoriginal manufacturer’s designation anddid not receive aircraft bureau numbers,except this one. She operated as a U.S.training airship for only about a month(January-February 1918) at RNASCranwell and then she was transferred toFrance. In England the majority of LTAactivities involving Americans includedNaval Aviators and associated personnelassigned to British units operating Britishairships out of Royal naval air stations.

NAS Berehaven, the only U.S. LTA airstation in Great Britain, had been underconstruction by the British prior to beingturned over to the Americans. It wasdesigned to operate as a kite balloonstation and provide destroyers with kiteballoons for convoy and patrol duties. TheBritish ceded Berehaven to the U.S. onApril 26, 1918, with Ensign Carl E.Shumway as its commanding officer. Itwas operational by May 21. Practiceballoon flights were made from towedtrucks, since the air station was notlocated close enough to Queenstown,where the destroyers were based, topermit easy transfer of kite balloonsbetween station and ship. Berehavenwas not very active because of thetransfer problem and the operationalrequirements imposed on destroyerswhich did not permit time for kite balloonoperations on board. In July 1918, mostof the U.S. LTA personnel and kiteballoon equipment were transferred to

NAS Brest, France.Berehaven later became a kite balloon

station, again, supporting operationsaboard HMS Flying Fox in late July andearly August 1918. Berehaven thenswitched to support of balloon operationson board the American battleships Utah,Nevada and Oklahoma from late Augustthrough mid -Oc tobe r . The th reebattleships, operating from Bantry Bay,Ireland, had been sent to Europe toprotect the Allied convoys approachingBritain. In the latter part of October 1918,preparations were being made to moveLTA operations from Berehaven toQueenstown to make kite balloons moreaccessible to the ships located there.When the A rm is t i ce was s igned ,Berehaven had 16 kite balloons on board.The air station had been established inApril 1918, began operations in May and,less than a year later, was disestablishedFebruary 12, 1919.

U.S. LTA operations in Great Britainwere not as extensive as those conductedby U.S. Naval Aviation forces in France.The extent of American LTA developmentis pointed out by the differences betweenGreat Britain and France in the number ofstations and activities. At the time of theArmistice, one American dirigible stationwas operating, one ready to begino p e r a t i o n s a n d a n o t h e r u n d e rconstruction in France. There were nonein Great Britain. Two kite balloon stationswere in operat ion and one underconstruction in France, while there wasonly one active kite balloon station inGreat Britain.

In contrast to Great Britain, France hadmore American LTA stations during the

war. This was not necessarily becausethere was more enemy submarineactivity in the Bay of Biscay. In fact, themost vital areas needing aerial ASWsupport were the waters adjacent to thecoasts of England and Ireland. U.S. navalair stations were established in Franceafter the arrival of the First AeronauticalDetachment.

Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting had beenordered to France as the officer-in-charge of the detachment, with veryvague instructions as to his duties oncehe arrived. He initiated arrangementswith France to establish many of the airstat ions that eventual ly came intoexistence. If the Allies had jointly, insteado f s e p a r a t e l y , w o r k e d o u t acomprehensive plan for the establish-ment of U.S. air stations in Europe, moreU.S. stations might have been developedin Grea t B r i t a in because o f thesubmarine threat in English waters.

U.S. Naval Air forces were successfulin working with French air units toeliminate the submarine threat fromFrench waters, specifically the Bay ofBiscay. When the Armistice was signed,there were s ix U.S. LTA stat ionsoperating or under construction inFrance.

Three U.S. air stations in France werededicated to the operation of kiteballoons: La Pallice, La Trinite and Brest.

La Pallice was under constructionwhen the A rm is t i ce was s igned .Construction had started on June 23,1918, and was expected to be completedby the end of November. But progresswas seriously hampered by the delay inreceiving building materials.

A Caquot M-type kiteballoon used by AmericanNaval Aviation forces inEurope during WW I.

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On June 17, 1918, Lieutenant JuniorGrade J. H. Dashiell assumed duties ascommanding officer. Four kite balloonsand two kite balloon pilots were on boardthe station on November 11, 1918,preparing for the start of operations.After hostilities ended, La Pallice wasdisestablished on January 5, 1919, andtransferred to the U.S. Army.

Arrangements were made on March14, 1918, for the establishment of thekite balloon station at La Trinite andconstruction began in April. The locationof the air station had been selected toenable it to provide kite balloon supportfor convoys operating between Brest andLa Pallice.

Ensign C. M. Johnson was placed incommand, La Trinite was reported readyfor operations on October 1, 1918, andthe first kite balloon was inflated onOctober 18. Flights were made forpractice and instructional purposes, butthere were no active operational flightsbecause there was no towing boat tocarry the kite balloons out to destroyersescorting convoys. La Trinite had four kiteballoons on board and one kite balloonpilot when the war ended. The stationwas demobilized on February 5, 1919,and the site was evacuated.

Brest was the most active of all the kiteballoon stations in Europe. LieutenantJunior Grade G. R. Romulus arrived inBrest on October 7, 1917, to beginpreparations for establishment of the airstation. Construction was contractedthrough the French and work began inJanuary 1918. The station was designedto support two functions, kite balloon andseaplane operations.

LTA activity began with the arrival of akite balloon detachment from NASCastletownbere on July 4, 1918. This

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detachment consisted of 12 kite balloonsand accessories, 40 men and two officersto support the kite balloon operations.The detachment initially operated fromthe French k i te bal loon stat ion atLanninon adjoining the U.S. station.L a t e r t h a t y e a r , e q u i p m e n t a n doperations were switched to the U.S.hangar at Brest, on October 19.

A Goodrich M-type kite balloon wasinflated and flown from a French trawleron July 11. It was the first flight of anAmerican kite balloon in France. Furtherflights were conducted in which the kiteballoon remained aloft for the entire day.Modifications had to be made on the U.S.destroyers before they were capable oftowing kite balloons. On July 20, 1918,the first trial flight was made on USSCushing. The equipment functionedsuccessfully and after several kiteballoon transfers they were returned tothe hangar at Brest.

The successful operation of the kiteballoon on Cushing was followed by afive-day operational trip aboard Cushingbeginning August 1. A kite balloon, fourofficers and seven men were aboard.Observational activities were limited dueto the bad weather, but the trip provideduseful experience.

Cushing’s trip was followed by severalother kite balloon excursions on otherU.S. destroyers. On August 14, a kiteballoon detachment left on USS Ericssonand had 64 hours of observation timefrom the balloon’s basket during a I00-hour period at sea. Further experimentsand testing were carried out on other U.S.destroyers. USS Sigourney experi-m e n t e d s u c c e s s f u l l y w i t h t h eLidgerwood steam winch for kite balloonoperations on August 18. One of the lasttests to be conducted was on November

The British-built submarine scout Zero-type(O-SS) was used by American NavalAviation forces. Note the difference in theconstruction of the control car comparedto the airships built in France.

13 when USS Benham experimentedwith the Mumford steam winch and an R-type kite balloon.

At the end of the war, six destroyers,were operating out of Brest that werecapable of conducting kite balloonoperations: Cushing, Benham, Ericsson,O’Brien. Wilson and Sigourney.

Several other destroyers had beenequipped with a winch for kite balloonoperations. However, the necessaryalterations had not been made to makethem serviceable.

When combat operations drew to aclose on November 11, 1918, there were18 kite balloon pilots and 22 kite balloonsassigned to NAS Brest. The air stationwas disestablished on February 15,1919, and transferred to the French.

Three types of American-built kiteballoons were sent to France: M, R and C.Several French Nourrice balloons hadbeen ordered but were not completedbefore the Armistice was signed.

LTA operations in Europe did not get offthe ground as quickly as heavier-than-air. However, their contribution to thewar effort should not be underestimated.Out of the 15 operating U.S. air stationsinvolved in sea patrol missions, therewere only three that had patrolled moresea miles than the LTA station atPaimbeouf. These were Killingholme,England, and Ile Trudy and Le Croisic inFrance.

The d i r i g ib les opera ted by theAmericans did not have any U-boatsinkings to their credit, but neither did theconvoys they escorted have any losses to

U-boat attacks. It appears that thesurvei l lance support af forded theconvoys by the dirigibles and fixed-wingaircraft kept the U-boats from operatingsuccessfully.

While no American-built airshipsoperated in Europe during the war, avariety of French and English-builtairships were operated in Europe by U.S.Naval Aviation.

The Submarine Scout Zero typeoperated for a short time as a trainingairship in England with the designationO-SS and was assigned bureau numberA-1030. Other airships which operatedunder the American flag were the Astra-Torres types AT-1 and AT-13; theChalasis-Meudon type T-2 (CapitaineCaussin); and the Zodiac Vedette typesVZ-3, VZ-7 and VZ-13.

The U.S. had several foreign dirigiblesshipped to America during the war forexperimentation, research and testing.These airships included the O-SS (A-1029). AT-1 (A-5472) and the SS-Z-23(A-5563, previously A-1030). With thecessation of hostilities, the Navy shippedback several other foreign airships thathad operated in Europe or had beencontracted for prior to the close of thewar, including VZ-7, VZ-13, NS-1, AT-13,AT-17, ZD-US-1, ZD-US-2 and CapitaineCaussin. The CM-5 had been accepted bythe Navy but remained in France until shewas sold to Goodyear in 1920. The ZD-US-1 was transferred to the Army

immediately upon her arrival in the U.S.in 1919. This Zodiac type (ZD-US-1) wasthe first dirigible built for the Navy withher bridge entirely enclosed. In 1922, theNavy transferred the ZD-US-2, which hadbeen kept in storage, to the Army. The VZ-7 and 13 (A-5592 and A-5593) arrived inthe U.S. in early 1919. They were laterassigned and shipped to NAS Coco Solo.On October 6, 1919, Coco Solo requestedthat these two airships be stricken fromthe inventory because their condition didnot warrant repairs. Most of the foreignbuilt airships sent to the U.S. after thewar remained in storage until they weresurveyed and removed from the Navy’sinventory.

No German U-boats were sunk byNaval Aviation during WW I. However,aviat ion is credited with providingpositional data to destroyers and othersurface craft that resulted in successfulattacks against the U-boats. Theevolution of LTA operations during WW Iled to a postwar period of importantdeve lopments in the Navy ’s LTAprogram. Various foreign-built airshipswere purchased for experimentation andevaluation. New American airshipdesigns, some based on Europeandevelopments, were constructed andtheir capabilities evaluated. Airshipscontinued to operate during the postwarperiod, however, there was an extensivecutback in operations. Many of the flightswere made primarily to keep personnel

trained in the operation of the airship andothers were utilized for experiments. Thetraining flights were also used to preparepersonnel for manning future rigidairships proposed for the Navy in its 1920fiscal year budget.

Experimental flights conducted by theNavy’s non-rigids during the postwarperiod included: problems introduced bythe use of helium in place of hydrogen;invest igat ion of stat ic discharges;minesweeping tactics; development andtesting of torpedo launching equipment;testing new instruments and new fabricsf o r e n v e l o p e s ; m o o r i n g m a s tdevelopments; water ballast recoveryprocedures and equipment development;meteorological experiments; rescueprocedures; refueling and regassing ofdirigibles from surface craft; and groundcrew handling procedures and use anddevelopment of special equipment forhandling airships. Non-rigid airshipactivity began to slow down somewhat inthe postwar period as the Navy began toturn more of its attention to developingthe rigid airship.

VI. The C-class

The evolution of the C-class non-rigidwas the result of the need for a betterASW platform for convoy and patrolduties against the German U-boat. lt wasdesigned in the spring of 1918 by the

The French Astra-Torres typeairship, AT-13, at the mainAmerican LTA base inEurope, NAS Paimboeuf,France.

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The F series consisted of only one airship. It was originally constructed for commercial purposes by Goodyear and then acquired by the Navy.

Bureau of Construction and Repair’sAircraf t Div is ion and was a majoradvance over the B-class. Theimprovements in the C-class providedincreased endurance for longer on-station time for convoy and patrol duties;more power for additional speed tohandle head winds; and more powerreliability with the addition of twinengines. It also had a much larger usefullift capacity which permitted a greaterload of depth charges to be carried in itsASW role.

Contracts were placed with Goodyearand Goodrich for 30 C-class airships. Thecars were to be built by the CurtissCompany. Only a few of the C-class werecompleted before the Armistice and sothe design improvements were not testedunder actual combat conditions.

The first C-class airship was completedin September and made her maiden flighton September 30, 1918. She wasdelivered to the Navy on October 22 afterflying nonstop from Akron to Anacostia,D.C., where she was refueled and thencontinued on to NAS Rockaway, N.Y.This was the beginning of many “firsts”for the C-class airship: the first to carryan airplane aloft and launch it in flight; todemonstrate the practicability of aerialrefueling from ships at sea by taking onfuel from a submarine chaser; to usehelium as her lifting gas; to complete atranscontinental flight across the U.S.;and to make numerous record-setting

18

distance flights.A C-class airship, the C-5, also was

used in an attempted flight across theAtlantic. She was modified for thescheduled crossing and LieutenantCommander E. W. Coil was assigned ascommander. On May 14, 1919, theairship lifted off from NAS Montauk, witha crew of six, and headed for St. John’s,Newfoundland. This flight was part of thetest to determine whether they wouldattempt the Atlantic crossing. On themorning of May 15, the C-5 landed atPleasantville, St. John’s The distancecovered was 1,022 sea miles and thetime in the air was 25 hours and 50minutes. The flight had demonstratedthe airship’s long-distance cruisingrange, and the airworthiness of the C-5 too p e r a t e u n d e r v a r y i n g w e a t h e rconditions.

Permission was granted for theAtlantic crossing and the ground crewbegan the work of refueling and gassingthe C-5. Wind conditions were gusty andvariable during reprovisioning. After theground crew experienced numeroushandling problems, it became evidentthat the airship had to be deflated. Theripcord was pulled but there wereproblems with the pulloff patch on theenvelope. Before any other action couldbe taken, another gust of wind parted thefinal lines holding the C-5. The airshipdrifted rapidly away, heading out to seawith no personnel on board, and was lost.

Lt.Cdr. Coil, in his report on the C-5flight, indicated that the performance ofthe C-5 between Montauk and St. John’smade a nonstop transatlantic crossingentirely feasible. Had it not been for theweather and the fact that a mooring masthad not been developed, the C-5 mighthave been the first aircraft to cross theAtlantic.

When the Armistice was signed, only afew C-class airships had been deliveredto the Navy. Demobilization led to areduction in the number of airshipsconstructed and, eventually, only 10were built of the 30 originally ordered.The last C-class was delivered on March19, 1919. Two were transferred to theArmy.

VII. New Airship Classes in thePost-WW I Period

The postwar period saw developmentsin non-rigid airships that were moreadvanced than the capabilities offered inthe C-class. The success of the C-classwas tempered by criticism from pilotsabout certain unsatisfactory features.Criticism was aimed primarily at thecontrol car which was crowded, noisydue to engine placement, and susceptibleto propeller blasts. As a result, the D-c lass des ign was deve loped andauthorized by the Secretary of the Navyon July 16, 1918. Goodyear received acontract to build three of the airships, the

The F series consisted of only one airship. It was originally constructed for commercial purposes by Goodyear and then acquired by the Navy.

Bureau of Construction and Repair’sAircraf t Div is ion and was a majoradvance over the B-class. Theimprovements in the C-class providedincreased endurance for longer on-station time for convoy and patrol duties;more power for additional speed tohandle head winds; and more powerreliability with the addition of twinengines. It also had a much larger usefullift capacity which permitted a greaterload of depth charges to be carried in itsASW role.

Contracts were placed with Goodyearand Goodrich for 30 C-class airships. Thecars were to be built by the CurtissCompany. Only a few of the C-class werecompleted before the Armistice and sothe design improvements were not testedunder actual combat conditions.

The first C-class airship was completedin September and made her maiden flighton September 30, 1918. She wasdelivered to the Navy on October 22 afterflying nonstop from Akron to Anacostia,D.C., where she was refueled and thencontinued on to NAS Rockaway, N.Y.This was the beginning of many “firsts”for the C-class airship: the first to carryan airplane aloft and launch it in flight; todemonstrate the practicability of aerialrefueling from ships at sea by taking onfuel from a submarine chaser; to usehelium as her lifting gas; to complete atranscontinental flight across the U.S.;and to make numerous record-setting

18

distance flights.A C-class airship, the C-5, also was

used in an attempted flight across theAtlantic. She was modified for thescheduled crossing and LieutenantCommander E. W. Coil was assigned ascommander. On May 14, 1919, theairship lifted off from NAS Montauk, witha crew of six, and headed for St. John’s,Newfoundland. This flight was part of thetest to determine whether they wouldattempt the Atlantic crossing. On themorning of May 15, the C-5 landed atPleasantville, St. John’s The distancecovered was 1,022 sea miles and thetime in the air was 25 hours and 50minutes. The flight had demonstratedthe airship’s long-distance cruisingrange, and the airworthiness of the C-5 too p e r a t e u n d e r v a r y i n g w e a t h e rconditions.

Permission was granted for theAtlantic crossing and the ground crewbegan the work of refueling and gassingthe C-5. Wind conditions were gusty andvariable during reprovisioning. After theground crew experienced numeroushandling problems, it became evidentthat the airship had to be deflated. Theripcord was pulled but there wereproblems with the pulloff patch on theenvelope. Before any other action couldbe taken, another gust of wind parted thefinal lines holding the C-5. The airshipdrifted rapidly away, heading out to seawith no personnel on board, and was lost.

Lt.Cdr. Coil, in his report on the C-5flight, indicated that the performance ofthe C-5 between Montauk and St. John’smade a nonstop transatlantic crossingentirely feasible. Had it not been for theweather and the fact that a mooring masthad not been developed, the C-5 mighthave been the first aircraft to cross theAtlantic.

When the Armistice was signed, only afew C-class airships had been deliveredto the Navy. Demobilization led to areduction in the number of airshipsconstructed and, eventually, only 10were built of the 30 originally ordered.The last C-class was delivered on March19, 1919. Two were transferred to theArmy.

VII. New Airship Classes in thePost-WW I Period

The postwar period saw developmentsin non-rigid airships that were moreadvanced than the capabilities offered inthe C-class. The success of the C-classwas tempered by criticism from pilotsabout certain unsatisfactory features.Criticism was aimed primarily at thecontrol car which was crowded, noisydue to engine placement, and susceptibleto propeller blasts. As a result, the D-c lass des ign was deve loped andauthorized by the Secretary of the Navyon July 16, 1918. Goodyear received acontract to build three of the airships, the

D-1, 2 and 4, while Goodrich had thecontract for the D-3 and 5.

A C-type envelope was used in the D-class. Added to the envelope was anextra six-foot panel which increased itsvolume by 8,000 cubic feet, The controlcar was redesigned and the fuel tanks,which had been inside the C-classcontrol car, were placed along theenvelope’s equator. The engines werepositioned as far aft on the car as possibleto eliminate the unsatisfactory featuresbut created others. The placement of thefuel tanks made them difficult to service,and the long fuel lines to the engines farastern of the control car tended todevelop leaks.

The first D-class airship to fly was theD-3 on July 13, 1920. The D-1 had beencompleted earlier but was destroyed in afire on June 19, before she had her firstflight test. The four remaining D-class

A close-up of the C-class control car. The twinengines provided improved performance overthe single-engine B-class. Note the bombattached to the rear part of the control car.

airships were eventually transferred tothe Army.

An airship designated the D-6 wasbuilt by the Naval Aircraft Factory,Philadelphia, Pa., but her design wassufficiently different to separate her fromthe other five D-class airships. One of thedistinguishing features was the all-enclosed control car, which had a boat-type hull with fuel tanks on the inside.The D-6 was assigned to NAS Rockawaywhen she was destroyed in a hanger fireon August 21, 1921.

While Goodyear was building airshipsaccording to Navy specifications, it alsowas engaged in constructing airships ofits own designs for possible commercialuse. In 1918, Goodyear offered several ofthese airships to the armed forces. Underseparate contracts dated June 5 and July7, the Navy procured one E-class airship(E-1) and one F-class (F-1).

The E -1 and F -1 had i den t i ca lenvelopes and differed slightly in controlcar design. Engine design andinstallation were the major differencesbetween the two airships. The E-1 had aThomas pusher-type engine and the F-1had a Union engine.

The E-1 was flown at Akron and thenshipped to Pensacola on December 16,1918, where she remained in service forher entire operating life span. She wasplaced in storage in 1924 because of herworn condition, was surveyed andremoved from the Navy’s inventory onSeptember 5, 1924.

The F-1 had a similar career. She madeher first flight at Akron on February 11,1919, and continued on to NAS HamptonRoads. On the way, difficulties wereencountered and the F-1 was forced toland near Catlett, Va. The envelope wasripped during the landing and the airship

The Capitaine Caussin atNAS Paimboeuf, France,prior to the completionof the hangar.

The C-class set many“firsts” in NavalAviation. This particularairship, the C-7, was thefirst airship to be inflatedwith helium.

was deflated. She was flying again inApril 1919, and remained assigned toNAS Hampton Roads until removed fromthe inventory on November 9, 1923.

In the summer of 1918, during thedevelopment of the D-class, plans werebeing made for a G-class airship, It wasdesigned as a very large, long-endurancepatrol/ASW airship. The initial envelopecapacity was set at 360,000 cubic feet,which was later increased to 400,000. Itwas designed to have an enclosed controlcar with sleeping quarters for the crew.The armament was to consist of a three-inch antisubmarine gun and a heavybomb load. This G-class design wasnever built, because it was felt the airshipwas too large for a non-rigid and designsf o r r i g i d a i r s h i p s w e r e u n d e rconsideration at that time. A differenttype of G-class was constructed and willbe discussed later.

The H-type airship was developed inresponse to a strong recommendation byCdr. Maxfield before the General Boardon April 14, 1919, for a small airship thatcould double as a towed kite balloon, orfly and maneuver independently like adirigible. It was an attempt to overcomethe weaknesses of the kite balloon andallow operations in adverse weather thatwere beyond the capability of theordinary kite balloon.A contract was given to Goodyear onJune 30, 1920, for the H-type airship.The H-1 (the only one built for the Navy)was delivered by rail to NAS Rockaway onMay 3, 1921. She was often referred toas the “animated kite balloon.”

Various trial flights were conductedwith the H-1 On August 5, 1921, amalfunction in the engine caused her tocome down. The landing was especiallyhard and the car tipped overthrowing thecrew out. With the H-l lighter, minus hercrew, she ascended again and flew off onher own, making a gentle landing in apasture near Scarsdale, N.Y. A farmerfound the airship and tied her to a tree.Unfamiliar with LTA vehicles, he usedthe cord attached to the airship’s rippanel for securing the airship. During thenight, the wind caused a strain sufficientto pull open the rip panel and deflate theH-1. The airship was recovered andreturned to the hangar at NAS Rockawaywhere, on August 31, 1921, she wasdestroyed in a fire.

The development of the J-class beganin the Aircraft Division of the Bureau ofConstruction and Repair. The designcalled for a twin-motor coastal airship,similar to the C and D-classes but using a

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single ballonet like those found in theFrench Zodiacs from WW I. The controlcar was to be designed to land on water.

A design was drawn up by the Bureauof Aeronautics working jointly with arepresentative from Goodyear. In 1921 acontract was awarded to Goodyear fortwo J-class airships. The J-1 was builtand so was the control car for the J-2, butthe envelope for the 2 was put on hold.On August 31, 1922, the J-1 made herfirst flight. Various trial flights showedthe single ballonet was not adequate forairship operations. It caused the airshipto surge excessively, the response wassluggish and the trim was difficult tocontrol These problems, combined witha switch to helium as the lifting gas, led tothe cancellation of the J-2 envelope. Thelast known records on the J-1 indicateshe was at NAS Hampton Roads in 1923and then transferred to NAS Lakehurst.At Lakehurst , s h e w a s u s e d f o rpreliminary LTA training of personnelconnected with the operation andmaintenance of Shenandoah and forgeneral LTA training. The J-1 wasstricken from the records while atLakehurst but no date is given. Thecontrol car for the J-2 remained in theNavy’s inventory, but a J-2 airship neverflew for the Navy.

In 1925, the Navy obtained an ArmyTC-type envelope and mated it with the J-2 control car. The match was designatedJ-4 and became operational in 1927.Before the J-4 became operational, theNavy acquired a TC-type airship from theArmy and designated it J-3. The J-3 wastest flown on October 12, 1926. Sheremained in the Navy’s inventory untilshe was lost on April 4, 1933, whilesearching for survivors of the crash of therigid airship USS Akron (ZRS-4). The J-4remained in the Navy’s inventory untilshe was surveyed in 1940.

During the mid to late 1920s. the majorinterest was in rigid airships. The J-3 and4 airships were the only non-rigids in theNavy’s LTA inventory from 1928 until thelatter part of 1931 when the first K-typewas introduced.

VIII. The Demise of the KiteBalloon

With the end of WW I, the Navy had alarge inventory of kite balloons. Theirprimary mission after the Armistice wasas tow balloons for gunfire spotting( g u n n e r y o b s e r v a t i o n ) . A m a j o rdifference of opinion evolved betweenthe Atlantic and Pacific fleets regardingthe utility of the kite balloon. The feeling

Above, the E-1 preparing for a training flight at NAS Pensacola, Fla. Above right, a J-class airshipat NAS Sunnyvale (later Moffett Field), Calif., in 1933. Note the unique boat-shaped control car.Right, the H-1 was an unusual airship designed to mate the missions of the kite balloon and theairship into one vehicle. She was the only airship of her class built.

in the Atlantic Fleet was that the kite N.E. Irwin’s testimony before the General of value in protecting the battleship fromballoon was of dubious value and that all Board in March 1919 in which he stated gas attack or strafing by low flyingi ts funct ions could be performed “such planes were twice as effective as aircraft. Captain Thomas T. Craven,satisfactorily by an airplane, once an kite balloons in spotting work.” Cdr. when he was Director of Aviation inadequate turret platform was available. Maxfield, the “flagbearer” for LTA at that 1919, issued an order to limit future use

This view was supported by Captain time, suggested the kite balloon could be of kite balloons to tenders and shore

stations, and not assign them to first-lineships. The Pacific Fleet continued toutilize the kite balloon despite Craven’sorder. In the Atlantic, the order was moreclosely followed, however, a limitednumber were used aboard Atlantic Fleetships. The Atlantic Fleet Kite BalloonDetachment was renamed the HamptonRoads Detachment and continued EastCoast experimentation with balloons.

In March 1921, during individual shiptarget practice, the kite balloons operatedby USS Nevada and Florida “dished in”and dove into the water. This was one ofthe last acts before the final curtain fellon kite balloon operations aboard ship.

USS Wright (AZ-1) was commissionedon December 16, 1921. She had beenbuilt as an LTA aircraft tender, with aunique “balloon well” built into the hull.This feature enabled her to fly a kiteballoon, and then retrieve it and stow it inthe balloon well. By the time the ship wascommissioned, kite balloon operationsaboard ship had almost come to an end.Wright deployed in the Caribbean in thes p r i n g o f 1 9 2 2 a n d c o n d u c t e dexperiments with her kite balloon. Uponreturning from her cruise, the shipperformed tending duties along the EastCoast, On July 16, 1922, while atHampton Roads, Wright flew her kiteballoon for the last time. She thentransferred it ashore to NAS HamptonRoads, and this was the final curtain callfor kite balloon operations aboard ship.

The Navy kept kite balloons in itsinventory for a long time after 1922.Many were maintained at NAS HamptonRoads, Lakehurst and Brown Field,Quantico, Va. The Marines used them forspotting and, at NAS Lakehurst, the Navy

used them in testing parachutes. TheNavy still had a kite balloon at NASLakehurst in 1936.

IX. The Switch to Helium

One of the most significant changes inthe Navy’s LTA operations was theswitch to helium as the lifting gas.Hel ium’s pr imary value was in i tsnoninflammability. The development of apractical method to extract helium fromnatural gas in sufficient quantities madethe gas a viable alternative to hydrogen.This new development, combined withthe discovery of helium fields in Texas,led to a joint venture between thegovernment and two commerc ia lcompanies in which helium-producingplants were established at Petrolia andFort Worth, Texas, during WW I.

The amount of helium delivered beforeNovember 11, 1918, was insufficient forLTA operations. But with the advantagegained from heavy investments andresearch during the war, the plants inTexas were able by 1919 to begin theaccumulation of helium gas for the LTAfleet which was built during the 1920s.

In fiscal year 1922, the production ofhydrogen was concentrated at NASHampton Roads, the site of almost all LTAactivity. Hydrogen had been shipped toLakehurst for storage for the expectedarrival of the rigid airship ZR-2, built forthe U.S. Navy by the Royal Air Force.

With the loss of the ZR-2, the Navyseriously investigated the safety andstructural requirements for the ZR-1w h i c h w a s b e i n g a s s e m b l e d a tLakehurst. In December 1922, the Navy

began the procurement of equipment fora helium purification plant to be locatedat NAS Lakehurst. The helium safetyfactor was one of the major reasons forthe switch from hydrogen to helium.Practically all hydrogen productionceased because of limited LTA activitiesin fiscal year 1923 and also due to a largesupply of hydrogen stored in cylinders atthe Naval Aircraft Factory.

During fiscal year 1923, the J-1 hadbeen f l i gh t t es ted and then wastransferred to Hampton Roads, but it wasnot inflated. During fiscal year 1924, theonly airship flying was the C-7 untilShenandoah was completed, the firstrigid airship to be inflated with helium.

In f iscal year 1925, the hel iumproduction plant operated continuouslyand great progress was made towardefficient and economical production. Thehe l ium pur i f i ca t i on p lan t a t NASL a k e h u r s t w a s a l s o o p e r a t i n gsuccessfully and repurifying all thehelium for Shenandoah and Los Angeles.

Airship operations during fiscal year1926 were restricted due to the shortage

Left, a kite balloon in the “balloon well” of USS Wright (AZ-1) in July 1922. Left below, an artist’s rendering of Wright. The ship was designed andbuilt as an LTA tender, with kite balloon operations as her primary mission. Above, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), the Navy’s first rigid airship, at NASLakehurst, N.J. Lakehurst was to become synonymous with the operation and development of LTA in the Navy.

of costly helium. Further operations werelimited by the need for a gas-cell andstructural overhaul of Los Angeles, andthe lack o f non- r ig id a i r sh ips i nsatisfactory flying condition. WhenShenandoah was lost, Los Angeles wasthe only airship, rigid or non-rigid, inoperat ional condi t ion in the Navyinventory. This was true until October1926, when the J-3 non-rigid airshipmade its first flight.

In the spring of 1927, a commercialcompany proposed a contract to producehelium from a Kansas field. This offerwas accepted by the government and acontract was signed for the delivery ofhelium. To transport the helium, a tankcar was procured, designed for both

helium transport and storage. Besides asaving in transportation costs, there wasless leakage than had been the casewhen helium was transferred in smallcylinders. The tank car also added a greatdeal of mobility to the helium supply.

The helium supply tended to fluctuate,but by the end of the 1920s it wasadequate for airship operations becauseof increased storage, transportation andadd i t i ona l supp l i es bo th f rom ac o m m e r c i a l c o n c e r n a n d t h egovernment ’s hel ium plants. Thedevelopment and use of helium wouldnot have progressed as rapidly as it didhad it not been for the pioneer workbegun by the Navy and other governmentagencies during WW I.

X. The Development ofLTA’s Home Base and

the Rigid Airship Program

A center for LTA operations wasestablished in August 1921 at NASLakehurst, which was dest ined tobecome the Navy’s most important LTAbase. Construction work had begun onthe LTA hangar there in 1919. It wascompleted just prior to the establishmentof the naval air station in August 1921.Work began immediately on the Navy’sfirst rigid airship.

In the late 1920s and early 193Os, NAS

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Left, a kite balloon in the “balloon well” of USS Wright (AZ-1) in July 1922. Left below, an artist’s rendering of Wright. The ship was designed andbuilt as an LTA tender, with kite balloon operations as her primary mission. Above, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), the Navy’s first rigid airship, at NASLakehurst, N.J. Lakehurst was to become synonymous with the operation and development of LTA in the Navy.

of costly helium. Further operations werelimited by the need for a gas-cell andstructural overhaul of Los Angeles, andthe lack o f non- r ig id a i r sh ips i nsatisfactory flying condition. WhenShenandoah was lost, Los Angeles wasthe only airship, rigid or non-rigid, inoperat ional condi t ion in the Navyinventory. This was true until October1926, when the J-3 non-rigid airshipmade its first flight.

In the spring of 1927, a commercialcompany proposed a contract to producehelium from a Kansas field. This offerwas accepted by the government and acontract was signed for the delivery ofhelium. To transport the helium, a tankcar was procured, designed for both

helium transport and storage. Besides asaving in transportation costs, there wasless leakage than had been the casewhen helium was transferred in smallcylinders. The tank car also added a greatdeal of mobility to the helium supply.

The helium supply tended to fluctuate,but by the end of the 1920s it wasadequate for airship operations becauseof increased storage, transportation andadd i t i ona l supp l i es bo th f rom ac o m m e r c i a l c o n c e r n a n d t h egovernment ’s hel ium plants. Thedevelopment and use of helium wouldnot have progressed as rapidly as it didhad it not been for the pioneer workbegun by the Navy and other governmentagencies during WW I.

X. The Development ofLTA’s Home Base and

the Rigid Airship Program

A center for LTA operations wasestablished in August 1921 at NASLakehurst, which was dest ined tobecome the Navy’s most important LTAbase. Construction work had begun onthe LTA hangar there in 1919. It wascompleted just prior to the establishmentof the naval air station in August 1921.Work began immediately on the Navy’sfirst rigid airship.

In the late 1920s and early 193Os, NAS

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Lakehurst became the primary base foroperating airships and training LTApersonnel. When the Navy’s last rigida i r s h i p w a s t r a n s f e r r e d t o N A SSunnyvale, Calif., in late 1933, Lakehurstwas placed in a reduced operating status.The air station was still maintained forthe training of personnel and for limitedoperations with the ZMC-2 and the non-rigid K-1. Lakehurst gained recognizationin the mid-1930s as the terminal forcommercial operation of the Germanrigid airships G r a f Z e p p e l i n a n dHindenburg.

In the latter part of the 1930s. LTAoperations were again centered atLakehurst. As the only LTA station,Lakehurst was involved in training,experimentation and ASW exercises.Training included airship operations andextensive tests in the mooring andground handling of airships. LTA activitycontinued at Lakehurst and it was notuntil the advent of a war that additionalLTA shore facilities were developed andplaced in operation.

The rise of NAS Lakehurst as an LTAcenter is mirrored by the development ofthe Navy’s rigid airship program. TheNaval Appropriations Act passed byCongress on July 11, 1919, provided forconstruction of a rigid airship and thepurchase of another. Facilities in the U.S.did not have the capability to construct alarge rigid airship, so the Navy decidedto buy one built in Europe, who wasahead of the U.S. in r ig id airshipconstruct ion and design. Such apurchase would give the Navy immediatepossession of a state-of-the-art vehicleand provide invaluable training for Navycrews in operating and handling rigid

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airships. Thus, the Secretary of the Navyapproved the purchase of a British rigidairship on August 9, 1919, and also theconstruction of a second one in the U.S.

A contract with the British for thepurchase of the R-38 (ZR-2) wasapproved by the Secretary of the Navy onDecember 5, 1919. In 1920, the Navysent personnel to England under thecommand of Lt.Cdr. Lewis Maxfield fortraining at the British airship bases ofPulham and Howden. Several Britishairships were used, particularly the R-33and R-80. The R-38 made her maidenflight June 23-24, 1921 (the flight beganthe night of the 23rd and ended themorning of the 24th). Three other flightsfollowed and on August 23, 1921, duringthe fourth trial flight, the R-38 broke intwo during maneuvers, igniting the fueland hydrogen. The airship crashed intothe Humber River, near the city of Hull.Seventeen of the 44 personnel killed inthe crash were Americans. Two of theNavy’s most prominent LTA officers,Lt.Cdrs. Maxfield and Coil, were amongthose lost. The loss of the Americanpersonnel and the R-38 was a seriousblow to the Navy’s rigid airship program,as well as a portent of things to come.

P l a n s f o r t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o fShenandoah, the first rigid airship to bebuilt in the United States, were begun inSeptember 1919, and the first materialswere delivered to the Naval AircraftFactory at Philadelphia early in 1920. Herparts were manufactured at the NavalAircraft Factory and then shipped to NASLakehurst for final assembly. When theZR-2 crashed, the Navy immediatelyfocused its attention on Shenandoah (ZR-1). Numerous investigations, design

rev iews and fu r the r tes t ing andexperimentation were conducted toensure that the structural integrity anddesign of the ZR-1 were adequate tofulfill all required missions.

Shenandoah achieved many firstsduring her short career. She was the firstrigid airship to be inflated with helium;the first to use water recovery apparatusfor the continuous recovery of ballastfrom the exhaust gas of the fuel burned;and she was the first to fly across theUnited States. During her relatively shortlife of two years, she made 57 flights,logging 740 hours in the air, whichcovered about 28,000 miles on flightsdesigned to train men in the science ofhandling large airships in naval missions.

The following is a chronological sketchof USS Shenandoah’s career:

1922: 11 Feb — Completion of thefirst cradle for building the ZR-1 at NASLakehurst marked the initial step in herassembly.

1923: 13 Aug — Inflation withhelium began.

20 Aug — Became airborne forfirst time as construction scaffolding wasremoved and she was floated to a newposition in the hangar.

4 Sep — First flight from thehangar at Lakehurst. The flight was aboutone hour in duration and reached a pointabout 20 miles from the station. Amongthose on board were: Commander F.R.McCrary, first commanding officer of theZR-1, R.D. Weyerbacher, Manager ofConstruction, who was responsible forthe assembly of the ship at Lakehurst;and Captain Anton Heinen, test pilot, aformer German zeppel in test p i lotemployed by the Navy Department.

1 1 S e p — First flight overPhiladelphia and New York City.

2 2 S e p — First flight overWashington, D.C.

2 Oct — Flew cross country to

Far left, the British-built R-39 (ZR-2) in anEnglish hangar. Note a second British rigidairship under construction. Personnel in theforeground include members of the Americancrew sent to England for training andacceptance of the R-38. Many of them werekilled when the R-39 crashed in August 1921.Left, the R-39 at Bedford, England, inJuly 1921.

visit the International Air Races at St.Louis.

10 Oct — Christened USSShenandoah (an Indian name meaningdaughter of the stars) by Mrs. EdwinDenby, wife of the Secretary of the Navy.Commissioned as a U.S. Navy ship atNAS Lakehurst.

16 Nov — First tests of themooring mast at Lakehurst.

3 Dec — President Coolidgeapproved the plan to send Shenandoahon a flight over the North Pole in 1924.

1924: 16 Jan — In the early evening,was torn from her mooring mast atLakehurst by a 70-knot gale which droveher northward toward Newark andStaten Island. The crew of 22 on board,under command of the navigatorLieutenant Commander M. R. Pierce,

brought her under control and returnedher to Lakehurst in spite of considerabledamage to the outer cover and nose capand a partially damaged vertical fin. Thisdamage caused cancellation of theplanned polar flight.

22 May — First flight on 16January after repair of damage was fromLakehurst toward Toms River and return,with the new commanding officer,L ieu tenan t Commander Zacha ryLansdowne.

8 Aug — Secured to themooring mast on USS Patoka whileunderway in Narragansett Bay andremained there for almost 24 hours whilethe ship moved to her anchorage offJamestown, R.I. This was the first use ofthe shipboard mooring mast designed tofacilitate airship operations with thefleet. She was moored to Patoka seventimes during her career.

16-17 Aug — Participated in ascouting problem with the Scouting Fleetinvolving a continuous cruise of 40hours, 300 miles at sea.

1 Sep — Began a one-monthoverhaul at NAS Lakehurst.

Above, the frame of USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) under construction at Lakehurst. Left,Shenandoah in flight.

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7 Oct — Left NAS Lakehurst at1002 for an extended flight to Tacoma,Wash., and return, via Fort Worth, Texas,and San Diego, Calif.

25 Oct — Landed at NASLakehurst completing the most extendedoperation accomplished by an airship upto that time. In crossing the U.S. from theAtlantic to the Pacific and from Canada toMexico, total time away from the shed atLakehurst was 19 days, 19 hours, anddistance covered was 9,317 statutemiles. A great variety of weather, windand climate was experienced, much ofwhich was adverse. Mooring masts werethe only facilities available throughoutthe trip for fueling, gassing, provisioningand repair.

1925: 3 Jul — Departed Lakehurst foroperations with USS Patoka in the BarHarbor, Maine area.

23-24 Jul — Operations withUSS Texas. Left Lakehurst at 0800 for theSouthern Drill Grounds, arrived at and1240 proceeded with the exercises. Aftercompletion, moored to Patoka near CapeCharles at 1928. At 0925, July 24, leftPatoka to continue operations withTexas. The return flight to Lakehurstbegan about 1600; the airship arrived at2250, and was docked in the hangar at2130.

3 Sep — Shenandoah disaster.Left the mooring mast at NAS Lakehurstat 1500, September 2, for a flight over themidwest. The airship proceeded westerlyover Philadelphia and Wheeling, W. Va.,headed for Columbus, Ohio. While over

eastern Ohio, before dawn on themorning of September 3, the airshipencountered a severe storm at 0548.EST. She broke in two, ahead of theforward engines over Ava about 25 mileseast of Zanesville. The control carseparated and fell to the ground while theforward section of the ship rose to a greatheight and remained in the air for thegreater part of an hour, before making afree balloon landing at Sharon, Ohio. Thea f te r sec t i on descended a lmos timmediately, breaking into two partswhen it struck the ground. Twenty-nineof those on board survived the crash, butthe commanding of f icer , L t . Cdr .Lansdowne and the following men of hiscrew were lost: Lieutenant CommanderLewis Hancock, L ieutenants JohnBullard Lawrence, Arthur ReginaldHoughton, and Lietenant Junior GradeEdgar Wi l l iam Sheppard; enl istedcrewmen: Everett Price Allen, CharlesHar r i son B room, James Wi l l i amCu l l i nan , Ra lph Thomas Je f f ray ,Celestino P. Mazzuco, James AlbertMoore, Bartholomew B. O’Sullivan,George Conrad Schnitzer, Will iamHoward Spratley.

The most successful of all the rigidairships operated by the Navy was USSLos Angeles (ZR-3),which was receivedfrom Germany after WW I. The twoairships originally scheduled for the

agreed that Germany should constructone airship for the U.S. as compensationfor the loss of the two airships destroyed.This new airship was to be a purelynonmilitary ship, with a gas capacity nott o exceed 2 ,750 ,000 cub i c f ee t ,approximately the size of the largestairship previously built in Germany.

The airship was ordered from theZeppelin Airship Company on June 26,1922. Lieutenant Commander GarlandFulton, who had been executive assistantto Commander Jerome C. Hunsakersince the summer of 1918, was sent toFr iedr ichshafen in ear ly 1922 asInspector of Naval Aircraft to supervise

USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) was built in Germanyfor the U.S. Navy and was involved in an

United States after the war had been extensive number of experiments and “firsts.”

destroyed by their German crews. On Here, a UO-1 aircraft is hooked onto a trapeze

December 16, 1921, the Council ofthat was specially built for Los Angeles. The

Ambassadors of the Allied Nationsairship was the first to successfully complete ahook-on and release of an aircraft.

the construction of the ZR-3 by theLuftschiffbau Zeppelin, a.m.b.a. The keelfor the airship was laid on November 7,1922, and she was completed in August1924. The airship had been designatedLZ-126 by her German builders and onAugust 27, 1924, made her first trialf l ight f rom Fr iedr ichshafen. Af tercompleting flight trials in Germany, theairship left on October 12, 1924, and wasflown to the United States by a Germancrew. She arrived at NAS Lakehurst onOctober 15 after an 81-hour, 4229-nautical-mile flight. En route, the airshipwas under the command of Dr. HugoEckener, the lighter-than-air expert whowas later well-known for his command ofGraf Zeppelin and Hindenburg. One ofthe future commanding officers of theZR-3, Captain G. W. Steele, Jr., was apassenger on the flight. The arrival of theairship at Lakehurst was attended bymuch fanfare.

At Lakehurst, the hydrogen wasreleased from the gas cells and theairship was reinflated with helium.Water recovery apparatus was installedand on November 10, 1924, the ship wasformally accepted by the Secretary of theNavy. On November 25, 1924, she wasflown to NAS Anacostia in Washington,D.C., where she was christened USS LosAngeles by Mrs. Calvin Coolidge andcommissioned as a ship of the U.S. Navy.

Operations were restricted during thefirst few months since the existing supplyof helium was not enough to keep bothLos Angeles and Shenandoah operatingat the same time. By transferring the gasfrom one ship to the other, however, eachwas available in alternating periods, andthe two operated in this fashion untilSeptember 3, 1925, when Shenandoahwas lost. Los Angeles proved to be worthher weight in gold as a training airshipand a research and development vehicle.She was involved in a variety of scientificand technical experiments. As a flyinglaboratory, she served to develop many ofthe improvements and novel deviceslater used in the designs of Akron andMacon.

Los Angeles continued as the only rigidairship in the Navy for a number of years.She operated from NAS Lakehurst as atraining ship and laboratory for manyexperimental projects, both in the air andon the ground. On January 24, 1925,she took a group of scientists aloft toobserve and photograph a total eclipse ofthe sun, thereby eliminating possiblecloud interference. On February 20,1925, she took off from Lakehurst andmade a round trip flight to Bermuda,returning to Lakehurst on February 22. InMay 1925, she cruised to Puerto Rico tooperate briefly over the Caribbean andwhile there moored between flights tothe special mast built on the tenderPatoka.

Operations in late 1925 and early 1926were temporarily suspended as the shipwent into overhaul. When her overhaulwas completed, operations were furthercurtailed due to lack of helium. In mid-1926, she began a series of flights alongthe Atlantic seaboard to calibrate radiodirection stations set up as an aid tonavigation for vessels approaching thecoast and entering port. Flights of thistype and training flights in the Lakehurstarea, northward to Newport, R.I.,southward to Pensacola, Fla., and inlandto Detroit, Mich. accounted for most ofher flight time in 1927 and made her afamiliar sight to persons living in the east.

Los Angeles scored notable firsts. OnJanuary 27, 1928, she made a landing onthe aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, stayinglong enough to transfer passengers andtake on fuel and water. In the next monthshe made the first nonstop flight fromNew York to the Panama Canal Zone,returning home after a few days. InOctober of the same year, she flew to thehelium plant near Fort Worth, Texas, andthe following February made an extendedflight to St. Josephs, Fla., again basing onUSS Patoka. During 1929, Los Angeleswas used to test the feasibility ofoperating aircraft from rigid airships.

Plans for new rigids included use ofspace within the envelope frame as ahangar for fighter aircraft which could belaunched and recovered in air, therebyproviding the airship with its own fighterprotection. A specially-built trapeze wasrigged on Los Angeles, tested on theground and then taken up for practicaltests in the air.

On July 3, 1929, while the airship wascruising at an altitude of 2,500 feet at aspeed of 48 knots in the vicinity ofLakehurst, a UO-1 airplane piloted byLieutenant A.W. Gorton successfullyhooked onto the trapeze, and then wasre leased . Other success fu l t r i a l sfollowed. Early the next year, a glider wasreleased from the airship by the samemethod. These successes demonstratednot only that the operation of airplanesfrom an airship was feasible, but that itwas also possible to deliver passengersand cargo to the ground without theairship landing. Special fighters, CurtissFSCs, were built as a result of these testsand were ready for service when the newrigids went into operation.

For a brief period in early 1931, byvirtue of a special waiver of the provisoprohibiting her use on military missions,L o s A n g e l e s part icipated in f leetexercises, as a military aircraft, testingthe defenses of the Panama Canal.

Although attacked and theoreticallydestroyed by planes from the carrierLangley, Los Angeles discovered one ofthe “enemy” convoys before being takenunder attack, and otherwise proved hervalue as a scout on extended patrols.

During these exercises, including theflight from Lakehurst to Panama viaGuantanamo, Cuba, and her return tohome base, Los Angeles set a record forextended operations away from a hangaror base unequaled by any airship up tothat time.

On the night of June 24, 1932, LosAngeles took off from Lakehurst for aleisurely flight over Philadelphia andNew York City. She docked at Lakehurstshortly after five o’clock the next morningand was moved immediately into thehangar. It was her last flight. On June 30,1932, she was decommissioned. Thedecision was based on the need foreconomy. The airship, in spite of her longlife, was still airworthy, but a new rigidwas already in service, with anotherunde r cons t ruc t i on , and gene ra leconomic conditions made it imperativethat operating costs be reduced.

In her service career of seven years andeight months, the longest for any of theU.S. Navy rigids, Los Angeles made 331flights, totaling over 4,300 hours, andalso logged almost 2,000 hours mooredat masts out in the open. Her passengerlist included a king and queen, and manydistinguished naval personnel andcivilians. She had been seen in the air bythousands of Americans and had been afamiliar sight at countless fairs andfestivals. She had made noteworthycontributions to the Navy, to the countryand to the progress of airships and theiroperation. But her decommissioning wasnot the end of her career. She waspreserved in the hangar at Lakehurst,i n i t i a l l y i n a condi t ion to permi trecommissioning on 30 days’ notice. InDecember 1934, she was reinflated withhelium, on the 14th was airborne, and onthe 18th she was moved out of thehangar into the open. She became alaboratory once more for experimentsand tests and, although at one time shewas moored out continously in all kindsof weather for about five months, shenever took to the air again.

On January 6, 1939, the Board ofInspection and Survey recommendedthat she be made available for additionaltests not involving flight and that, upontheir completion, she be dismantled andscrapped. But it was clear that herpopularity had not waned. In June, part ofher outer cover was removed and she

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was opened to visitors. From June 20until September 8, when PresidentRoosevelt proclaimed a limited nationalemergency and all stations were closedto visitors, a total of 44,871 personssigned her visitors’ log, an average of 577per day. On October 24, she was strickenfrom the Navy list. Dismantling beganimmediately and was completed onDecember 15. The commanding officersof USS Los Angeles were: Commander J.H. Klein, Jr., November 1924 - April1925; Captain George W. Steele, April1 9 2 5 - J u n e 1 9 2 6 ; L i e u t e n a n tCommander Charles E. Rosendahl, June1 9 2 6 - A p r i l 1 9 2 9 ; L i e u t e n a n tCommander Herbert V. Wiley, April 1929- April 1930; Commander Alger H.Dresel, June 1931 - March 1932; andCommander Fred T. Berry, March - June1932.

Perhaps the most romantic period inthe Navy’s LTA operations was the era ofthe rigid airships Akron and Macon. TheAkron - Macon design was conceived inthe Bureau of Aeronautics in 1924 as am a j o r i m p r o v e m e n t o v e r t h eShenandoah design, based on theexperience gained from her operation.The design embodied a series of tentativestudies designated BuAer Design No. 60.

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Above, USS Akron (ZRS-4) while underconstruction, showing the aluminum alloyframework and the outer covering beingapplied. Above right, an N2Y hooks onto thetrapeze of Akron. Note the dark cross on theunderside of the airship. The aircraft washoisted through this opening and placed inthe hangar of Akron. Right, Akron overNew York City.

These initial designs experienced a widevariety of changes over the years. WhenShenandoah was lost in 1925 the Navywas left with only one rigid airship, whichcould not engage in military operations.Admiral Moffett immediately insisted ona replacement for Shenandoah a n drequested two rigid airships to enable theNavy to more effectively evaluate airshipoperations.

O n J u n e 2 4 , 1926, Congressauthorized the construction of two morerigid airships of 6,000,000 cubic feetc a p a c i t y , a n d t h e c o n t i n u i n gdevelopment of the rigid airship program.Appropriations for construction were notapproved until March 2, 1928. Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation was the winner inthe design competitions and a contractwas signed with the Navy on October 6,1928, to build two rigid airships.

Fabrication of the subassembliesstarted in 1929 and construction of theZRS-4 (Akron) began on November 7,1929, when RAdm. Moffett drove agolden rivet in the ZRS-4’s main ring.

One of the unique features in thedesign of the ZRS-4 and 5 was theircapability to house and carry otheraircraft. Each ship was designed with ahangar within the hull to house five smallaircraft with a trapeze for launching andrecovering the planes. The airship’splanes were equipped with sky hooks thatenabled them to be launched or retrievedaboard the airship by using the trapeze. Itwas planned that the airships would takeoff in stable equilibrium without theplanes aboard and, when airborne, theplanes would be received on board. Onceaboard the airship, the planes’ landinggear would be removed and belly tankssubstituted to augment the fuel supplyfor operations from the airship.

Line handlers help to secure the tail section ofUSS Macon (ZRS-5), the Navy’s last rigidairship. Comparing the tail section with theline handlers gives an idea of Macon’s actualsize.

The airplane-carrying capability of thetwo airships gave great promise for long-range reconnaissance. The airship’sphenomenal range and endurance(compared to aircraft of the day) was fargreater than anything in existence. Usingher own aircraft, the airship could extendh e r p a t r o l a n d r e c o n n a i s s a n c ecapabilities far beyond the horizons andtriple the width of her patrol. The planesa lso p rov ided p i cke t and f i gh te rprotection for the airship, in essence,making her invisible to enemy forces.

The original mission of the hook-onplanes was a dual one to afford fighterprotect ion for the airship and anextended scouting/patrol range. Earlyemphasis was placed on the fightermission. Consequently, the Curtiss F9Cwas a good fighter but a very poor aircraftfor reconnaissance. During various fleetexercises, the rigid airships were used forscouting and their aircraft were relegated

strictly to fighter protection for theairship. Only by mid-1934, after manyfleet exercises in which the airship was“lost,” were the mission requirementschanged. The airship became the carrierand communications center for herplanes and the hook-on planes operatedas her distance eyes and provided fighterprotection.

This concept of the airship as a carrierrather than simply an airship whichcar r ied a i rp lanes rece ived heavyemphasis and was developed aboardMacon in the latter part of 1934.

Beginning in 1935, airship supporterswere viewing this concept as animportant future military development inwhich a rigid airship would become ahigh-speed carrier with dive bombersand be given a designation as an aircraftcarrier lighter-than-air (ZRCV). Thisproposal received a fatal blow with theloss of Macon.

The ZRCV concept floated aroundBuAer between 1935 and 1942 but wasnever able to gain the support necessaryto implement the program. As part oftheir legacy, Akron and Macon were theworld’s first and last flying aircraftcarriers. Both airships were muchstronger than any previous designs but,unfortunately, inadequate provision wasmade for the fins. They were unable tohandle the large loads which developedon the leading portions of the fins duringrough air and rapid maneuvers. Thedes igns a l so made p rov is ion fo rincorporating eight German Maybachengines inside the hull. The propellershad a bevel connection which made itpossible to rotate them for vertical orhorizontal thrust. This was a valuableasset in landing and takeoffs as well asprov id ing a rap id ve r t i ca l ascen tcapability.

Construction on the ZRS-4 progressedrapidly and on August 8, 1931, Mrs.Herbert Hoover christened the airship atAkron, Ohio. Her first trial flight was on

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September 23, 1931, and she wasaccepted by the Navy on October 21. Theairship was flown to NAS Lakehurst andcommissioned USS Akron (ZRS-4) onOctober 27, 1931.

A brief chronology of Akron’s careerfollows:

1 9 3 1 : 8 A u g — Mrs. Hooverchristened ZRS-4 Akron at the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation dock at Akron,Ohio.

23 Sep — ZRS-4 made hermaiden flight around the Cleveland areacarrying 112 persons aboard, includingAdm. Moffett and Secretary of the NavyCharles F. Adams. Between September24 and 18 October there were eightdifferent trial flights to test the airship,including an endurance flight fromOctober 16-18.

21 Oct — ZRS-4 was flownfrom Akron to NAS Lakehurst for deliveryto the Navy.

27 Oct — Captain Harry E.Shoemaker commissioned USS Akronand Lieutenant Charles E. Rosendahl

formally accepted command of theairship.

2 Nov — A special press flightfor aviation editors and writers, and aremote broadcast by NBC. There were109 persons aboard during the flight,including Adm. Moffett. Numerousf l ights were conducted betweenNovember 3, 1931, and January 5, 1932,ranging from New England to Alabamaand New Orleans.

1932: 9 Jan — Operated with theScouting Fleet off the coast of theCarolinas and northeast of the Bahamas.There were no aircraft aboard during thisexercise because the trapeze had not yetbeen installed and aircraft storagefacilities were not completed.

16 Jan — USS Akron made herfirst mooring to USS Patoka’s mooringmast.

22 Feb — Akron was damagedwhile being towed out of her hangar. Theextended repairs caused her to miss the1932 annual fleet problem held in thePacific.

USS Macon at NASSunnyvale, Calif.

Below, a close-up of anF9C Sparrowhawk onMacon’s trapeze.

Left, the crew’s sleeping quartersaboard Macon.

Below left, Macon approaching themooring mast at NAS Sunnyvale.Below, an interior view of the portcatwalk on Macon.

3 May — Airship’s formala c c e p t a n c e t r i a l s w i t h N a v yDepartment’s Board of Inspection andSurvey on board. During this flight,Lieutenants D. Howard Harrigan andHoward L. Young flew the N2Y trainerand the XFSC-1 to Akron’s trapeze for thefirst time.

8-11 May — Transcontinentalflight from NAS Lakehurst to CampKearny (San Diego). During the flight, shecarried two aircraft aboard, the XFSC-1

and an N2Y-1.12-13 May — Flew from Camp

Kearny to Sunnyvale (later namedMoffett Field).

17 May — Moored to USSPatoka in San Francisco Bay.

1-4 Jun — USS A k r o nparticipated in her second (and last)exercise wi th the Scout ing Fleet .Operations were held off the coast oflower California. Akron was successfultwice in locating and tracking the enemy.However, elements of the cruiser forcelaunched their seaplanes against herand were evaluated assuccessful in theirattack. Akron did not carry any of herplanes aboard during the exercise. TheCommander Scouting Force, judgingfrom Akron’s performance in the twoexercises with the Scouting Fleet, felt he

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could not recommend to the CNO anyfurther expenditures for rigid airships inthe immediate future.

11-13 Jun. — Transcontinentalflight from Sunnyvale, Calif., to ParrisIsland, S.C.

22 Jun — Commander Alger H.Dresel became the second commandingofficer of the Akron, relieving Lt.Cdr.Rosendahl.

29 Jun — Local flight testing ofthe new three-bladed propeller andexercise of hook-on planes.

17 Nov — Local flight down thecoast of New Jersey to test the use ofhook-on planes as scouting pickets toextend the airship’s field of vision.

1933: 3 Jan — Commander Frank C.McCord relieved Cdr. Dresel as C.O. ofAkron.

3-4 Mar — Akron flew overinauguration ceremonies for Franklin D.Roosevelt.

3-4 Apr — Akron left NASLakehurst at 1830 on April 3 en route toNew England to assist in calibrating radiodirection finders. She was caught in astorm off the coast of New Jersey and at0030 crashed into the sea. Seventy-threepeople were lost, including RAdm.Mof fe t t , Ch ie f o f t he Bu reau o fAeronautics.

30 Apr — USS Akron w a sformally stricken from the Navy register.

USS Macon (ZRS-5) was the last of thegreat rigid airships constructed for theNavy. Construction began in October1931, immediately after Akron left thehangar at the Goodyear facility and wasturned over to the Navy. Macon embodiedseveral minor improvements in design

over Akron. These modifications shavedfour tons off the dead weight of theairship. The three-bladed propellersincreased the fuel efficiency of the shipand provided an increased speed of twoto three knots.

A detailed chronology of USS Macon(ZRS-5) follows:

11 Mar — At the Goodyear-Zeppelin airship dock in Akron, Ohio,Mrs. William A. Moffett christened theZRS-5.

21 Apr — Macon made her firstflight, executing preliminary turning andclimbing trials, and a speed run in whichshe made 70 knots. Test flights continueduntil her commissioning.

12-14 Jun — An endurancef l ight was made across Michigan,Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio.

23 Jun — Inside the Goodyear-Zeppelin airship dock, Rear AdmiralErnest J. King, Chief BuAer, placed USSMacon in commission with Cdr. Alger H.Dresel assuming command.

23-24 Jun — Macon’s deliveryflight to Lakehurst, N.J. Passengers wereRear Admira l E.J. King; Paul W.Li tchf ie ld, president of Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp.; and Dr. Karl Arnstein, thecompany’s chief engineer.

6-7 July — Macon made a flightup Long Island Sound and returned to theLakehurst area where, on July 7 shereceived her planes aboard for the firsttime. After Lieutenant D. Ward Harrigantested the trapeze with an N2Y trainer, heand Lieutenant Junior Grade Frederick N.Kivette tested it with the heavier F9C-2fighters.

30-31 Aug — On a local flightfor Board of Inspection and Survey, the

first hook-plane landing was made onMacon’s “perch.”

31 Aug — On another localflight for Board of Inspection and Survey,hook-on planes exercised, and on speedruns Macon reached 75.6 knots, whichwas 3.2 knots more than the 72.4required by contract. (Akron’s best speedwas 69 knots.) Macon’s improvedperformance was due to a cleanup of herhull protuberances and, even more, toher three-bladed propeller of adjustablepitch. Admiral William V. Standley, CNO,and RADM E.J. King, Chief BuAer, wereon board for this flight.

12-15 Oct — Macon made atranscontinental flight from Lakehurst toher new home at Moffett Field, Calif.,with one N2Y training plane embarked.After she unmoored at Lakehurst, the airstation n e v e r a g a i n s e r v i c e d acommissioned airship of the Navy.

14-17 Nov. — Participated infleet exercises. In Exercise D, November15, she was “shot down” by antiaircraftfire from enemy cruisers and later was“shot down” by 36 enemy fighters.

1934: 3-6 Jan — Participated in fleetexercises. On the 4th she flew over theenemy fleet at night with all her lights onand was promptly shot down. On the 5thshe was hit by enemy fighters and wasagain ruled shot down.

20 Mar — On a local flight,hook-on planes practiced gunnery drills.The new Waco XJW-1 utility planes wereflown to her trapeze for the first time.

Below left, a squadron of F9C Sparrowhawksassigned to Macon. Below, Macon preparingto take its aircraft aboard.

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9-12 Apr — Participated in fleetexercises and was ruled shot down twiceby enemy planes.

20-22 April — Made atranscontinental flight from Moffett Fieldto Opa-Locka, Fla. During the flight,severe turbulence was encounteredcausing the buckling of diagonal andinter-ring girders. Temporary repairswere made and she continued on toFlorida.

5-7 May — Participated in FleetProblem XIV in the Caribbean. On May 6,she was jumped by six Grumman FF-1fighters from USS Lexington and shotdown, but not before she got off animportant report of the carrier’s position.

11-13 May — Participated inFleet Problem XIV, off the southern coastof Puerto Rico. She came throughunscathed and in these operations triedsome novel methods of using her hook-on planes navigating from the airship.

16-18 May — Transcontinentalflight from Opa-Locka to Moffett Field. Noplanes were carried; on both east andwest flights the planes were sent cross-country independently.

19-20 Jun — Flight up the coastto Coos Bay, Ore. No planes were carried,but some hook-on tests were conductedwith the XJW-1’s upon her return to theSan Francisco Bay area.

11 Jul — Lieutenant Com-mander Herbert V. Wiley relieved Cdr.Dresel as commanding officer of Macon.

18-21 July — Training flight tointercept the cruisers Houston and NewOrleans, which were en route fromPanama to Hawaii via Clipperton Island,with the vacationing President Rooseveltembarked in Houston. On the 19th herplanes made contact with the CAs; laterLieutenant Harold B. Miller and Ltjg.Kivette flew down in their F9Cs anddropped bags of the latest newspapersand magazines for the President.

26-27 Jul — On a local flight onJuly 21, the F9Cs had been flown fromthe trapeze without their wheel landinggear for the first time. The maneuver wasrepeated during this f l ight, andthereafter became standard procedure.Upon return to the Bay area on the 27th,Macon made the first test of the airship’srescue gear for retrieving a pilot downedat sea; it was simply a raft and bosun’schair at the end of a wire winched outfrom her hangar.

8 Aug — Local flight operations,Camp Kearny to Moffett Field; hook-onplanes exercised and, upon return to theBay area, the airship’s spy-basket was

streamed for the first time since theinitial abortive test aboard the Akron in1932. No one was aboard the basketwhich was fortunate since it was stillunstable and performed badly.

26-28 Sep — Extended flightoperations at sea, including training forthe F9Cs in navigation problems, battlelookout and night hook-on. On the 27th,the spy-basket, modified with a ventralstabilizer, had a 17-minute “flight” withL i e u t e n a n t C o m m a n d e r J e s s eKenworthy, its first “pilot.”

1934: 7-9 Nov — Flight from CampK e a r n y t o M o f f e t t F i e l d w h i l eparticipating in a fleet exercise. In thisoperation, the airship acted as a carrierfor her planes and let the latter do most ofthe searching. Her planes located the“enemy” carrier Saratoga and managedto keep her under constant surveillancefor several hours.

5-8 Dec — Camp Kearny toMoffett Field, participated in minortactical exercises with the fleet. On the7th, while her planes were tracking theLexington, the carrier’s dive bombersfound her and “shot her down.” On the8th, the day’s exercise was suspendedwhen two p lanes f rom C i n c i n n a t ibecame lost and went down at sea.Macon found them and hovered overthem until surface vessels arrived torescue the pilots.

1935: 2-3 Jan — Visibility tests wereconducted with Lexington in order todetermine how easily the airship wassighted, and who saw whom first, airshipor surface ship. It was a draw.

11-12 Feb — Participated in aminor fleet tactical exercise off the SantaBarbara Islands, in which Macon madeimaginative use of her four planes, to theextent of sending them on sorties 225mi les distant . But at 1705, whi lereturning to base, her upper fin wascarried away (reinforcements not yetinstalled). The damage worsened andloss of gas from the after gas cells placedher at an extreme angle of trim, bow up.Too much ballast was dropped and sheshot over pressure height where herautomatic gas valves opened, blowingaway the small margin of lift whichremained. Twenty-four minutes after thecasualty, Macon was brought to a forcedlanding in the Pacific, and sank within 30minutes of hitting the water. Eighty-oneof the 83 persons on board were saved.When she sank to the bottom of thePacific, she took with her two of herpersonnel, four of her hook-on airplanes,and the best hopes of the flying aircraft

carrier.26 Feb — SecNav informed all

bureaus and divisions of CNO that USSMacon was formally stricken from theNavy register.

During the period of rigid airshipoperations, non-rigid development took ab a c k s e a t t o t h e g i a n t a i r s h i p s .Experimentation continued in the non-rigid field but on a very limited basis.Most of the non-rigids in the mid-1920sto mid-1930s were used as trainingvehicles or for limited experiments. Thecrews necessary to operate the giantrigids were trained in the non-rigids. In1922, Mr. Upson, the Goodyear engineerwho flew the first successful B-classairship, formed his own corporation topromote development of a new airshipdesign. The design had an outer coveringthat was metal vice the traditional fabriccovering on the rigid and non-rigidairships. This metal-clad airship operatedon the same principle as the non-rigid,whereby the internal gas pressure keptthe sides of the airship rigid. The use ofthe pressure principle led the Navy toclassify the metal-clad as a non-rigidairship.

This practical development of a metal-clad airship became a reality when anautomatic riveter was perfected thatcould make strong gas-tight jointsbetween thin aluminum alloy sheets, andwhen a special type of seam sealingcompound was invented. Mr. Upson’scompany, the Aircraft DevelopmentCorporation, submitted a proposal to theBureau of Aeronautics for construction ofan experimental 200,000-cubic-foot,metal-clad airship in September 1925.

Congress authorized money for themetal clad airship in 1926. Contractnumber 447 was signed on August 18,1926 fo r t he a i r sh ip wh i ch wasdesignated ZMC-2, and assigned bureaunumber A-8282 after she was acceptedby the Navy. The ZMC-2 made her firstflight at Detroit’s Grosse Ile airport onAugust 19, 1929. She was delivered tothe Navy on September 12,1929, at NASLakehurst which was to be her homebase for operations. The ZMC-2 was usedmainly for experimental work, however,it also provided support for varioushumanitarian missions, rescue/disasterwork and training. Her main mission waspointed out by Adm. Moffett in his 1926annual report, “purely an experimentalcraft, intended to test the practicability ofthe novel type of construction used in it.”

The ZMC-2 was unsatisfactory in

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directional control during rough airconditions and at low speeds. However, itwas felt this was because of its small sizeand not due to the design of the airship.On the sixth anniversary of the ZMC-2’sfirst flight, she had flown more than57,000 miles and had been in the air over1,400 hours. The ZMC-2 remained inservice for 12 years until she wasscrapped in 1941. When she wasstr icken, her total t ime in the airexceeded 2,200 hours, a testimony to theexperimental/operational capabilitiesand durability of this prototype airship. Acontract was awarded by the Bureau ofAeronautics in 1932 to the MetalcladAirships Corporation (successor to theAircraft Development Corp.) for a designand engineering analysis of metal-cladairships. However, none were built forthe Navy.

Xl. Pre-WW II Blimps and theEvolution of the K-class

With the economic depression in 1929,plans for the development of anexperimental non-rigid airship werescaled back. Congress would notauthorize specific funds for the newairship, but the Navy was able toappropriate funds from several differentsources for construction of the airship.

The envelope was built by Goodyear andthe control car by the Naval AircraftFactory. The airship was the first in aseries of K-types, the K-1, and its designhad several new features. The enginesburned a fuel gas (similar to propane)instead of the traditional liquid fuel. Thisgas could be contained in cells within theairship envelope and, since it was ofapproximately the same density as air, itsconsump t i on d i d no t change t hebuoyancy of the airship. In addition, thegas proved to be a more efficient fuel thanliquid gasoline, and eliminated thenecessity of valving l i f t ing gas orcondensing water from the exhaust tocompensate for the weight of fuel burnedin flight. The K-1 had a special ballonet of51,700 cubic feet for carrying the fuelgas. She was also the first Navy non-rigidto employ an internally-suspendedcontrol car.

The components of the K-1 were matedin 1931 and the airship was delivered toN A S L a k e h u r s t b y L i e u t e n a n tCommander T. G. W. Settle on August10, 1931. Evaluation of the experimentalK-1 began on October 7, 1931. She wasthe largest non-rigid airship the Navy hadoperated up to that time. The K-1 wasreasonably successful, although at thattime it was believed she was too large fora non-rigid (less than three-quarters ofthe size of K-types used during WW II).

The K-1 made her last flight inSeptember 1940. She was dismantledand surveyed in the fall of 1941 to makespace for new airships in the defensebuildup. The K-1 was an experimentalprototype and no other airships of thistype were built.

A f t e r t h e a c q u i s i t i o n o f t h eexperimental K-1, the Navy changed itsapproach and procured its next non-rigidoff the shelf. Under contract 44308 ofS e p t e m b e r 2 3 , 1 9 3 5 , t h e N a v ypurchased Goodyear’s airship Defender,the largest of the Goodyear fleet ofadvertising and passenger airships. Shewas delivered to NAS Lakehurst onOctober 5, 1935, and put into service as atraining and general utility ship with thedesignation G-1. The G-1 was lost in amidair collision with another airship onJune 8, 1942. The two airships were on anight fl ight, conducting visual andpho tog raph ic obse rva t i ons o f anexperimental nature. Twelve peoplewere killed in the crash, including fivecivilian scientists. The G-1 prototype haddemonstrated her capabilities as atraining and utility airship.

The Navy’s need for training and utilityairships in WW II led to the acquisition ofseven more G-type airships. Undercontract number 151 of December 24,1942, seven more G-type airships wereordered, wi th a 13,700-cubic- footincrease in volume over the G-1. Theywere used for advanced training andutility purposes. The first group of G-types (G-2 through 5) was received in thelatter part of 1943 and the next group (G-6 through 8) was received in mid to late1944. During WW II, the G-type airshipsoperated primarily at NAS Moffett Fieldand Lakehurst for training and withAirship Utility Squadron One and itsdetachments on the East Coast.

In 1937, the Navy contracted for twodifferent types of airships on the samecontract, the L-1 and K-2. The L-1 design

The ZMC-2, shown here on aflight over Washington, D.C.,was the only metal-cladairship.

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directional control during rough airconditions and at low speeds. However, itwas felt this was because of its small sizeand not due to the design of the airship.On the sixth anniversary of the ZMC-2’sfirst flight, she had flown more than57,000 miles and had been in the air over1,400 hours. The ZMC-2 remained inservice for 12 years until she wasscrapped in 1941. When she wasstr icken, her total t ime in the airexceeded 2,200 hours, a testimony to theexperimental/operational capabilitiesand durability of this prototype airship. Acontract was awarded by the Bureau ofAeronautics in 1932 to the MetalcladAirships Corporation (successor to theAircraft Development Corp.) for a designand engineering analysis of metal-cladairships. However, none were built forthe Navy.

Xl. Pre-WW II Blimps and theEvolution of the K-class

With the economic depression in 1929,plans for the development of anexperimental non-rigid airship werescaled back. Congress would notauthorize specific funds for the newairship, but the Navy was able toappropriate funds from several differentsources for construction of the airship.

The envelope was built by Goodyear andthe control car by the Naval AircraftFactory. The airship was the first in aseries of K-types, the K-1, and its designhad several new features. The enginesburned a fuel gas (similar to propane)instead of the traditional liquid fuel. Thisgas could be contained in cells within theairship envelope and, since it was ofapproximately the same density as air, itsconsump t i on d i d no t change t hebuoyancy of the airship. In addition, thegas proved to be a more efficient fuel thanliquid gasoline, and eliminated thenecessity of valving l i f t ing gas orcondensing water from the exhaust tocompensate for the weight of fuel burnedin flight. The K-1 had a special ballonet of51,700 cubic feet for carrying the fuelgas. She was also the first Navy non-rigidto employ an internally-suspendedcontrol car.

The components of the K-1 were matedin 1931 and the airship was delivered toN A S L a k e h u r s t b y L i e u t e n a n tCommander T. G. W. Settle on August10, 1931. Evaluation of the experimentalK-1 began on October 7, 1931. She wasthe largest non-rigid airship the Navy hadoperated up to that time. The K-1 wasreasonably successful, although at thattime it was believed she was too large fora non-rigid (less than three-quarters ofthe size of K-types used during WW II).

The K-1 made her last flight inSeptember 1940. She was dismantledand surveyed in the fall of 1941 to makespace for new airships in the defensebuildup. The K-1 was an experimentalprototype and no other airships of thistype were built.

A f t e r t h e a c q u i s i t i o n o f t h eexperimental K-1, the Navy changed itsapproach and procured its next non-rigidoff the shelf. Under contract 44308 ofS e p t e m b e r 2 3 , 1 9 3 5 , t h e N a v ypurchased Goodyear’s airship Defender,the largest of the Goodyear fleet ofadvertising and passenger airships. Shewas delivered to NAS Lakehurst onOctober 5, 1935, and put into service as atraining and general utility ship with thedesignation G-1. The G-1 was lost in amidair collision with another airship onJune 8, 1942. The two airships were on anight fl ight, conducting visual andpho tog raph ic obse rva t i ons o f anexperimental nature. Twelve peoplewere killed in the crash, including fivecivilian scientists. The G-1 prototype haddemonstrated her capabilities as atraining and utility airship.

The Navy’s need for training and utilityairships in WW II led to the acquisition ofseven more G-type airships. Undercontract number 151 of December 24,1942, seven more G-type airships wereordered, wi th a 13,700-cubic- footincrease in volume over the G-1. Theywere used for advanced training andutility purposes. The first group of G-types (G-2 through 5) was received in thelatter part of 1943 and the next group (G-6 through 8) was received in mid to late1944. During WW II, the G-type airshipsoperated primarily at NAS Moffett Fieldand Lakehurst for training and withAirship Utility Squadron One and itsdetachments on the East Coast.

In 1937, the Navy contracted for twodifferent types of airships on the samecontract, the L-1 and K-2. The L-1 design

The ZMC-2, shown here on aflight over Washington, D.C.,was the only metal-cladairship.

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was the standard small, advertising andpassenger airship developed and used byGoodyear. It was delivered in April 1938and operated out of NAS Lakehurst untillost in a midair collision on June 8, 1942.

The L-1 was followed by a contract fortwo more L-types on September 25,1940(L-2 and L-3), which were delivered in1941. When hostilities commenced, theNavy took ove r the opera t i on o fGoodyear’s fleet of five advertisingairships. These five airships, namedResolute, Enterprise, Reliance, Rainbowand Ranger, were given the designationsL-4 through L-8. The characteristics andperformance for these five airshipsvaried from ship to ship.

The next series of L-types wereconstructed at NAS Moffett Field in itsassembly and repair shops. They weret h e L - 9 t h r o u g h L - 1 2 a n d w e r ecompleted by April 1943. The last groupof L-types was ordered from Goodyear onFebruary 24, 1943, 10 airships coveringthe numbers L-13 through L-22. All 10were delivered before the end of 1943.

Training was the primary mission ofthe L-type and the airships operatedmostly at Moffett Field and Lakehurst.They were involved in some local coastalpatrols but their small size precluded anyextensive patrols. However, they wereexcellent training airships. Some of theL-types were returned to Goodyear afterthe war.

In 1937, the Army Air Corps ended itsairship program and transferred all itsLTA material to the Navy. Only two Armyairships, the TC-13 and TC-14, wereconsidered serviceable. The TC-14 wasreassembled at NAS Lakehurst in 1938,

but the TC-13, which was at MoffettField, had to wait for a new envelope andwas not reassembled until 1940. TheTC-14 was later transferred to Moffett Fieldand the two airships became the nucleusof Airship Squadron ThirtyTwo (ZP-32) in1942.

During the 1930s, the Navy’s LTAprogram w a s s e v e r e l y l i m i t e d ,particularly after the loss of Akron andMacon. The LTA program received aboost in 1937 when the General Boardrecommended the revival of the non-rigidcoastal patrols. It was during this timethat the Army removed itself from anyLTA activity and the Navy assumed allresponsibilities in the LTA field. Althoughearlier purchases of airships had beenmade in the mid-1930s. it was not untilfiscal year 1939 that the expansion of theairship fleet really got under way.

The K-types became the backbone ofthe Navy’s airship fleet in WW II and hadthe largest production run of any airshiptype/class operated by the Navy or, infact, of any in the world. The K-1 hadbeen an experimental type and differedconsiderably from the K-2 which becamethe prototype for the wartime K-series.The K-2 was procured under the samecontract (No. 56352) as the L-1, onAugust 11, 1937. She made her firstflight on December 6, 1938, at Akron,Ohio, and was delivered by Goodyear tothe Navy at NAS Lakehurst on December16, 1938. At that time she was thelargest non-rigid airship in the Navy’sinventory, with an envelope capacity of404,000 cubic feet. K-2 was assignedbureau number 1211 with a primarymission of patrol.

The next contract (No. 78121) for K-types was issued on October 24, 1940,for six ZNP-K airships. The designationbreakdown indicated Z for lighter-than-air, N for non-rigid, P for patrol and K wasthe type/class. The bureau numbersassigned to the K-3 through 8 were 7025through 7028, and 01729 and 01730.Four of these airships were delivered tothe Navy in 1941 and the other two K-types were received in 1942. Five, K-3through K-8, were designed for patroland escort duties but were also used fortraining.

On October 14, 1941, the contract forthe first group of six K-series wasextended to inc lude 21 addi t ionalairships. An order for still another 21airships was signed January 9, 1943.The two additional orders for K-seriesairships were assigned bureau numbers04359 through 04379 and 30152through 30172, cover ing a i rsh ipsdesignated K-9 through K-50. By the endof 1942, 19 of the airships had beendelivered and the remaining 23 weredelivered in 1943. The first group of fiveairships, K-9 through K-13, had anenvelope capacity of 416,000 cubic feet,and the remaining K-series had anenvelope capacity of 425,000 cubic feet.

In September 1942, Goodyear wasbuilding five K-ships a month and by May1 9 4 3 , t h e c o m p a n y r e a c h e d i t sproduction peak of 11 K-ships monthly.The final contract for the wartime K-series airships was submitted in mid-

The K-1 was an experimentalairship and the first type tohave the control car suspendedinternally.

35

1943 (contract NXsa-10086, May 25,1943/NOa(s)-257, June 8, 1943). Thiscontract was for 89 of the K-series, butfour were cancelled. K-series numbersfor the remaining 85 were K-51 throughK-136. The control car for K-113 wasdestroyed by fire and, as a result, thecontrol car scheduled for K-136 was usedfor K-113. It appears that as a result ofth i s t rans fe r an a i r sh ip w i th thedesignation K-136 was never flown.Bureau numbers assigned to the K-51through K-135 include 30173 through30196 and 33467 through 33514.

The bureau numbers cover only 72airships. Consequently, it appears all ofthe K-ships ordered in the last contractmay not have received bureau numbers.An undetermined number of this lastseries had new envelopes of 456,000cubic feet mated to the existing K-seriescontrol cars. It is possible that the 13 K-series airships which did not receive

36

bureau numbers may have been theairships that were tailored to receive thenew envelopes. This is only conjecture atthis time, as documents have not beenfound to verify or disprove this theory.

The K-ship was used as the standardpatrol type for antisubmarine duties inthe Atlantic and Pacific fleets during WWII. It was equipped with communicatione q u i p m e n t a n d t h e n e c e s s a r yinstruments for blind/night flying. Forsurface search operations, particularlyagainst U-boats, each airship wasprovided with an ASG-type radar unitcapable of detecting objects at 90 miles.Underwater search equipment includedsonobuoys and MAD gear. Armament forthe K-ship normally included four torpex-filled Mk 47 (350-pound) depth bombs,two on external bomb racks and two inthe bomb bay. A 50-cal. Browningaircraft machine gun was placed in aturret in the forward part of the K-ship’s

The G-class airship was acquired from Goodyearas a general utility and training ship. In thisphoto, the G-1 is being used as a platform fora parachutist.

control car. For fire power from the afterend of the car, many K-ships hadBrowning automatic rifles available forinstallation in the aft windows whichwere removable. The 40 foot-long controlcar carried the crew, armament, powerplants and most of the equipment.

The standard mooring mast for the K-ships was a triangular structure 42 feethigh, capable of being towed by a tractor(called mobile mooring mast). Airshipswere “walked” into and out of the hangarwhile moored to the masts. It requiredabout 40 men to dock and undock a K-ship, the specific number dependent onweather conditions. The bow of eachairship was equipped with a round discmounted on a horizontal spindle with a

cone fastened to it. A cup on the top of themooring mast would engage the cone onthe bow of the ship and secure the airshipto the mooring mast. Another type ofmooring mast was called the stick mast, asingle mast securely anchored in aparticular location by guide wires. Themast was not mobile in the sense that itcould not be moved when an airship wasmoored to i t . The st ick mast wasimportant for use at advance bases or for

I expeditionary missions. It was easy totransport and erect, and required verylittle room to be set up.

During the war, blimp squadron (ZP,LTA patrol squadrons) flight personnelwere divided into combat air crews thatnormally consisted of 10 people. Theofficer complement included a senior orcommand pilot (fl ight captain), twocopilots and a navigator who also was apilot. Enlisted personnel were composedof an airship rigger, an ordnanceman,two mechanics and two radiomen. Theradiomen operated the radar, the MADequipment, Loran equipment, and thes tandard rad io t ransmi t te rs andreceivers.

For their duties of escort and patrol, K-ships possessed the advantages ofhover ing and making slow-speedsearches at altitudes of 100 feet or lessfor extended periods of time. These long-endurance, low-altitude, slow-speedsearches resulted in the detection ofnumerous enemy submarines, as well aslocating and assisting in the rescue ofmany vessels, aircraft and persons ind i s t r e s s . T h e a b i l i t y t o o p e r a t esuccessfully in conditions of reducedvisibility made it possible for airships(particularly K-types) to perform theirASW missions when low ceilings andpoor visibility grounded other types ofaircraft. Endurance was another keyfactor in the operation of the K-ships. TheK-ship’s normal endurance of over 26hours at cruising speed was an important

r factor in the employment of ASW tacticsduring WW II.

i XII. WW II Airships and TheirOperations

During WW II, there were five differentairship classes/types in the Navy’sinventory. The G, L, TC and K-typeairships have been discussed. The M-type was the last class to be developeddur ing the war. In May 1942, thePlanning Division LTA Section of theBureau of Aeronautics issued a directiveregarding the development/procure-ment of M-type airships. This was

followed by a contract (NXs-7298) onJune 17 , 1942 , dea l i ng w i t h t heprototype for the M-class, followed bymore directives until, on August 16,1943, Planning Directive 11-ZZ-43indicated a total of 22 M-type airshipshad been requested for procurement.Contract number NOa(s)-146 was signedon September 11, 1943, for 21 M-typeairships (ZNP-M). Planning Directive 16-ZZ-43 of November 22, 1943, requestedaction to reduce the total number of M-types ordered from 22 to 4. The prototypeM-1 was delivered to the Navy onNovember 27, 1943. Two other M-typeswere received by the Navy in 1944, one inFebruary and one in March, and the lastin April 1944. No bureau numbers wereassigned to the four M-type airshipsprocured by the Navy.

The M-types were constructed byGoodyear. A Navy press release, datedOctober 16, 1943, indicated the M-1prototype had completed her first testflights and that she was the largest non-r igid airship bui l t at that t ime. Adistinctive feature of the airship was thecontrol car which was 117 feet long,nearly three times as long as the controlcar on the K-ship. The large car consistedof three sections connected by universaljoints to allow for freedom of movementin coordination with the helium-filledenvelope. The control car arrangementkept the catenary loads on the envelopeat the same level, thereby reducing oreliminating the possibility of wrinkles inthe envelope. The M-type airships madetheir debut in At lant ic Fleet ASWoperations in August 1944. However,they were used on a very limited basisduring the war.

The story of airship operations andexpansion in WW II deals with the largestlighter-than-air fleet and the largestnumber of LTA operations the world hasever seen. U.S. Navy LTA operationsr a n g e d f r o m t h e P a c i f i c t o t h eMediterranean and from North Atlanticwaters to the South Atlantic.

WW II is considered the apex of LTAoperations, while the period from the lossof the Macon on February 12, 1935, toJune 1940 might be called the nadir ofLTA activity. There was little operationalactivity in LTA and little money availablefor experimental and developmentalwork during 1935 to 1940. The LTAinventory reached a maximum of sixairships in 1938. This inventory includedthe G-1, L-1, K-1, K-2, TC-13 and TC-14.Of these six airships, only the K-2, theprototype for the K-series, and the TC-types were capable of ASW operations.

The need for modern airships wascompounded by the lack of naval airstat ions capable of handl ing LTAoperations. NAS Lakehurst was the onlyLTA operational andtraining air station inexistence from October 1935 to April

1942. The threat of war spurredCongress into action, and it passed PublicLaw 635 in June 1940, providing for theconstruction of 48 non-rigid airships.This was the beginning of the LTAbuildup. The opening salvo at PearlHarbor found LTA still lacking modernairships, operational air stations and thea d m i n i s t r a t i v e a n d o p e r a t i o n a lorganizations necessary to direct LTAactivities. The story of LTA in WW II is notjust the story of successful operations butalso the organizational evolution thatdeveloped and directed LTA activity.

At the beginning of WW II the Navy’sLTA inventory consisted of 10 airships,which included two old TC-type Armytrainers (TC-13 and 14); one G-type (G-1);three L-type trainers (L-1, 2 and 3); andfour K-type ASW/patrol airships (K-2, 3,4 and 5). NAS Lakehurst was still theNavy’s only operational LTA station.There was none on the West Coast untilNAS Sunnyvale was established on April1 6 , 1 9 4 2 . L T A h a d n o o f f i c i a lorganization to conduct fleet operationswhen war was declared. The existingairships were attached to NAS Lakehurstfor t ra in ing, experimentat ion andoperational activities.

An air-sea transfer is demonstrated by a J-classairship, with the G-1 in the background. Notethe difference between the two airship controlcars. The G-class car is attached directly tothe envelope and completely enclosed, whilethe older J-class car is suspended by wiresfrom the airship envelope.

37

During the first few weeks of the war,all airship ASW and patrol operationswere conducted by airships assigned toNAS Lakehurst. The first step in theevolution of LTA’s operational andadmin is t ra t i ve s t ruc tu re was theestablishment of Airship Patrol GroupOne and Airship Squadron 12 at NASLakehurst on January 2, 1942. This wasthe beginning of an extensive LTAorganization that developed within theAtlantic and Pacific Fleets.

Nine major LTA naval air stations wereestablished in the continental U.S. afterthe war began : NAS Weeksv i l l e(Elizabeth City), N.C.; Tillamook, Ore;South Weymouth, Mass.; Santa Ana,Calif.; Richmond, Fla.; Glynco, Ga.;Houma, La.; Hitchcock, Texas; andMoffett Field (Sunnyvale), Cal i f .Numerous auxiliary stations and HTA airstations in the continental U.S. had LTAdetachments assigned. This list includes:Apalachicola, Banana River, Key Westand Eglin Field, Fla.; Brunswick and BarHarbor, Maine; Cape May, N.J.; Fisher’sIsland, N.Y.; Solomons and PatuxentRiver, Md.; Charleston, S.C.; Dahlgren,Va.; Lompoc, Del Mar, Watsonville andEureka, Calif.; Astoria and North Bend,Ore.; and Shelton and Quillayute, Wash.

LTA also operated from air stationsoutside the continental U.S.: San Julian,Isle of Pines and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba;Chorrera Field and Mandinaga, Panama;San Juan, Puerto Rico; Vernam Field,Jamaica; Edinburgh, British West Indies;Panama; Atkinson Field, British Guiana;Barranquilla, Columbia; Fortaleza, SaoLuiz, lgarape Assu, Amapa, Maceio,Ipitanga, Fernando do Noronha,Caravellas, Santa Cruz, Victoria andRecife, Brazil; Carlsen Field, Trinidad;Zandery Field and Paramaribo, DutchGuiana; Port Lyautey, Morocco; BritishGibraltar; British Malta; Bizerte, Tunisia;Cagliari, Sardinia; Cuers, France; Venice,Pisa and Rome, Italy; and Ensenada,Mexico.

W ithin the LTA organization therewere two sen io r commands tha tadministered the Pacific and AtlanticFleet LTA activities: Fleet Airships,Pacific and Fleet Airships, Atlantic.

During the war there were variousreorganizations within the LTA structure.Fleet Airships, Pacific had been originallyestablished as Patrol Group Three onOctober 1, 1942 , and was t henredesignated Fleet Airship Wing (FASW)31 on December 1. On July 15, 1943, itwas again redesignated as Fleet

Airships, Pacific with administrativeduties and as Fleet Airship Wing Threewith operational responsibilities. In thisdual role, the command reported toCommander Fleet Air, West Coast. Thisdual-hatted command organizationcontinued until January 23, 1946, whenboth organizations were disestablished.

A similar change in organizationoccurred in Fleet Airships, Atlantic. Itwas established as Fleet Airship Wing 30on December 1, 1942, and redesignatedFleet Airships, Atlantic on July 15, 1943.

F l e e t A i r s h i p s , A t l a n t i c w a sestablished to administer the airshipwings and their component squadrons. Itreported to the Commander Air Force,Atlantic. The operational units under theadministrative control of Fleet Airships,Atlantic were assigned to various taskforces and task groups for the purpose oftactical employment.

During the war, five Fleet AirshipWings came into existence. BesidesFASW-3 on the West Coast, FASWs 1, 2,4 and 5 operated on the Atlantic coast.Fleet Airship Wing One had originallybeen established as Airship Patrol Group

L-class airships on a training flight near NASMoffett Field, Calif., in February 1944.

K-class airships moored at NAS Weeksville, N.C., during WW II.K-class airships moored at NAS Weeksville, N.C., during WW II.

One on January 2, 1942, which wasredesignated Fleet Airship Group One onNovember 1. Fleet Airship Group Twowas established on March 1, 1943. OnJuly 15, a major reorganization of theLTA structure was instituted in whichFleet Airship Group designations werechanged to Fleet Airship Wings hence,Fleet Airship Group One and Twobecame Fleet Airship Wing One and Two.Several weeks later the last two FleetAirship Wings, Four and Five, wereestablished on August 2, 1943. FleetAirship Wings 1, 2, 4 and 5 were thei n t e r m e d i a t e a d m i n i s t r a t i v e a n doperational commands between theiroperational fleet squadrons and FleetAirships, Atlantic.

The next lower command echelon inthe LTA structure was the bl impsquadrons, the operational units of thefleet. Prior to the war there were none,but by the end of the war the Navy hadestabl ished 14 operat ional bl impsquadrons. The designation for thesesquadrons was ZP and their mission wasASW, patrol and escort. The July 15,1943, modif icat ion of the airshiporganization also included redesignatingairship squadrons to blimp squadrons.The blimp squadrons established were:ZPs-11, 12, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32,33, 41, 42 and 51. Another blimpsquadron, ZP-52, was redesignated ZP-41, a month after its establishment. Onlyone other type of blimp squadron wasestablished during the war, with adifferent mission from that of the ZPs.

Airship Utility Squadron (ZJ) One wasestablished on February 10, 1944. Itsmiss ion w a s t o r p e d o r e c o v e r y ,photographic and calibration services

and other general utility functions. It hadbeen formed to relieve the operational ZPsquadrons of these duties, so that theycould concentrate on their ASW mission.ZJ-1 was also assigned the additionalfunc t i on o f admin i s te r ing A i r sh ipAntisubmarine Training Detachment,Atlantic Fleet.

To support the operational activities ofthe blimp squadrons, a maintenance andrepair organization was established.Blimp headquarters squadrons (BLPHRN)were established in the reorganization ofthe LTA structure on July 15, 1943. Four,BLPHRNs 1, 2, 3 and 4 were establishedon that date. BLPHRN-5 was establishedAugust 2. The mission of thesesquadrons was to completely divorce allmaintenance, repair and upkeep ofaircraft from the flying and operationalblimp squadrons, thereby freeing combatair crews from all duties except thoseinvolving flying. The blimp headquarterssquadrons were directly responsible tothe fleet airship wings.

Various detachments from the blimpheadquarters squadrons were assignedto the different blimp squadrons whichsupported the maintenance of the blimpsquadron aircraft.

The expansion of the LTA f leetincreased the demand for qualified LTApilots, observers and the enlisted ratingsnecessary to make LTA successful. LTAtraining was instituted at NAS MoffettField after the war started and thetraining program was continued at NASLakehurst where it had been conductedprior to the war.

On May 15, the Naval Airship TrainingCommand was established at Lakehurstto administer and direct LTA training

programs at NAS Lakehurst and MoffettField, and direct the Experimental andFlight Test Department at Lakehurst. Twos p e c i a l i z e d t r a i n i n g u n i t s w e r ee s t a b l i s h e d i n 1 9 4 4 t o c o n d u c texperiments and training separate fromthe Naval Airship Training Command.

Prior to its formal establishment, theA i r s h i p A n t i s u b m a r i n e T r a i n i n gDetachment, Atlantic Fleet had operatedas part of the Naval Airship TrainingCommand. On January 1, 1944, it wasestablished. Initially, the unit’s chain ofcommand was Fleet Airship Wing Twoand then Fleet Airships, Atlantic. OnFebruary 10, when ZJ-1 was established,the unit operated under this squadron,which reported to Fleet Airships,Atlantic. The mission of the unit was toestablish an airship ASW program oftraining, and experimental development;advance airship antisubmarine training,both on the ground and in the air forcomba t a i r c rews who had seenoperational experience in Atlantic Fleetblimp squadrons; and to build a basis,through extensive operations withfriendly submarines and with surfacecraft, for increasing the usefulness of theairship as an antisubmarine weapon.

The coun te rpa r t o f t he A i r sh ipAntisubmarine Training Detachment,Atlantic Fleet was the Fleet AirshipsPac i f i c Tac t i ca l Un i t wh ich wasestablished on March 20. Its missionwas similar to that of the Atlantic Fleetdetachment. It was geared to trainingc o m b a t c r e w s i n a i r s h i p A S Wtechniques, particulary in the use of MADgear, as well as navigation, tacticaldoctrine and carrier landing procedures.The unit operated under the control of

39

Commander Fleet Airships, Pacific. Aftertraining 64 combat air crews, the unitwas disestablished on June 27, 1945.

A detailed history of airship operationsduring WW II is not possible in this briefnarrative, but various squadron activitieswill be highlighted to provide somebackground on their role in the war. Inorder to grasp the scope of LTA activities,the following charts show the five FleetAirship Wings, the units assigned tothem and their location.

Fleet Airship Wing 1Jan 1942 - Sep 1945

NAS Lakehurst, NJ

Headquarters Squadron 1Jul 1943 - Sep 1945

Units/Locations Dates

HEDRON Det 11S Weymouth, MA

ZP-11S. Weymouth

HEDRON Det 12Lakehurst

Jul 1943-Jun 1945

Jun 1942-Jun 1945

Jul 1943-Sep 1945

Sub-det Fisher’sIsland, NY

Sub-detDahlgren, VA

Sub-detSolomons, MD

Sub-detS. Weymouth

Sub-detWeeksville, NC

ZP-12Lakehurst

Mar 1944-Sep 1945*

Nov 1944-Jun 1945

Nov 1944-Sep 1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jan 1942-Sep 1945

Det CapeMay, NJ

Det Fisher’sIsland

DetS. Weymouth

Det Solomons

Jun-Nov1943

May 1944-Sep 1945

May 1944-Sep 1945

May 1944-Sep 1945

Det Weeksville Jun 1944-Sep 1945

Det Glynco, GA Jun 1944-Sep 1945

HEDRON Det 14Weeksville

ZP-12Weeksville

Aug 1943-Jun 1945

Jun 1942-May 1944

HEDRON Det 15 Aug 1943-Glynco Jun 1945

40

Units/Locations

Sub-detCharleston, SC

ZP-15 Glynco

Det Charleston

Det EglinField, FL

DetApalachicola, FL

HEDRON Det 21Richmond, FL

Sub-det SanJulian, Cuba

Sub-det BananaRiver, FL

Sub-det KeyWest, FL

Sub-detHouma, LA

Sub-det Panama

Sub-det Jamaica

Sub-det Glynco

ZP-21 Richmond

Det Apalachicola

Det ChorreraField, Panama

Det San Julian

Det BananaRiver

Det Key West

Det Glynco

HEDRON Det 24WeekswIle

ZP-24 Weeksville

Det Weeksville

Det PatuxentRiver, MD

Dates

Aug 1943-Jun 1945

Feb 1943-Jun 1945

Mar 1943-Jun 1945

Mar-Apr1945

Apr-May1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Jun-Sep1945

Nov 1942/May-Sep1945

May-Aug1945

May-Sep1945

May-Sep1945

May-Sep1945

May-Sep1945

Jun-Jul1945

Jun 1944-Jun 1945

Jun 1944-Jun 1945

May-Jun1944

Oct-Nov1944

*On inactive status during this period.

Fleet Airship Wing 2Dec 1942 - Feb 1943

NAS LakehurstMar 1943 - Jun 1945

Richmond

Headquarters Squadron 2Jul 1943 - Jun 1945NAS Richmond, VA

Units/Locations Dates

HEDRON Det 21Richmond

Sub-det Houma

Sub-detChorrera Field

Sub-det Jamaica

Sub-det SanJuan, PR

Sub-det Trinidad

Sub-det BritishGuiana

HEDRON Det 21-1Isles of Pines,Cuba

San Julian

Isles of Pines

San Julian

HEDRON Det 21-2Banana River

HEDRON Det 21-3Key West

HEDRON Det 21-6Guantanamo BayCuba

ZP-21 Richmond

Det Key West

Det Islesof Pines

Det GuantanamoBay

Det BananaRiver

Det Houma

Det SanJulian

Sep 1944-Jun 1945

Sep 1944-Jun 1945

Dec 1944-Jun 1945

Dec 1944-Jun 1945

Dec 1944-Jun 1945

Dec 1944-Sep 1945

Dec 1944-Jun 1945

Jul-Dec1943

Dec 1943

Dec 1943-Sep 1944

Sep 1944-Jun 1945

Nov 1943-Jun 1945

Jul 1943-Jun 1945

Jul 1943-Jan 1944/Dec 1944-Jan 1945

Dec 1942-May 1945

Feb 1943-Apr 1944

Mar 1943-Sep 1944*

Apr 1943-Feb 1944

Nov 1943-May 1945

Sep 1944-May 1945

Sep 1944-May 1945/Dec 1944

Units/Locations

Det Panama

HEDRON Det 22Houma

Sub-detHitchcock, TX

ZP-22 Houma

Det Hitchcock

HEDRON Det 23Hitchcock

Jamaica

Sub-detMandinga,Panama

Sub-detColumbia

Sub-detChorrera Field

ZP-23 Houma

Hitchcock

Jamaica

Det Mandinga

Det Columbia

DetChorrera Field

HEDRON Det 24Hitchcock

ZP-24 Hitchcock

ZP-52 Lakehurst

Airship Anti-SubTraining Det,Atlantic FleetKey West

The TC-14, G-1 and J-4 in formation.

Dates

Dec 1944-May 1945

Aug 1943-Mar 1944

Jun-Sep1944

May 1943-Sep 1944

Jun-Sep1944

Aug 1943-Mar 1944

Mar-Dec1944

Feb-Aug1944

Mar-Aug1944

Sep-Dec1944

Jun 1943

Jun 1943-Mar 1944

Mar-Nov1944

Apr-Aug1944

May-Nov1944

Sep-Nov1944

Mar-May1944

Feb-Jun1944

Jun-Jul1943

Jan-Feb1944

A K-ship on patrol. Note the depth bombs on the underside of the control car.

42

Fleet Airship Wing 3Oct 1942 - Sep 1945NAS Moffett Field, CA

Headquarters Squadron 3Aug 1943 - Sep 1945

Units/Locations Dates

HEDRON Det 31Santa Ana, CA

Det MastBase UnitDel Mar, CA

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

Det MastBase UnitLompoc, CA

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

ZP-31 Santa Ana

Auxiliary BaseOps Lompoc

Auxiliary BaseOps Del Mar

Auxiliary BaseOps Ensenada,Mexico

HEDRON Det 32Moffett Field

Oct 1942-Sep 1945

May 1943-Sep 1945

Jun 1943-Sep 1945

Oct 1944-Sep 1945

Det MastBase UnitWatsonville, CA

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

Det MastBase UnitEureka, CA

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

ZP-32 Moffett Field

Auxiliary BaseOps Watsonville

Auxiliary BaseOps Eureka

Oct 1942-Sep 1945

Oct 1942-Sep 1945

May 1943-Sep 1945

HEDRON Det 33Tillamook, OR

Det MastBase UnitNorth Bend, OR

Aug 1943-Sep 1945

Nov 1943-Sep 1945

Det MastBase UnitQuillayute, WA

Mar 1944-Sep 1945

Det MastBase UnitShelton, WA

Oct 1944-Sep 1945

ZP-33 Tillamook Dec 1942-Sep 1945

Auxiliary Base Feb-MayOps Eureka 1943

Auxiliary BaseOps Astoria, OR

Nov 1943-Sep 1945

Units/Locations

Auxiliary BaseOps North Bend

Auxiliary BaseOps Quillayute

Auxiliary BaseOps Shelton

Dates

Nov 1943-Sep 1945

Mar 1944-Sep 1945

Dec 1944-Sep 1945

Fleet AirshipsPacific TacticalUnit Del Mar

Mar 1944-Jun 1945

Fleet Airship Wing 4Aug 1943 - Jul 1945

Recife, BrazilHeadquarters Squadron 4

Units/Locations Dates

HEDRON Det 41Sao Luiz, Brazil

Sub-detAmapa, Brazil

Sub-detFortaleza, Brazil

Sub-det lgarapeAssu, Brazil

ZP-41 Lakehurst

Fortaleza

Sao Luiz

Det lgarapeAssu

Det Amapa

Det Fortaleza

Det BritishGuiana

Det EdinburghField, BWI

Det San Juan

Det Cuba

HEDRON Det 42Maceio, Brazil

Sub-detFernando doNoronha, Brazil

Sub-det Recife

Sub-detIpitanga, Brazil

Sub-det

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Sep 1943-Apr 1945

Aug-Sep1943Sep 1943-Jan 1944

Jan 1944-Jul 1945

Oct 1943-Apr 1945

Jan 1944-Jul 1945

May 1944-Jul 1945

Jun-Jul1945

Jun-Jul1945

Jun-Jul1945

Jun-Jul1945

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Sep 1943-Feb 1945

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Sep 1943-

Units/Locations

Caravellas,Brazil

Sub-detSanta Cruz,Brazil

Sub-detVictoria, Brazil

Sub-detRichmond

ZP-42 Lakehurst

Richmond

Maceio

Det lpitanga

Det Fortaleza

Det Fernandodo Noronha

Det Caravellas

Det Santa Cruz

Det Victoria

Dates

Jul 1945

Sep 1943-Jul 1945

Feb 1944-Jul 1945

Apr-Jul1945

Sep-Oct1943

Oct-Nov1943

Nov 1943-Mar 1945

Nov 1943-Apr 1945

Nov 1943-May 1944

Jan 1944-Oct 1944

Mar 1944-Jan 1945

Mar 1944-Mar 1945

Mar 1944-Jan 1945

Fleet Airship Wing 5Aug 1943 - Dec 1944

Trinidad

Headquarters Squadron 5

Units/Locations Dates

HEDRON DetAtkinson FieldBritish Guiana

Det ParamaridoDutch Guiana

Det GuantanamoBay

Det San Juan

ZP-51 Trinidad

Det AtkinsonField

Det Paramaribo

Det GuantanamoBay

Det San Juan

Aug 1943-Dec 1944

Sep 1943-Aug 1944

Feb-Dec1944

Nov-Dec1944

Aug 1943-Nov 1944

Aug 1943-Nov 1944

Sep 1943-Jul 1944

Feb-Nov1944

Nov 1944

43

Fleet Airship Wing One*

2 Jan-31 May 1 Jun-30 Nov 1 Dec-30 Jun1942 1942 1943

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)

Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

Hours flown by All Airships Assigned

3371 submarine damaged

NoneNone

NoneNone

NoneNone

5 (5 grps of survivors)

4,731

9181 submarine damaged

None1

None4

NoneNone

10 (8 grps of survivors; 2vessels in distress)

12,946

1,953None

NoneNone

None1

NoneNone

10 (4 grps of survivors; 1crashed aircraft; 5 vessels

in distress)

29,093

Fleet Airship Wing Two*

1 Dec 1942-28 Feb 1943

1 Mar-30 Jun1943

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

Miscellaneous

Hours flown by All Airships Assigned

176None

NoneNoneNoneNone

NoneNoneNone

None

2,791

1,057None

NoneNoneNoneNone

NoneNone

4 (3 survivor grps; 1crashed aircraft)

None

15,924

Fleet Airship Wing Three*

1 Oct-30 Nov

19421 Dec 1942-30 Jun 1943

44

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

Miscellaneous

Hours Flown by All Airships Assigned

118 1,360None None

NoneNoneNoneNone

None3

None3

NoneNone

1 (1 cr.a/c)

NoneNone

5 (2 vessels in distress; 2 survivorgroups; 1 lighter adrift)

None

1,007

None

13,710

11 Jul-30 Nov 11 Dec 1943- 11 Jun-30 Nov 1 Dec 1944- 11 May-15 Sep1943 31 May 1944 1944 30 Apr 1945 1945

2,478None

None2

None6

9None

10 (2 vessels in dis-tress; 2 lifeboats; 4grps of survivors; 2

aircraft crashes)

2,319None

NoneNone

None6

NoneNone

13

2,435None

None3

None3

8None

12 (5 crashed aircraft; 4vessels in distress; 2 grps

of survivors; 1 hospitalcase.)

1,483None

NoneNone

None2

NoneNone

8

1,2361 sub sunk (assist)

None9 (due to hurricane and fire)

None2

NoneNone

5 (3 crashed 2aircraft;grps of survivors)

37,343 51,147 34,745 19,994 11,373

*Established as Airship Patrol Group 1, redesignated Fleet Airship Group 1 and then redesignated Fleet Airship Wing 1

11 Jul-31 Dec 11 Jan-30 Jun 11 Jul-30 Nov 1 Dec 1944-1943 1944 1944 16 Jun 1945

None1 utility PBY

None5

2,315 1,799 1,381 1,0221 submarine damaged None None

11 None NoneNone 4 2None None None

5 6 3

11 9 12 None 4

16 (2 survivor grps; 6 crashed air- 11 (8 vessels in distress; 2 crashed 14 (7 vessels in distress; 3craft; 6 vessels in distress; 2 hos- aircraft, 1 survivor grp) crashed aircraft; 2 survivor

pital cases) grps; 1 hospital case; 1 air-craft in distress)

1None

7 (2 vessels in distress; 2 crashedaircraft; 2 survivor grps; 1 hospital

case)

27 Jul: NAS Hitchcock struck byhurricane — minor damage.

29,208

None

31,234

None None

22,274 13,218

*Established as Fleet Airship Group 2 and redesignated Fleet Airship Wing 2.

1 Jul 1943-28 Feb 1944

11 Mar-30 Sep 11 Oct 1944- 1 Apr 1944-1944 31 Mar 1945 15 Sep 1945

3,877None

4,073None

3,360None

3,268None

None None2 11

None None4 3

5 NoneNone 6

11 (4 vessels in distress; 7 crashed 20 (5 crashed aircraft; 8 survivoraircraft) groups; 5 vessels in distress;

1 house on fire; 1 hospital case)

None None11 3

None None4 5

6None

19 (7 survivor grps; 3 vessels indistress; 2 hospital cases; 2forest fires; 4 crashed air-

craft; 1 lost tow)

8None

13 (8 vessels in distress; 3crashed aircraft; 1 survivor

group; 1 hospital case)

None None None None

41,479 35,926 34,412 30,202

*Established as Airship Patrol Group 3, redesignated Fleet Airship Wing 31, and then redesignated Fleet Airship Wing 3/Fleet Airships, Pacific. 45

2 Aug-31 Dec 1943 1 Jan-30 Jun 1944

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

Miscellaneous

268None

NoneNoneNone

None NoneNone 15

2 (1 crashed aircraft; 1 hospital case) 11 (4 crashed aircraft; 1 crashed blimp;1 stranded aircraft; 2 vessels in distress;

1 jungle rescue; 2 survivor groups)

None

858None

None2

None1

None

Hours flown by All Airships Assigned 4,692 14,520

Fleet Airship Wing Five

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

2 Aug 1943-31 Jan 1944

605None

None2

NoneNone

8None

5

1 Feb-31 Jul1944

1,020None

None1(1 JRF)

None2 (1 JRF)

NoneNone

6 (3 vessels in distress; 1aircraft in distress; 2

survivor groups)

1 Aug-11 Dec1944

391None

None1

None1

NoneNone

2 (2 boats in distress)

Miscellaneous

Hours Flown by All Airships Assigned

None

8,976

None

14,136

None

5,716

ZP-32 Operations

LTA operations on the West Coastcen te red a round the th ree ma inoperating bases: Santa Ana, Moffett Fieldand Tillamook. NAS Moffett Field was thefirst operational LTA air station to beestablished after hositilities began. Thefirst squadron assigned to the West Coastwas Airship Patrol Squadron 32 (laterredesignated Blimp Squadron (ZP) 32).The squadron was established onJanuary 31, 1942, at Sunnyvale.

A directive was signed by the CNO onDecember 29, 1941, authorizing theformation of ZP-32. Work beganimmediately on the airships TC-13 and14 to make them fit for service andprepare them for transportation from

NAS Lakehurst to Moffett Field. Thesetwo airships were the nucleus for ZP-32’s operations. On January 7, 1942,Lieutenant Commander George F.Watson, the prospective commandingofficer, left NAS Lakehurst headed forMoffett Field. Five days after hisdeparture, 11 railroad cars loaded withthe dismantled TC-13 and 14, plus spareparts, tools and miscellaneous gearfollowed. The first of these cars reachedMoffett Field on January 24 and work onthe TC-14 began the next day. The dayafter the squadron was established, theTC-14 made her first test flight. A weeklater, on February 8, the TC-13 wasplaced in service and flown by thesquadron.

The first mission for the TC-14 was onFebruary 4 when she made a wartime

patrol with other units of the Pacific fleet.On February 23, an enemy submarinelying off the coast of California shelled anoil field of Santa Barbara. ZP-32 sent theTC-14 to search for the submarine and toescort any merchant ships in the area.The airship flew from Moffett Field toMorro Bay and operated in the area onFebruary 24. She escorted severaltankers and searched for the submarinewithout any definite results. Eventhough the airship did not locate thesubmarine, the squadron was able todemonstrate its capability to respond tocrisis situations.

ZP-32 continued to expand its fleet ofairships, receiving its first L-type airshipon February 28. This new airship, L-6,was the former Rel iance f rom theGoodyear commerical fleet. The L-8 was

46

2 Aug-31 Dec 1943 1 Jan-30 Jun 1944

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

Miscellaneous

268None

NoneNoneNone

None NoneNone 15

2 (1 crashed aircraft; 1 hospital case) 11 (4 crashed aircraft; 1 crashed blimp;1 stranded aircraft; 2 vessels in distress;

1 jungle rescue; 2 survivor groups)

None

858None

None2

None1

None

Hours flown by All Airships Assigned 4,692 14,520

Fleet Airship Wing Five

Operational MissionsEnemy Ships Damaged or Sunk

Own Blimps Lost (Combat)Own Blimps Lost (Operations)Own Blimps Damaged (Combat)Own Blimps Damaged (Operations)

Personnel LostPersonnel RescuedRescue Mission Assists

2 Aug 1943-31 Jan 1944

605None

None2

NoneNone

8None

5

1 Feb-31 Jul1944

1,020None

None1(1 JRF)

None2 (1 JRF)

NoneNone

6 (3 vessels in distress; 1aircraft in distress; 2

survivor groups)

1 Aug-11 Dec1944

391None

None1

None1

NoneNone

2 (2 boats in distress)

Miscellaneous

Hours Flown by All Airships Assigned

None

8,976

None

14,136

None

5,716

ZP-32 Operations

LTA operations on the West Coastcen te red a round the th ree ma inoperating bases: Santa Ana, Moffett Fieldand Tillamook. NAS Moffett Field was thefirst operational LTA air station to beestablished after hositilities began. Thefirst squadron assigned to the West Coastwas Airship Patrol Squadron 32 (laterredesignated Blimp Squadron (ZP) 32).The squadron was established onJanuary 31, 1942, at Sunnyvale.

A directive was signed by the CNO onDecember 29, 1941, authorizing theformation of ZP-32. Work beganimmediately on the airships TC-13 and14 to make them fit for service andprepare them for transportation from

NAS Lakehurst to Moffett Field. Thesetwo airships were the nucleus for ZP-32’s operations. On January 7, 1942,Lieutenant Commander George F.Watson, the prospective commandingofficer, left NAS Lakehurst headed forMoffett Field. Five days after hisdeparture, 11 railroad cars loaded withthe dismantled TC-13 and 14, plus spareparts, tools and miscellaneous gearfollowed. The first of these cars reachedMoffett Field on January 24 and work onthe TC-14 began the next day. The dayafter the squadron was established, theTC-14 made her first test flight. A weeklater, on February 8, the TC-13 wasplaced in service and flown by thesquadron.

The first mission for the TC-14 was onFebruary 4 when she made a wartime

patrol with other units of the Pacific fleet.On February 23, an enemy submarinelying off the coast of California shelled anoil field of Santa Barbara. ZP-32 sent theTC-14 to search for the submarine and toescort any merchant ships in the area.The airship flew from Moffett Field toMorro Bay and operated in the area onFebruary 24. She escorted severaltankers and searched for the submarinewithout any definite results. Eventhough the airship did not locate thesubmarine, the squadron was able todemonstrate its capability to respond tocrisis situations.

ZP-32 continued to expand its fleet ofairships, receiving its first L-type airshipon February 28. This new airship, L-6,was the former Rel iance f rom theGoodyear commerical fleet. The L-8 was

46

1 Jul-31 Dec 1944 1 Jan-15 Jul 1945

748None

None2 (1 PBY)

None1

232

8 (6 crashed aircraft; 1 aircraft in distress; 11hospital case)

262None

None1

None1

None

2 (1 crashed aircraft;

1 aircraft in distress)

8 Nov: Santa Cruz det. struck by cyclone —minor damage

None

11,191 4,927

received on March 5 and five days laterthe third L-type was accepted. It was theL-4, Goodyear’s former airship Resolute.

On April 11, the L-8 was ordered toperform a special freight mission. Shedeparted San Francisco with a 300-pound load and was ordered to rendezouswith USS Hornet (CV-8) off the coast ofCalifornia. The freight was lowered byline to the deck of Hornet while the L-8hovered over the carrier. The transferrequired careful maneuvering of theairship to enable her to land the cargo ona clear spot on the flight deck. Most of theflight deck space was occupied by B-25s.The delivered freight was vital for thesuccess of a secret mission. It consistedof parts for the B-25s which were enroute to a carrier takeoff in the middle ofthe Pacific to make the famous Doolittleraid on Tokyo.

On August 16, 1942, the L-8 wasinvolved in a bizarre incident that hasnever been completely solved. The L-8left Treasure Island on a routine patrol offthe coast of San Francisco. Severalhours later the airship crashed in DaleCity. The engines were not running eventhough there was adequate fuel. Theradio equipment was operative but therewas no one on board. She took off withtwo crew members, Lieutenant JuniorGrade Cody and Ensign Adams. No tracewas ever found of either man and therewas no indication of what happened tothem. The airship had apparently driftedwith the wind toward land, exceeded herpressure height and deflated, settling toearth at Dale City. The L-8 was salvagedand completely repaired. She continuedserving the Navy during WW II and afterthe war was returned to Goodyear.

The first K-type airship, the K-20, wasreceived by ZP-32 on October 31, afterbeing ferried across the country fromAkron, Ohio. The squadron received the

The above scenes are from the crash and riddle of the L-8 during WW II.

K-21 and 22 in November, the last K- the TC-13 and 14 were transferred totypes to be ferried to the West Coast. NAS Moffett Field’s inventory. TheGoodyear set up an airship assembly transfer of these airships led to the end oforganization at Moffett Field and all the use of both Land TC-type airships forfu tu re Wes t Coas t K - t ypes were operational patrol duties on the Pacificassembled there. On December 19, the Coast. They were later used for trainingfirst K-type, assembled at Moffett Field, and by squadrons for some util itywas delivered to ZP-32. missions.

With the arrival of the K-types at ZP-32, On March 31, 1943, Lieutenant

47

Commander Richard E. Bly relieved Cdr.Watson as commanding officer of ZP-32.He remained in this position until he wasrelieved by Lieutenant CommanderRobert E. Huse on June 3, 1944, who wasthe last commanding officer of ZP-32.

The squadron demonstrated thepracticability of using airships in directrescue operations on October 23, when asquadron pilot was lifted from SanFrancisco Bay into the K-107, usingspecial rescue gear. The airship droppeda rubber life raft to Lieutenant JuniorGrade Gordon W. Dooley, who wasfloating in the water in a life jacket.Dooley swam to the raft, inflated it andthen crawled into it. The K-107 made asecond pass trailing a long line. Dooleycaught the line, hooked the harness to itand then was pulled aloft when the liferaft was directly under the airship. Hewas hauled on board by the recovery line,using sand bags as counterweights. Therescue demonstration was covered byphotographers from San Francisconewspapers.

During the war, ZP-32 was tasked witha special mission authorized by the CNOand sponsored by the Office of WarInformation. The K-75 airship had allarmament and confidential equipmentremoved and several additional seatsinstalled. On May 1, 1945, the K-75conducted the first in a series of specialflights in the San Francisco Bay area,carrying civilian and military personnelattending the United Nations (UN)C o n f e r e n c e f o r I n t e r n a t i o n a lOrganization. This organization drew upthe charter for the UN during its meetingsin San Francisco.

ZP-32 conducted 42 special flights formembers of this organization, totaling331 passengers. ZP-32 was alsoassigned special ASW patrol dutiescovering the sea approaches to SanFrancisco for the maintenance of securitywhile the conference was in session.These special patrols lasted from April 20to June 27, 1945.

ZP-32 operated a variety of airshipsduring WW II. By 1943, the squadronwas operating only K-type airships. Inlate 1944, ZP-32 received an L-type forgeneral utility purposes.

Mission requirements for ZP-32 variedfrom primary duties as ASW patrol andescort, to being utilized as a platform formotion picture productions. Thesquadron investigated a large number ofpossible submarine contacts andreported s ight ings, but no enemysubmarines were ever encountered.

ZP-32 conducted various types ofmissions during WW II, including:

searching for missing aircraftand ships;

a s s i s t i n g i n m i l i t a r y a n dmerchant ship work-ups;

48

The establishment ceremony of ZP-32 in hangar 1 at NAS Moffett Field on January 31, 1942.The first airship assigned to the squadron was the old TC-14.

practice in tracking and bombing VHF, IFF and radar calibrationruns on friendly submarines; flights;

torpedo tracking and recovery; aer ia l su rverys o f coas ta ldropping targets and spotting for installations;

ships engaged in surface gunnery iden t i f y ing and repor t i ngexercises; location of incoming tankers to San

searching for mines; Francisco to facilitate preparations forescorting important Pacific Fleet loading or unloading due to the limited

task groups; docking facilities;responding to enemy submarine air-sea rescue patrols; and

sightings; special VIP flights.photography and motion picture A summary of ZP-32’s activities during

work; WW II follows:

ZP-32

Escort Flights

Hours

Patrol Flights

Hours

Other Flights

Hours

Patrol & EscortFlights

Hours

Experimental Flights

Hours

Ferry Flights

Hours

1942

615

4,432

176

981

30

108

27

336

21

33

56

154

1943 1944 1945* Totals

619 698 283 2,215

6,048 7,403 2,952 20,835

1,126 1,599 671 3,572

8,049 12,605 7,355 28,990

59 176 619 884

380 1,046 4,147 5,681

70 325 79 501

687 3,358 958 5,339

15 38

38 64

—

—

74

135

56 93 116 321

202 361 342 1,059

Training Flights

Hours

Night EscortFlights

Hours

Night PatrolFlights

Hours

Night Escort &Patrol Flights

Hours

Ships Escorted

Total Flights

1942

109

358

—

—

11

5

—

—

—

1,035

Total Hours 6,407

*Jan to Aug

28

1,280

2,382

17,098

1944

314

1,237

11

160

1,287

3,254

26,234

1945*

191

936

38

508

2,006

17,325

Totals

1,027

4,197

4

41

21

244

38

543

3,075

8,657

67,064

A composite photo of the variousairships assigned to ZP-32 during WW II.

W ith the end of WW II, missionrequirements for ZP-32 were reduced.On October 6, 1945, CNO issued adirective for its disestablishment.Preparing to stand down, the squadronp a r t i c i p a t e d i n s e v e r a l s p e c i a loperations. On October 15, five of ZP-32’s K-ships conducted observationflights for members of the press coveringthe Third Fleet entering San FranciscoBay. From October 16-19, flights wereconducted using public address systemsto welcome home returning units fromthe Pacific. On November 19, 1945, ZP-32 was disestablished.

ZP-41 in South America

LTA operations on the Atlantic coastwere far more active and covered a muchlarger area in comparison to the Pacificcoast. The area included the coastalwaters of the U.S.; the Caribbean; theGulf of Mexico; the waters off SouthAmerica from Colombia to and includingBrazil; the Straits of Gibraltar; andportions of the western part of the

49

Mediterranean Sea.In the South Atlantic, ZP-41 was the

first blimp squadron to be assigned toBrazil. It had been established as ZP-52on June 15, 1943, at NAS Lakehurst,with Lieutenant Commander Daniel M.E n t l e r , J r . , a s i t s f i r s t c o m m a n d i n gofficer. The squadron was scheduled tobe transferred to Brazil when facilit iesbecame available.

On July 15, in line with the generalreorganizat ion o f L T A , Z P - 5 2 w a sredesignated ZP-41. While at Lakehurst,ZP-41’s complement was assembledfrom other units. The squadron’s firstairship, K-84, conducted its first flight onAugust 12. K-84 began her ferry fl ightfrom Lakehurst to Brazil on September10, 1943. En route she stopped at NASGlynco, Richmond, Guantanamo Bay,San Juan, Edinburgh Fie ld, Tr in idad,Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, Amapa andfinally Lgarape Assu, Brazil.

On September 26, during the last stageof K-84’s fl ight from Amapa to lgarapeAssu, she became the first non-rigid tocross the equator. K-84 continued on toFortaleza, Brazi l , w h e r e t e m p o r a r yheadquarters were established. In Bra-z i l , t h i s b a s e w a s t h e n e a r e s t t ocompletion. Immediately after the K-84landed at Fortaleza on September 27,plans were made for a rigorous training

p r o g r a m a l o n g w i t h t h e a s s i g n e dmissions.

Z P - 4 1 b e g a n i t s f i r s t A S W p a t r o lmission on the morning of September 28,returning to base in the late afternoon.F l i gh t c rews t hen changed and t heairship took off again, late in the evening,for her first night patrol. It was a vigorousbeginning.

During the month of October, ZP-41conducted daily operations. Two moreairships, K-88 and 90, arrived to assistthe squadron in i ts pat ro l dut ies. ByNovember, m i s s i o n s w e r e rout inelycarried out by ZP-41’s airships. When nooperat ional missions were assigned,training flights were conducted includingbombing drills, using practice bombs onwooden land targets of the size andshape of a submarines’s pressure hull;radio navigation practice; and handlingmaneuvers; as well as landings under theunique conditions of wind and superheatprevalent in South America.

On January 3, 1944, ZP-41 moved itsheadquarters from Fortaleza to Sao Luizand, on May 1, Lieutenant CommanderJohn J. McLendon relieved Lt.Cdr. Entleras commanding of f icer . Dur ing thesquadron’s operations in Brazil, it wasengaged pr imar i ly in ASW patro l andescor t dut ies, and a i r /sea and jungles e a r c h a n d r e s c u e m i s s i o n s . T h e

A ZP-41 K-ship moored at Sao Luiz, during WW II.

ZP-41 K-ships at Sao Luiz, Brazil. Note theportable stick mast in the foreground.

squadron did not have any activeencounters with enemy submarinesduring the war. ZP-41’s history recordsits numerous successes in rescuemissions, although the squadron hadmore than four times as many hours onASW patrol and escort missions. Its ASWpatrol and escort mission was obviously

Escort Flights

Hours

Patrol Flights

Hours

Other Flights

Hours

Ferry Flights

Hours

Training Flights

Hours

Night Escort Flights

Hours

Night Patrol Flights

Hours

Airships Assigned

Flight Hours Per Ship

Airship on the Line

Flight Hours Per Ship

Total Flights

Total Hours

Ships Escorted

*Jan to 15 May

successful even though there were nos i g h t i n g s o r a t t a c k s o n e n e m ysubmarines. This is substantiated by thefact that none of the ships escorted by ZP-41 were attacked or sunk.

In March 1945, a CNO dispatchordered the withdrawal of ZP-42, theother blimp squadron in Brazil. This leftZP-41 as the only blimp squadronoperating in the South Atlantic. As thewar in Europe drew to a close, ZP-41’soperations in April consisted primarily ofASW sweeps of shipping lanes. Whenthe war ended in May, the squadron’smission was altered to one of air/sea andjungle rescue. All ASW operationalsweeps were cancelled on May 15.

1943

72

872

75

803

10

95

42

452

37

331

—

—

—

—

3

233

2

296

236

2,555

628

ZP-41 experienced various changes asother operational units were disbanded.The squadron remained in Brazil after thewar to transfer the squadron’s airshipsand material to the Brazilian government.However, on July 12, 1945, Brazilannounced the termination of its LTAprogram, thereby precluding ZP-41’slend-lease transfer of its equipment.

Despite cancellation of the Brazilianprogram, ZP-41 continued its rescuemission. Operations were limited inAugust and September, with routinetraining as the major activity. In October,the squadron received a dispatchorder ing personnel to prepare fordisestablishment upon being relieved of

1944 1945*

464 62

5,281 520

Totals

598

6,673

45 82 202

400 641 1,844

276 66 352

1,575 492 2,162

286 90 418

2,530 752 3,734

512 150 699

2,294 420 3,045

4

57

—

—

1—

12

1

—

7 4

142 114

4

57

12

—

5 3

180 136

—

—

1,588 450 2,274

12,152 2,827 17,534

4,784 196 5,608

its rescue mission by the U.S. Army. ByNovember 1945, the squadron wasoperating with only one airship, the K-52.Squadron personnel were reduced to twoflight crews and a skeleton ferry crew,with training flights their only activity. OnDecember 28, Lieutenant CommanderJack L. Nolen relieved Lt.Cdr. McLendonas commanding officer of ZP-41. Thesquadron’s last airship, departed SaoLuiz, for NAS Glynco on January 18,1946, the last U.S. airship to leave theSouth American area. On January 31,the squadron was disestablished.

The statistics (lower left) cover ZP-41’soperations while assigned to Brazilduring WW II:

ZP-21 in the Caribbean

The Caribbean Sea was a vital area ofoperation for the U.S. and her Alliesduring the war. The region included theshipping lanes for merchantmen carryingtheir cargo between U.S. Atlantic portsand the ports of the gulf states, Mexico,Central and South America, as well asAfrica and the Pacific. This concentrationof shipping was a major drawing card forsubmarines. Enemy submarines couldenter the deep Straits of Florida and thegulf stream via the Yucatan Channel anddrift noiselessly with the gulf stream,making the area a profitable huntingground.

M iss ion requ i remen ts fo r un i t soperating in the Caribbean included: aircoverage to surface units and convoys;observing and reporting suspiciousvessels; protection of friendly shipping;assistance in rescue work; ASW patrolsand attacks against subs; participation inASW killer groups; assistance in convoyrendezvous work, including delivery ofspecial convoy instructions; aid in layingand clearing minefields; and assistancein various types of utility missions.

The characteristics of the airshipsupported a wide variety of theseservices and ZP-21 was established tohelp combat enemy submarine activity inthe northern and eastern Gulf of Mexico.On November 1, 1942, Airship Squadron21 (later redesignated Blimp Squadron21) was established at NAS Richmond,Fla. Commander Gerald D. Zurmuehlenb e c a m e t h e s q u a d r o n ’ s f i r s tcommanding officer. The squadron hadan inventory of two airships, the K-18and 19. The airships arrived in Octoberand were immediately used for convoye s c o r t w o r k . A d d i t i o n a l l y , d a i l yindoctrination flights were flown toacqua in t c rews w i th the genera ltopography of the areas in which theywould fly ASW patrols.

In order to provide ASW, rescue, escortand utility services in its area ofoperations, ZP-21 established a number

51

Escort Flights

Hours

Patrol Flights

Hours

Other Flights

Hours

Ferry Flights

Hours

Training Flights

Hours

Night Escort Flights

Hours

Night Patrol Flights

Hours

Airships Assigned

Flight Hours Per Ship

Airship on the Line

Flight Hours Per Ship

Total Flights

Total Hours

Ships Escorted

*Jan to 15 May

successful even though there were nos i g h t i n g s o r a t t a c k s o n e n e m ysubmarines. This is substantiated by thefact that none of the ships escorted by ZP-41 were attacked or sunk.

In March 1945, a CNO dispatchordered the withdrawal of ZP-42, theother blimp squadron in Brazil. This leftZP-41 as the only blimp squadronoperating in the South Atlantic. As thewar in Europe drew to a close, ZP-41’soperations in April consisted primarily ofASW sweeps of shipping lanes. Whenthe war ended in May, the squadron’smission was altered to one of air/sea andjungle rescue. All ASW operationalsweeps were cancelled on May 15.

1943

72

872

75

803

10

95

42

452

37

331

—

—

—

—

3

233

2

296

236

2,555

628

ZP-41 experienced various changes asother operational units were disbanded.The squadron remained in Brazil after thewar to transfer the squadron’s airshipsand material to the Brazilian government.However, on July 12, 1945, Brazilannounced the termination of its LTAprogram, thereby precluding ZP-41’slend-lease transfer of its equipment.

Despite cancellation of the Brazilianprogram, ZP-41 continued its rescuemission. Operations were limited inAugust and September, with routinetraining as the major activity. In October,the squadron received a dispatchorder ing personnel to prepare fordisestablishment upon being relieved of

1944 1945*

464 62

5,281 520

Totals

598

6,673

45 82 202

400 641 1,844

276 66 352

1,575 492 2,162

286 90 418

2,530 752 3,734

512 150 699

2,294 420 3,045

4

57

—

—

1—

12

1

—

7 4

142 114

4

57

12

—

5 3

180 136

—

—

1,588 450 2,274

12,152 2,827 17,534

4,784 196 5,608

its rescue mission by the U.S. Army. ByNovember 1945, the squadron wasoperating with only one airship, the K-52.Squadron personnel were reduced to twoflight crews and a skeleton ferry crew,with training flights their only activity. OnDecember 28, Lieutenant CommanderJack L. Nolen relieved Lt.Cdr. McLendonas commanding officer of ZP-41. Thesquadron’s last airship, departed SaoLuiz, for NAS Glynco on January 18,1946, the last U.S. airship to leave theSouth American area. On January 31,the squadron was disestablished.

The statistics (lower left) cover ZP-41’soperations while assigned to Brazilduring WW II:

ZP-21 in the Caribbean

The Caribbean Sea was a vital area ofoperation for the U.S. and her Alliesduring the war. The region included theshipping lanes for merchantmen carryingtheir cargo between U.S. Atlantic portsand the ports of the gulf states, Mexico,Central and South America, as well asAfrica and the Pacific. This concentrationof shipping was a major drawing card forsubmarines. Enemy submarines couldenter the deep Straits of Florida and thegulf stream via the Yucatan Channel anddrift noiselessly with the gulf stream,making the area a profitable huntingground.

M iss ion requ i remen ts fo r un i t soperating in the Caribbean included: aircoverage to surface units and convoys;observing and reporting suspiciousvessels; protection of friendly shipping;assistance in rescue work; ASW patrolsand attacks against subs; participation inASW killer groups; assistance in convoyrendezvous work, including delivery ofspecial convoy instructions; aid in layingand clearing minefields; and assistancein various types of utility missions.

The characteristics of the airshipsupported a wide variety of theseservices and ZP-21 was established tohelp combat enemy submarine activity inthe northern and eastern Gulf of Mexico.On November 1, 1942, Airship Squadron21 (later redesignated Blimp Squadron21) was established at NAS Richmond,Fla. Commander Gerald D. Zurmuehlenb e c a m e t h e s q u a d r o n ’ s f i r s tcommanding officer. The squadron hadan inventory of two airships, the K-18and 19. The airships arrived in Octoberand were immediately used for convoye s c o r t w o r k . A d d i t i o n a l l y , d a i l yindoctrination flights were flown toacqua in t c rews w i th the genera ltopography of the areas in which theywould fly ASW patrols.

In order to provide ASW, rescue, escortand utility services in its area ofoperations, ZP-21 established a number

51

of detachments at advance bases.Throughout the war, the squadron haddetachments located at: Santa Fe and Isleof Pines, Cuba; NAF San Julian, Cuba;NAS Banana River, Fla.; Meacham Field,Key West, Fla.; NAS Houma, La.; SanJuan, Puerto Rico; NAS GuantanamoBay, Cuba; and Chorrera, Panama.

During the first two years of operation,Z P - 2 1 m a r k e d a r e c o r d o f 4 4 2consecutive nights and 730 consecutivedays of flying. These two recordsaccounted for a total of 5,833 flights and65,620.9 hours in the air. The squadron’smission involved escort, patrol, training,rendezvous, ferry and special activities.The services performed by ZP-21 duringthese missions included submarinecontacts and attacks, search and rescueoperations, and various assistance andservices rendered to merchant shipping.

Two months after the squadron wasestablished Lieutenant CommanderAlfred L. Cope assumed command of thesquadron f rom Cdr. Zurmuehlen.Intensive ASW patro l and escortmissions were the daily routine, as wellas search and rescue operation. Therewere also visits by VIPs from Brazil,Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Chile and China.On June 19, 1943, the K-53, while on anight convoy escort patrol, made radarcontact with an object six miles from thenearest ship in the convoy. The pilot ofthe K-53 decided to home in directly onthe contact, but when the target was at adistance of one mile it disappeared fromthe radar screen. A MAD (magneticanomaly detection) search was institutedwith no results. The radar contact wasevaluated as a “probable,” and althoughthe K-53 did not attack the suspectedsubmarine, her presence probably forcedthe submar ine to submerge, thuspreventing it from making an attack onthe convoy.

During WW II, LTA lost only one airshipto enemy action. It occurred during aroutine night patrol on July 18,1943. ZP-21’s K-74 departed NAS Richmond for anevening patrol at 1909. It was a moonlitnight and visibility was excellent. Thedesignated patrol area was off thesoutheast coast of Florida. At 2340 theairship’s radar picked up a contact at arange of eight miles. The crew mannedtheir battle stations and the K-74 headedfor the contact, which was sighted at arange of one-half mile off the port side ofthe airship. It was a surfaced enemy U-boat silhouetted in the moonlight.

The submarine was cruising at 15-18knots and the specific characteristics ofthe conning tower were evident to theairship’s crew. K-74’s pilot, LieutenantN.G. Grills, believed the U-boat was ofthe 740-ton class. In order to keep thesubmarine in view, the K-74 made a turnto starboard in order to circle back aroundthe U-boat. During this maneuver, the K-

52

74 lost sight of the submarine but wasable to locate it again from its wake.

There was no indication that the U-boat had spotted the airship nor did itidentify itself in any way. The decisionwas made to attack, and at 2350, the K-74 began her run against the U-boat,heading straight for the submarine’sstarboard quarter. When K-74 began herattack run, she was at an altitude of 250feet, with a ground speed of 53 knots anda target angle of 30 degrees. As theairship approached the target the U-boatsuddenly made a hard port turn andopened fire with two guns located aft ofthe conning tower.

Gunfire was immediately returned bythe airship.

Until then the crew of K-74 believedthey had not been spotted. The airship’sreturn fire silenced the U-boat’s gunsmomentarily. However, as the K-74approached the submarine, the U-boatfired its heavier-caliber gun. One shotwas fired as the K-74 approached andtwo more after she passed over the U-boat. The U-boat maintained heavymachine gun fire, which bracketed the K-74. The bullets hitting the airship bag

could be heard by the crew. The K-74fired 100 rounds from her .50-caliber gunin less than 31 seconds. Orders weregiven to drop the airship’s depth bombsas she began to cross the U-boat at a 15-degree angle. The bombardier pulled thereleases, but the bombs did not leave theracks. It is believed he pulled the releasehandles to the selective notch in thequadrant. They locked because he failedto keep pressure on the release knobswhich would have permitted movementof the handles to the “salvo” position.

When the airship passed over the U-boat, antiaircraft fire hit her engines. Thestarboard engine caught fire, but it wasquickly extinguished by the mechanic. K-74’s controls failed to respond after thisand the airship began to ascend at a steepangle of attack. There was an attempt togain control by throttling back on the portengine. The elevator wheel appeared tooperate but it did not reduce the steeprate of climb. Rudder control was alsoinoperative. It is believed that the loss ofpressure in the envelope (bag) caused itto sag, forcing the elevators up andmaking the rudder controls slack.

The K-74 began to fall, tail first,

towards the sea. The U-boat had ceasedfiring after the airship was about a half-mile from the submarine. Due to thesteep angle of ascent, the airship’s tailobstructed the view of the submarine. Itis unknown what actions were taken bythe U-boat after it quit firing.

The K-74 hit the water at a 30-degreeangle, stern first, at approximately 2355.The rear of the control car filled rapidlywith water, but all personnel were able tosafely escape the sinking airship.However, they were unable to use the liferaft that was tossed out when the airshiphit the water. After the crash, a holeabout a foot in diameter was seenbetween the nose battens.

Lt . Gr i l ls was able to throw theconfidential folder overboard before heabandoned the airship. Watching theairship, it became apparent the K-74 wasnot going to sink immediately so he swamback to the airship. He entered throughthe elevatorman’s window and found thedeck covered with water and the sectionaft of the mechanic’s panel completelysubmerged. Since the control car wasquickly filling with water, he departedw i t h o u t d e s t r o y i n g t h e s p e c i a l

equipment (radar and MAD gear) ordisarming the bombs. He swam aroundthe airship to rejoin his men, but wasunable to locate them. He stayedalongside the fins of the airship forseveral hours. Then, believing they hadleft on the raft, he decided to swim the36miles to the Florida Keys.

Later that night, the remaining crewmembers returned to the airship. Four ofthe crew used her for buoyancy while theother five remained near the airship. Thetwo groups of crew members in thevicinity of the airship were located at0749 by a J4F assigned to ZP-21. Theaircraft left the survivors and sought outUSS Dahlgren which was in the area.While the men were waiting to berescued, the K-74 finally sank at 0815,the morning of July 19. When she wentunder, her depth bombs detonated, butthe blast did not injure any of the crewmembers. Before Dahlgren arrived topick up the two groups, one man died in ashark attack. Dahlgren picked up the firstgroup at 0945 and the second group at1000. Lt. Grills swam six miles before hewas sighted and rescued at 1930, aftermore than 19 hours in water.

The U-boat, which was identified as U-134 after the war, reported by radio itsencounter and downing of the K-74. U-

Left, the LTA air station at Houma, La., usedby ZP-21 during WW II. Note the uniqueclam-shaped hangar doors, which are on tracks.Below, a ZP-21 K-ship overhead and membersof the native ground handling crew at Santa Fe,Isle of Pines, Cuba, in early 1944.

134’s radio message indicated she hadreceived some damage from the airship’sattack. Her main ballast tank number fiveand diving tank number four had beendamaged, but the U-boat was able tocontinue her patrol. The submarine wasagain attacked later in the day of July 19by aircraft, and received severe damageto her battery. U-134 continued on patrolwhile attempting to make repairs.

On July 19 or 20, the submarine wasdiscovered by fast-moving, land-basedaircraft. Following this incident, theGerman Submarine Command on July29 ordered the U-134 to return forrepairs. En route to her home base, the U-134 ran out of luck and was sunk with allhands lost in the Bay of Biscay in August1943. The data on the U-134’s patrol wasreconstructed from her radio reports bythe German Submarine Command aftershe failed to return to her home port.

Evaluation of the loss of the K-74produced several important conclusions.The airship failed to follow properp r o c e d u r e s b y n o t i m m e d i a t e l ytransmitting a contact report. Doctrinecalled for trailing tactics and not to attackuntil a submarine began to submerge(tactics not to be followed if friendlyshipping was threatened by an attackfrom a submarine). Tactics called for theairship to work as a team with otherantisubmarine units in prosecuting anattack on a submarine. It is suggestedthat the airship failed to follow some ofthe procedures required when an attackwas to be made. Also, K-74 crew

53

members had not been adequatelytrained in the operation of life-savingequipment and survival. This incidentindicated the need for more effectivecombat aircrew training, the need forbetter machine guns, less complicatedbomb release gear on airships, and abetter fuze for the depth bombs.

The debate over the vulnerability of theairships to antiaircraft fire raged on afterthe loss. During the attack, mistakeswere made by both sides. It appears thatif the American crew had made fewererrors, the K-74 may have beensuccessful in sinking the U-boat.March 12, 1944, the M-2 airship landedat NAS Richmond. She was assigned toZP-21, making the squadron the first fleetoperational unit to receive and operatethe new M-type airship. ZP-21 alsoreceived the M-3 and 4 later.

On March 12, 1944, the M-2 airshiplanded at NAS Richmond. She wasassigned to ZP-21, making the squadronthe first fleet operational unit to receiveand operate the new M-type airship. ZP-21 also received the M-3 and 4 later. OnAugust 15, the M-4 conducted the firstnight flight for an M-type airship. BesidesASW patrons and escort duties, the threeM-type airships were utilized in a varity ofother missions while assigned to ZP-21.

Above, VIPs from Saudi Arabia visiting ZP-21 in September 1943. Below, one of the new M-classairships assigned to ZP-21 during WW II. Note the massive size of the control car, which wasalmost three times as large as the K-class control car.

On Apr i l 15 , 1944 , L i eu tenan tCommander Henry C. Spicer became thethird commanding officer of ZP-21 whenhe relieved Cdr. Cope. Lt.Cdr. Spicerremained until February 5, 1945, whenhe was relieved by Commander Jack H.Nahigian.

Special assignments were given to ZP-21 at various periods throughout the war.During November 1944, the squadronflew 16 special missions to assist inclearing a minefield in an area near KeyWest. The CNO had ordered the removalof this field, which was 45 miles long andconsisted of approximately 3,500 mines.ZP-21’s mission was to determine thevalue of MAD on submerged mines andon mines floating on the surface; thevalue of it quickly locating and assistingin the buoying of obstructions in theminefield, such as wrecks, etc; thegeneral value of an airship in detectinggaps in the minesweeping formation byobservation; the airship’s value inshepherding stray mines and assistingsurface craft in locating mines brought tothe surface; to determine the airship’svalue as a mine disposal craft; to providegeneral utility services to speed up andincrease safety of personnel in theoperations; and to establish a standardprocedure that might be used in anyminesweeping operation.

The conclusions reached on ZP-21’sparticipation was that “the airship isextremely valuable to any minesweepingoperations since it increases safety topersonnel, permits a definite check to bekept on mines that are brought to thesurface, can dispose of mines in a muchshorter time and with a much greatereconomy of ammunition than surfacecraft, can provide the officer in chargewith accurate checks on proper stationkeeping on minesweepers to preventholidays, can quickly and accuractelylocate wrecks and assist in buoying them,can provide assistance in innumerableways to the entire surface force.”

Many of ZP-21’s special missions werephotographic in nature. Flights wereconducted to make motion picturetraining films and for experimentalr e s e a r c h . O n e u n i t o f Z P - 2 1photographed smoke screen exper-iments being conducted by surfacevessels. On May 22, 1945, after thecessation of hostilities in Europe, thesquadron ’s p r imary m iss ion waschanged from ASW patrol and escort toutility and air/sea rescue. The next dayall routine patrols were discontinued. ZP-21 was directed to fly only specialmissions as assigned during the summerand fall of 1945.

On October 5, Lieutenant CommanderDonald W. Defay relieved Cdr. Nahigianand became the last commanding officerof the squadron. On November 5, K-93made her last flight for ZP-21. The

Escort Flights

Hours

Patrol Flights

Hours

Other Flights

Hours

Patrol & EscortFlights

Hours

Experimental Flights

Hours

Ferry Flights

Hours

Training Flights

Hours

Night Escort Flights

Hours

Night Patrol Flights

Hours

Night Escort &Patrol Flights

Hours

Airships Assigned

Flight Hours Per Ship

Airships on the Line

Flight Hours Per Ship

Total Flights

Total Hours

Ships Escorted

1942 1943

18 153

253 2,352

57

741

1,566

19,931

2 127

23 1,222

— 71

— 983

— 6

27

12 126

165 1,287

—

—

369

2,448

—

—

51

859

—

—

511

6,211

— 18

— 239

2

295

8

354

2 7

295 396

89

1,183

—

2,998

35,565

3,011

1944 1945* Totals

6 10 187

79 127 2,811

561 128 2,312

6,657 1,556 28,885

199 239 567

1,575 1,835 4,655

32 20 123

422 259 1,664

8

48

—

—

14

75

197 71 406

1,396 602 3,450

883 89

4,625 398

1,341

7,471

22

399

—

—

73

1,258

1,362 332 2,205

19,039 4,727 29,977

55 12 85

830 181 1,250

10 8

267 231

—

8 7

334 254

—

3,325 901 7,313

35,072 9,688 81,508

682 98 3,791

55

squadron was officially disestablished onNovember 14.

ZP-14 in the Atlantic andEurope

Airship Squadron 14 (later BlimpSquadron 14) was established at NASWeeksville, N.C., on June 1, 1942, thethird airship squadron to be establisheda f te r t he war began . L ieu tenan tCommander D. J. Weintraub became itsfirst commanding officer. The squadronbegan operations with the airship K-8which had arrived from NAS Lakehurstj u s t b e f o r e t h e e s t a b l i s h m e n tceremonies.

Patrols by ZP-14’s airship were initiallyconducted from the Coast Guard Station

at Elizabeth City, N.C., utilizing anexpeditionary mast (stick mast). Thepatrols continued from the Coast Guardstation until the landing facilities atWeeksville were completed on June 8,1942. The squadron was involved inextensive ASW activity during its firstmonth of operations. The pace continuedduring the summer and fall. NumerousMAD contacts were made by thesquadron’s airships and many depthbombs were dropped on suspectedtargets.

On November 4, the squadron movedin to hanga r number one a t NASWeeksville, and on November 13,Lieutenant Commander W. A. Cockellassumed command. He served untilrelieved by Lieutenant Commander M. F.

D. Flaherty on July 17, 1943. Patrols andrescue missions were routine for ZP-14during the rest of the year and into thespring of 1944. Lieutenant CommanderH. B. Van Gorder assumed command onApril 15, but he relinquished commandon May 22 to Commander E. J. Sullivan.

Preparations for the squadron todeploy overseas began. ZP-14 wasdetached from NAS Weeksville andreported to Commander Fleet Airships,Atlantic for orders and eventual dutyunde r t he ope ra t i ona l con t ro l o fCommander Eighth Fleet. This was theend of ZP-14’s operations stateside andthe beginning of its tour in Africa andEurope. Operational statistics for thesquadron while it was assigned to NASWeeksville are as follows:

The K-114 and K-89 arrive at NAS Port Lyautey, Morocco, after a ferry flight across the Atlantic Ocean. These airships were assigned to ZP-14,operating in the Mediterranean Sea during WW II.

Escort Flights

Hours

Patrol Flights

Hours

Other Flights

Hours

Patrol & EscortFlights

Hours

Ferry Flights

Hours

Training Flights

Hours

Night Patrol Flights

Hours

Night Escort &Patrol Flights

Hours

Airships Assigned

Flight Hours Per Ship

Airships on the Line

Flight Hours Per Ship

Total Flights

Total Hours

Ships Escorted

26

396

169

2,077

17

128

354

4,230

—

The transfer of ZP-14 to its new home ferry facilities in the Azores and aport at NAS Port Lyautey in French permanent LTA base in Morocco. TheyMorocco was an involved process. It arrived in the Azores on May 24, and 10progressed rapidly even though blimp m e m b e r s o f t h e a d v a n c e p a r t ysquadrons were generally considered not disembarked to set up a temporary ferryvery mobile. Four combat crews and a station with two expeditionary masts.maintenance group made up the advance The ship continued on to Casablancadetachment that departed Norfolk on with the rest of the team. On May 27,May 17, 1944, aboard USS Rehoboth they arrived at Craw Field north of Port(AVP-50). Their mission was to set up Lyautey and began preparing the field for

34

498

—

—

60

894

761 306 1,236

11,054 4,127 17,258

72 33 109

528 230 779

309 165 577

4,674 2,260 8,338

18 6

168 51

41

347

426 263 724

2,892 1,292 4,385

46 1 47

629 15 644

26 1 27

433 10 443

6 7

267 203

—

—

6 7

282 203

—

—

1,692 775 2,821

20,880 7,987 33,097

3,556 2,854 6,410

*Jan to 22 May

airship operations.ZP-14, with six K-type airships and

specially designated personnel, officiallydetached from the NAS on May 22. Theremaining personnel and airships thath a d b e e n p a r t o f Z P - 1 4 w e r eredesignated ZP-24 Detachment 1 andremained at NAS Weeksville. Theremainder of the squadron other thanthose involved in ferrying the airships,departed for Morocco on USS MissionBay (CVE-59) on May 28. That same daythe first two ZP-14 airships, K-123 and130, began their transatlantic ferry flightfrom NAS South Weymouth, headed forA r g e n t i a , N e w f o u n d l a n d . T h e ycompleted the first leg of the journey onMay 29, arriving at Argentia. The twoairships left the next day for the Azores,arriving on May 31. The final leg of thejourney brought the airships into PortLyautey on June 1. This was the firsttransatlantic crossing by a non-rigidairship.

The squadron began preparations forimmediate operations following thearrival of the K-123 and 130. The primarymission of ZP-14 was to provide a MADbarrier at night in the Straits of Gibraltar.Other duties included escorting convoys,searching for survivors of downedaircraft, utility flights to calibrate radioequipment and other miscellaneousactivities. Daylight MAD patrols weremaintained by VPB-63 but, because ofthe low al t i tude required in theseoperations, the patrol squadron wasunable to make the flights at night. Inorder to maintain a 24-hour barrieracross the Straits, ZP-14 was called in tofly the low-level night MAD flights. Thesquadron’s first flight was made two daysafter the airship’s arrived. It was atraining flight using K-123.

Operational patrols of the Straits didno t beg in un t i l June 6 , a f te r a l lc o m m a n d s w e r e b r i e f e d o n t h eemployment of airships in the Gibraltararea. ZP-14 flew two airships on patrolfor the first time the night of June 10.Initially, the airships were flown underdarkened conditions, using no runninglights. The two airships passed within1,000 yards of each other using radar fornavigation to avoid a collision. This ledthe British to issue an order permittingZP-14’s airships to use their runninglights when two or more airships wereoperating in the Straits at night.

On June 15, the second group ofairships, the K-109 and 134, completedtheir ferry flight to Morocco. The last twoZP-14 airships, K-101 and 112, arrivedon July 1, bringing the squadron’s totalcomplement of airships to six.

Bar r ie r f l i gh ts over the S t ra i t sgenerally included takeoff from NAS PortLyautey at 1800 and arrival at about2000. Maintaining a patrol altitude of100 feet, the airship would be on station

57

until about 0630 and then return to thebase around 0830, making the averagepatrol about 15 hours long.

Because of the long hours on patrol,the crew of the airship included fourpilots and six enlisted men. The hazardsof constant low-altitude flying werereduced by changing personnel everyhour. Radar was used to keep the airshipon her designated course between PointBartolomo, Spain, and Point Malabata,Morocco.

Night ly operat ional patrols weremaintained by ZP-14 from June 6 toOctober 2, 1944. On October 3, theairships could not take off due toinclement weather. They had been onstation for 119 days before weatherforced a break in their operations,although the squadron’s nightly patrolshad been cut short on several occasions.On June 19, 1944, the two airships onpatrol left the Straits and headed out overthe Atlantic after being notified by theBritish at Gibraltar of the approach ofenemy aircraft. This occurred severaltimes during the first six weeks ofoperations by the squadron.

On July 2, the airships on patrolregistered several MAD signals. Contactbombs were dropped, having negativeresults. During the airships’ MAD barrierpatrols, intelligence reports indicatedt h a t i t w a s u n l i k e l y a n y e n e m ysubmarines had attempted to enter theMediterranean via the Straits. To verifyand emphasize the success of thesepatrols, various exercises wereconducted with British, Italian andF r e n c h s u b m a r i n e s t o t e s t t h eprocedures and tactics used by theairships and PBYs. A mobile mast was setup at Gibraltar to serve as an emergencylanding field for ZP-14’s airships. Thiswas particularly important during periodswhen NAS Port Lyautey was engulfed inmorning fogs. It also provided an airshipreturning from an all-night patrol with analternate place to land. On June 18, theK-112 successfully landed and moored tothe portable mast at Gibraltar. This wasthe first landing of an American airship inEurope since WW I and the first landingever of an American-built airship inEurope.

Rou t i ne pa t ro l m iss ions wereoccasionally supplemented by duties asconvoy escort. The squadron’s firstconvoy escort mission was flown on June26 from NAS Port Lyautey. Other utilitymissions were assigned to ZP-14 but onSeptember 14, a major change in itsmission requirements began to takeshape. Two of ZP-14’s combat air crewsand a portable stick mast were flown toCuers, France, in an R5D to establishairship facilities in anticipation of jointoperations between an airship andsurface craft for minesweeping. The K-112 arrived at Cuers on September 17

58

and began to conduct experimental minespotting and plotting on September 20.The airfield at Cuers was still busyoperating British Spitfires flying strafingmissions. Toulon, 11 miles southwest ofCuers, had been liberated only 18 daysbefore the arrival of ZP-14’s advanceteam.

The K-112 conducted mine searches inthe Gulfs of Juan and Napoule whichwere about 25 miles from the front.Occasionally, German reconnaissanceaircraft would fly over the air station. Theslow speed of the airship and theunobstructed view of the water made theblimp an ideal platform to spot and plotminefields. A dispatch from CommanderEighth Fleet on September 29 indicatedthe experiment in mine spotting, usingairships, was successful and thatairships were better suited to the missionthan airplanes.

Actual minesweeping operations wereconduc ted w i th su r face vesse lsbeginning on October 13. After two daysof minesweeping, the joint operationbetween airship and surface vessels wassuccessful and the minef ie ld wascleared. This was the beginning of ZP-14’s minesweeping operations in theMediterranean Sea.

On October 19, 1944, LieutenantCommander F.S. Rixey relieved Cdr.Sullivan as commanding officer of ZP-14.In the latter part of October, ZP-14 wasordered to conduct minesweepingoperations in the waters off Tunisia. Astick mast was flown from NAS PortLyautey to Sidi Ahmed Field near Bizerte,Tunisia, in early November.

On November 3, K-109 flew fromCuers, France to Bizerte, and carried onminesweeping operations there for twoweeks. During those two weeks, a newbase of operation was being set up atCagliari on the island of Sardinia. Whenminesweeping in Tunisian waters wascompleted, the K-109 was flown toSardinia and began operating fromCag l i a r i on November 21 , 1944 .Numerous plotting and minesweepingoperations were conducted by ZP-14 inthe waters surrounding Sardinia. At thesame time, barrier patrols continued inthe Straits.

The airships at NAS Port Lyautey werealso assigned escort, photographic andcalibration missions. In early February1945, the K-112 departed NAS PortLyautey and escorted the U.S. navalconvoy carrying President Roosvelt to theYalta Conference. The airship remainedwith the convoy until it had passedBizerte, Tunisia. In late February, the K-109 acted as escort for the President onhis return voyage from the Crimea.

In March 1945, due to increased U-boat activity, the two airships operatingminesweeping missions at Cuers andCagliari were recalled to NAS Port

Lyautey, in order to increase the numberof daylight convoy missions supported byZP-14. The squadron continued its ASWmissions until the war ended in Europe.Its last ASW mission was flown on June6, 1945, when the squadron escorted aconvoy of 55 ships exactly one year fromthe date it commenced its operationsfrom NAS Port Lyautey.

ZP-14 had served almost a year inEurope with only six airships. Several ofthe airships had sustained damage butthe squadron’s personnel were alwaysable to place them back in operation. OnMarch 26, 1945, the K-109, moored atNAS Port Lyautey, was caught in aunexpected violent whirlwind and tornfrom her mast. The airship caught fireand was completely destroyed. In lateMarch, the CNO ordered two moreairships to be ferried to NAS Port Lyauteyfor ZP-14.

On April 28, 1945, the K-89 and K-114departed NAS Weeksville on the first legof their transatlantic crossing en route toBermuda. From Bermuda, they flew tothe Azores and then on to NAS PortLyautey, arriving there on May 1.

With the end of the war in Europe, ZP-14’s primary mission shifted from ASWpatrol and escort to minesweeping,although it still carried out utility andsearch and rescue flights. From March1945 to the end of hostilities, ZP-14 hadairships flying minesweeping missionsfrom Cuers, France; Pisa, Italy; Cagliari,

Above, a rare example of “nose art” on anairship. This airship was assigned to ZP-14and used in mining operations in theMediterranean.

Right, ZP-14’s K-112 became the first U.S.-built airship to land on the continent ofEurope when it touched down at Gibraltaron July 18, 1944.

A K-ship provides escort services to a convoy in the Atlantic.

Sardinia; and Littorio Field in Rome, Italy.A f te r t he f i gh t i ng ended , ZP-14continued its minesweeeping fromCuers, France; Lido, Italy; the island ofMalta; and Pisa, Itlay. ZP-14 continuedminesweeping during October 1945.

On October 17, Commander R.B.Bre t land re l ieved Cdr . R ixey ascommanding officer of ZP-14, at a timewhen the disposition of ZP-14 was still inquestion. The CNO had previously issueda direct ive author iz ing cont inuedoperations into January 1946, when thesquadron was to be disestablished. InNovember 1945, Commander NavalF o r c e s N o r t h A f r i c a n W a t e r s ,Mediterranean Zone Mine ClearanceBoard and Commander i n Ch ie fMediterranean (a British command)strongly recommended that ZP-14

continue its minesweeping operations.On November 15, the CNO ordered ZP-14t o g o o n w i t h p r e p a r a t i o n s f o rdisestablishment because of personneland material cutbacks resulting fromgeneral demobilization. The advancebases continued to fly operationalmissions until the last airship was readyfor deflation. On December 15, 1945, ZP-14’s airship K-114 was the last to bedeflated. The majority of the squadrons’personnel departed from Marseilles onDecember 22, on board USS Monticelloand arrived in New York on January 1,1946.

ZP-14 had made a s ign i f i can tcontribution to the war effort in Europe.T h e s q u a d r o n w a s o f f i c i a l l ydisestablished at NAS Lakehurst onJanuary 22.

ZP-12 Operations

LTA’s role during WW II was an activeone right up to the cessation of hostilities.ZP-12, the first airship squadron to beestabl ished af ter the war began,discharged LTA’s mission to the very end.Two of her airships, K-16 and 58,departed NAS Lakehurst on May 6, 1945,on a special MAD patrol. They were insearch of an enemy submarine believedto be in an area east of Long Island, N.Y.By 0540, K-16 was in the area where SSBlack Point had been torpedoed 12 hoursearlier. The destroyer USS Ericssondirected the airship to make a MADsearch of the area where several navalships had made attacks on a submarine.

Strong MAD signals were received by

Sardinia; and Littorio Field in Rome, Italy.A f te r t he f i gh t i ng ended , ZP-14continued its minesweeeping fromCuers, France; Lido, Italy; the island ofMalta; and Pisa, Itlay. ZP-14 continuedminesweeping during October 1945.

On October 17, Commander R.B.Bre t land re l ieved Cdr . R ixey ascommanding officer of ZP-14, at a timewhen the disposition of ZP-14 was still inquestion. The CNO had previously issueda direct ive author iz ing cont inuedoperations into January 1946, when thesquadron was to be disestablished. InNovember 1945, Commander NavalF o r c e s N o r t h A f r i c a n W a t e r s ,Mediterranean Zone Mine ClearanceBoard and Commander i n Ch ie fMediterranean (a British command)strongly recommended that ZP-14

continue its minesweeping operations.On November 15, the CNO ordered ZP-14t o g o o n w i t h p r e p a r a t i o n s f o rdisestablishment because of personneland material cutbacks resulting fromgeneral demobilization. The advancebases continued to fly operationalmissions until the last airship was readyfor deflation. On December 15, 1945, ZP-14’s airship K-114 was the last to bedeflated. The majority of the squadrons’personnel departed from Marseilles onDecember 22, on board USS Monticelloand arrived in New York on January 1,1946.

ZP-14 had made a s ign i f i can tcontribution to the war effort in Europe.T h e s q u a d r o n w a s o f f i c i a l l ydisestablished at NAS Lakehurst onJanuary 22.

ZP-12 Operations

LTA’s role during WW II was an activeone right up to the cessation of hostilities.ZP-12, the first airship squadron to beestabl ished af ter the war began,discharged LTA’s mission to the very end.Two of her airships, K-16 and 58,departed NAS Lakehurst on May 6, 1945,on a special MAD patrol. They were insearch of an enemy submarine believedto be in an area east of Long Island, N.Y.By 0540, K-16 was in the area where SSBlack Point had been torpedoed 12 hoursearlier. The destroyer USS Ericssondirected the airship to make a MADsearch of the area where several navalships had made attacks on a submarine.

Strong MAD signals were received by

the K-16 and marked with dye markers.The third signal was also marked with asmoke float. K-16 informed Ericsson thatthe target was stationary. A few minuteslater USS Atherton (DE-169) made adepth charge attack on the target.

For the next 20 minutes a total of fourattacks were made on the target by thenaval ships in the area. K-16 was thenasked to reestablish contact with thetarget. She again conducted MADsweeps and the target was once againmarked and determined to be stationary.Another attack was delivered, this onefrom Ericsson. Following this, K-16sighted small patches of oil and airbubbles coming to the surface a fewhundred yards from the estimatedposition of the contact. She dropped asonobuoy on the bubbles and heard

rhythmic hammering on a metal surfacewhich was interrupted periodically. K-16and 58, which was also on the scene,were listening to the sonobuoy. As theapproaching surface ship’s noise beganto drown out the transmissions, a longshriek was heard. K-16 than made abombing run at 150 feet on the area ofrising bubbles, and dropped four rocketbombs. They exploded approximatelythree seconds after entering the water,bringing debris to the surface.

K-58 then made five MAD passes overthe target and marked the contacts withdyes and smoke floats. She followed upwith a bombing run, dropping two rocketbombs with contact fuses. More irregularshaped pieces of cork came to the surfacefol lowing this at tack. K-16 againestablished contact and the naval ships

made their final attack on the target. K-16directed the boats to the debris and itemsrecovered included a German officer’scap, an abandon ship kit, two Germanmumson lungs, one Captain’s life float,five other life floats and a piece of charttable.

When the MAD operators on the K-16and 58 indicated that the large metalobject was on the bottom and stationary,the airships were directed to make nofurther attacks. ZP-12’s airships and thesurface vessels, operating jointly, hadsuccessfully carried out their missionand sank a German U-boat , la teridentified as U-853. The K-58 returned toNAS Lakehurst and the K-16 proceededon another patrol. This was one of the lastGerman U-boats sunk by Americanforces before the war ended.

Above, ZP-14 K-ship began operations at Cuers, France, shortly after the Germans were forced from the base. In the foreground is a Spitfire.There were three Spitfire squadrons flying strafing missions from Cuers when the K-112 arrived. The hangars in the background were used byFrench LTA units in the early 1920s. Left, ZP-14’s K-101 while conducting mining operations in the Ligurian Sea, operated out ofPisa, Italy.

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XIII. Final LTA Operations in WW IIand the Amazing Statistics They

Compiled

During WW II, the LTA fleet evolvedfrom a mere handful of airships to aninventory more than 15 times as large asthat in 1941. The buildup of the airshipfleet was supported by a massiveincrease in LTA personnel strength.Statistics during WW II are impressive.The records set by LTA during WW Icontinued into WWII. No convoy escortedby non-rigid airships was successfullyattacked by an enemy submarine. Airshipsquadrons (blimp squadrons) escortedmore than 80,000 ships. The statisticaldata was compiled from the squadronsand the operational commands. It coverst h e A t l a n t i c a n d P a c i f i c F l e e t s ’operational commands, but does notinclude ZJ-1 since it was not part of theoperational command system; nor does itinclude the 280,000 hours flown by thetraining airships assigned to NAS MoffettField and Lakehurst. Dates representingwhen the blimp squadrons discontinuedtheir wartime ASW operations areapproximate. Statistics for the AtlanticFleet are as of May 15, 1945, and for thePacific Fleet, September 1.

The following is a summary of LTAactivities during WW II:

Yearly Flight Totals

Atlantic

Pacific

Combined

Atlantic

Pacific

Combined

Atlantic

Pacific

Combined

1942 1943 1944

1,544 12,233 19,447

1,073 5,313 8,112

2,617 17,546 27,559

Yearly Hour Totals

20,088 135,997 183,731

6,763 43,991 69,089

26,851 179,988 252,821

Yearly Ship Escort Data

— 26,966 36,485

14 3,023 4,574

14 29,989 41,059

1945 Total

4,330 37,554

5,658 20,156

9,988 57,710

38,420 378,236

47,446 167,289

85,867 545,527

6,857 70,308*

2,119 9,730*

8,976 80,038

*These totals include only those ships known to have received air ship escort. Figures for 1942 are not availablealthough it is estimated that 8,000 vessels were escorted by blimps during that year in the Atlantic and 1,500vessels in the Pacific.

ZP-12 and 21 were the most active requirements for many of the airship time after to assist in various utilityAtlantic Fleet airship squadrons. ZP-21 squadrons changed from ASW and missions.o p e r a t e d e v e r y d a y f r o m i t s escort to search and rescue and The following is a list of theestablishment on November 1, 1942, to minesweeping. Some were disestab- establishment and disestablishmentthe termination of statistical collection. lished before the close of the war, while dates for the various LTA organizationsThe squadron flew 926 consecutive day others continued operating for a short as of October 1, 1946:and 454 consecutive night operations. Itsnight operations were interrupted brieflyby a tropical hurricane from October 17 to19, 1944. The squadron resumed nightflying totaling 661 nights out of 664. InJune 1943, each of ZP-12’s eightairships was flying an average of 12.8hours daily.

In the Pacific Fleet, ZP-32 was the mostactive squadron, reaching its peakoperating period in May 1943 when itwas flying an average of 11.8 hours perday. LTA had grown from one operationalsquadron on January 2, 1942, to 14 andone utility squadron at the pinnacle ofLTA operations during WW II. Detailsf rom th is war shows the greatestexpansion and operational involvementof LTA in the history of the world. Thismassive fleet of airships and theirrecords have not been duplicated sincethe war.

The close of WW II resulted in a changeof mission requirements for the LTAstations and airship squadrons. Many ofthe bases were made available for use byHTA, and others were placed in acaretaker status. The primary mission

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Operational Flights

Atlantic: 22,155

Pacific: 13,800

Combined: 35,955

Type

Operational Flight HoursAverage Length ofOperational Flights*

Atlantic: 279,211 Atlantic: 12 hrs.Atlantic: 12 hrs.

Pacific: 133,258Pacific: 133,258 Pacific: 9 hrs.Pacific: 9 hrs.

Combined: 412,469Combined: 412,469 Combined: 11 hrs.Combined: 11 hrs.

*This excludes training, experimental, utility, ferryand other non-military flights.and other non-military flights.

Lives lost

No.

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11

2

Airship Losses

Causes No. Lost

design 13

material 1

enemy action 1

undetermined 1

personnel 21failures

as a result of airship losses. 72

XIV. Post WW II Developmentsand Operations

By the spring of 1946, the LTAorganizat ion had been drast ical lyreduced as a result of the all-out effort todemobilize. NAS Lakehurst continued toremain the center of LTA activities. TheChief of Naval Airship Training andExperimentation based at the NAS wasthe senior LTA command. Originallyestablished in May 1943 as the NavalAirship Training Command, it wasredesignated on October 6, as the NavalAirship Training and ExperimentalCommand. Its mission covered airshiptraining for officers, cadets and enlistedpersonnel as well as experimentation,flight testing and developing airships.This command continued to play animportant role in LTA through the latterpart of the 1940s and into the mid-1950s.In 1955, it ceased to exist as a separatecommand.

The reduction in LTA following the warleft ZP-12 at NAS Lakehurst and ZP-31 atNAS Santa Ana as the only activesquadrons. A detachment of ZP-31continued at NAS Moffett Field.

On November 15, 1946, ZP-12 wasredesignated ZP-2 and ZP-31 became ZP-1. In the summer of 1947, ZP-1 made a

Fleet Airship Wing 4:

Fleet Airship Wing 5:

BLPHRD 1 Established 15 Jul 1943

BLPHRD 2

ZP-41

ZP-42

ZP-51

ZP-52

Blimp Headquarters Squadrons

A composite photo showingthe types of airships

used by the Navyduring WW II.

Established 2 Aug 1943Disestablished 15 Jul 1945

Established 2 Aug 1943Disestablished 11 Dec 1944

BLIMPHEDRONS

Disestablished 13 Dec 1945

Established 15 Jul 1943Disestablished 16 Jun 1945

Established as ZP-52 15 Jun 1943Redesignated ZP-41 15 Jul 1943Disestablished 31 Jan 1946

Established 1 Sep 1943Disestablished 9 Jun 1945

Established 10 Feb 1943Disestablished 20 Dec 1944

See ZP-41

Blimp Utility SquadronBLIMPUTRON

EstablishedDisestablished

1 Feb 19449 Jun 1945

home port and fleet change from NASSanta Ana in the Pacific Fleet to NASWeeksville in the Atlantic. The changewas due to the reduction of NAS SantaAna to a maintenance status and theelimination of the ZP overhaul mission atNAS Moffett Field. Mission requirementsfor the two ZP squadrons in the post-WWII 1940s were similar to their duties inWW II. Their missions included generaltraining, utility, search and rescue, ferryand test f l ights, observat ion andphotography, radar calibration, gunneryand bombing practice, and ASW. Theemphasis was on ASW and operationswith the “Hunter-Killer Group” and VPunits.

The evolution of the Hunter-KillerGroup required airship squadrons tooperate closelywith the CVEs used in thisASW concept. Carrier qualifications forZP pilots were routinely required in thelate 1940s and early 1950s. Airship-c a r r i e r l a n d i n g s , r e f u e l i n g a n dreplenishment from carriers and night

opera t i ons w i th ca r r i e rs becamecommonplace for the airship squadrons.

The airship squadrons deployed tovarious areas on the Atlantic coast fortraining and exercises. Many operationswere conducted in the Caribbean.Airships flew from Guantanamo Bay,Cuba, and Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico,for training and exercises and alsooperated directly under Commander AirForce, Atlantic Fleet until January 21,1949. On January 20, 1949, FleetAirship Wing One was established atNAS Lakehurst, and the two operationalairship squadrons reported directly to theairship wing.

The mission of Fleet Airship Wing Onew a s t o p r o v i d e a d m i n i s t r a t i v esupervision of logistic support for ASWoperations; ensure un i fo rm i ty inoperation, training and administration atthe squadron level; and ensure theoperational readiness of the airshipsquadrons. Initially, the wing was dualhatted, since the commander of FASW-1

was also commanding officer of AirshipSquadron 2.

In March 1949, airship and combataircrews assigned to the wing deployedto NAS Guantanamo Bay to participate ina fleet exercise. The exercise wasdesigned to incorporate the LTA searchand at tack uni ts in a coordinatedoperation with other units of the SecondFleet. LTA’s main objectives were toconduct type training under a task forcecommander and to advance ASW combatreadiness, as well as evaluate ASWoperating techniques with the fleet. Thisoperation was the first of its typeundertaken by airships. Long-range andsustained flights were conducted duringthe exercise, using the carrier USS Sicily(CVE-118) as a mob i l e base fo rreplenishment and crew changes.

I n A u g u s t 1 9 4 9 , F A S W - 1 w a stransferred from NAS Lakehurst to NASWeeksville, and became a separatecommand. Its mission remained thesame throughout the 1950s and into the

Left, a K-class, airship practices a landing aboard the escort carrier Mindoro (CVE-120). In thepostwar period, coordinated operations between escort carriers, patrol units and LTA unitswere emphasized as part of the overall ASW approach. Top, the K-69 prepares for a landing onMindoro. Above, a view of a U.S. submarine from the pilot’s compartment of a K-class airship.The photo was taken during an ASW exercise in 1950.

1960s. FASW-1 continued to be home-p o r t e d a t N A F W e e k s v i l l e u n t i lSeptember 3, 1957 , when i t wastransferred back to NAS Lakehurst,where it remained an active unit up to itsdisestablishment on October 31, 1961.

Airship Squadrons 1 and 2, the onlytwo operational squadrons, were veryactive during the latter part of the 1940s.They kept LTA alive by meeting allo p e r a t i o n a l c o m m i t m e n t s a n ddemonstrating the airship’s capabilities.The need for more airship squadrons wass e e n a n d t w o m o r e u n i t s w e r eestablished, ZP-3 on September 28,1950, followed by ZP-4 in May 1951.These four squadrons were the primaryoperating units of the LTA fleet in the1950s . The i r m i ss ion was ASW.However, add i t i ona l du t ies wereassigned, particularly search and rescue,observation and various other utilityfunctions.

LTA developed two new types ofsquad rons i n t he 1950s . A i r sh ipDevelopment Squadron (ZX) 11 wasestablished on May 10,1950, at NAS KeyWest, and Airship Airborne Ear lyWarning Squadron (ZW) 1 on January 3,1956. Lieutenant Commander R. S.Kilcourse was the first commandingofficer of ZX-11. Its mission was tooperationally test and evaluate airshipASW equipment, weapons, systems andother areas that might be adaptable toairship operations. The squadron wasalso responsible for recommendingmethods for the most effective tacticale m p l o y m e n t o f v a r i o u s a i r s h i pequipment.

ZX-11 was under the administrativecontrol of FASW-1, and had a variety ofairships assigned, as well as severalf i x e d - w i n g a i r c r a f t . D u r i n g t h esquadron’s existence, its inventoryincluded modified K-types: ZP2K and 3K,the new ZP4K (later redesignated ZSG-4); M-type: ZPM; and ZPG class airships:ZPG-1, 2 and 2W. ZX-11 was an activeunit for seven and a half years. It wasdisestablished on December 1,1957, thebeginning of the end of LTA in the Navy.The squadron’s personnel and aircraftwere transferred to VX-1.

T h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t o f Z W - 1represented a completely new missionconcept for LTA. The squadron came intob e i n g a t N A S L a k e h u r s t w i t hCommander L. J. Mack as its firstcommanding officer. The initial missionof the squadron was to train personnel,evaluate airborne early warning (AEW)equipment and formulate tactics inpreparation for manning a station in thecontiguous AEW barrier system.

A month after the squadron wasorganized, project flights were begun totest and evaluate the ZPG-2W airship asan AEW vehicle and to determine theeffectiveness of her equipment for use in

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continental and fleet air defense. Theseevaluation flights lasted until September1956, and were followed by an intensivecrew training period to prepare thesquadron for AEW duty.

On March 19, 1957, CommanderWilliam Hartman assumed command ofthe squadron, whose mission waschanged to provid ing al l -weatherairborne early warning services to fleetforces and shore warning nets. AfterAEW exercises and further training inMay and June, the squadron was readyfor full scale operations as part of theAEW barrier system. On July 1, ZW-1was on station as part of the system usingthe ZPG-2W. From November throughMarch 1958, ZW-1 maintained its barriercommitment with only two operationalairships out of the four normally requiredto be available. Each airship operatedover 225 hours monthly during thisperiod, which was considerably morethan the approximate 110 hours permonth for WW II airships.

The squadron’s AEW capability wasincreased with the arrival of its first ZPG-3W Reliance airship on December 18,1959. The ZPG-3W f lew her f i rs toperational mission on the radar barrieron February 20, 1960, and more thandoubled the on station time of thesmaller ZPG-2W. ZW-1 continued toprovide AEW services to the NorthAmerican Defense Command (NORAD)and its system, until AEW services wereno longer required on a continuous basis.On June 1, operational control revertedback to Naval Air Force, Atlantic. Only“special cal l” AEW services wereprovided to NORAD after June 1,

After this change, the squadronconcentrated on ASW training while stillmaintaining its AEW efficiency. ZW-1also rendered special utility services asneeded, and surface surveillance duringrocket testing from NASA Wallops Island,Va., during the summer. It also conductedsafety surveillance for the sea trials of theSSBN submarines.

On January 3, 1961, ZW-1 wasredesignated Airship Squadron (Patrol)(ZP) 1. Increased capabilities and use ofmore modern equipment by the NorthAmerican Air Defense Command hadlessened the need for ZW-1’s services,and its primary mission changed. ZP-1continued to be available for AEWservices but shifted its emphasis to ASWand utility missions. It remained an activesquadron until it was disestablished onOctober 31.

The number of operational squadronsin the post-WW II period was smallcompared to WW II. The lineage for thepost LTA units that existed after the waris as follows:

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A close-up view of the K-125 control car on the deck of USS Sicily (CVE-118) during coordinatedASW exercises with a hunter-killer group.

LTA Unit Lineage for Post-WW II

Naval Airship TrainingCommand

EstablishedRedesignated Naval Airship& Experimental CommandDisestablished

15 May 1943

6 Oct 19431955

Fleet Airship Wing 1 Established 20 Jan 1949Disestablished 31 Oct 1961

ZP-1 Established as ZP-31 1 Oct 1942Redesignated 15 Nov 1946Disestablished 28 Jun 1957

ZP-2 Established as ZP-12 2 Jan 1942Redesignated 15 Nov 1946Disestablished 30 Nov 1959

ZP-3 EstablishedDisestablished

28 Sep 195031 Oct 1961

ZP-4 EstablishedDisestablished

8 May 195128 Jun 1957

ZW-1 EstablishedRedesignatedDisestablished

3 Jan 19563 Jan 196131 Oct 1961

ZW-11 EstablishedDisestablished

10 May 19501 Dec 1957

XV. Airship Types in the PostwarPeriod

The airships employed by the Navyafter WW II included the operating typesused in the war, as well as some modifiedand several new types/classes. The Gand L-types were used briefly in thepostwar period. By 1947 all of the L-typeshad either been sold, stricken or placed instorage. Some of the G-types were still inservice with the Naval Airship Trainingand Experimentation Command in 1947.

During WW II the designations thatapplied to these four airship classes wereZNP-K for the K-types, ZNN-G and ZNN-Lfor G and L-types and ZNP-M for the M-type. In 1947, the Navy’s General Boardmodified the airship designation systemby dropping the “N” which stood for non-rigid. This was done because the boardhad scrapped the rigid airship program.A f t e r t h e “ N ” w a s d r o p p e d , t h edesignations became ZPK, ZTG, ZTL (Twas used for training vice N) and ZPM.These changes were published in April.

The first modernized K-type airshipswere designated ZP2K. On August 7,1951, a ZP2K, equipped for longendurance flights with in-flight refuelingequipment and attachments for pickingup sea water as ballast, was delivered tothe Navy. The second modification to theK-types led to the designation ZP3K. Thefinal configuration of the ZP3K was flownon November 12, 1952, and accepted atNAS Lakehurst. The airship was updatedfor ASW operations and was designedespecially for carrier-based operation.There were 30 ZP3Ks.

A new-type airship was ordered fromGoodyear in 1951 under contractnumber 51-657. She was designatedZP4K but was of a different design thanthe original K-type. The new designreflected an increased concern for ASWbecause of the Korean War.

The first one was delivered to the Navyin June 1954, and 14 more eventuallyfollowed with bureau numbers 13191-131926 and 134019-134024. A ZP4Kwas later fitted with a dacron envelopeand flown at Lakehurst.

The follow-on to the ZP4K was a newlydesigned airship designated ZP5K andordered on contract number 52-985 in1952. The first one was delivered in May1955. A unique feature was the inverted“Y” configuration of the tail structure.The Navy received a total of 12 ZP5Kswhich were assigned bureau numbers

Top right, in a reversal of roles, a U.S. submarinegoes to the assistance of an updated K-class

airship that was disabled during an ASWexercise in 1952. Right, while operating with

an escort carrier such as the USS Kula Gulf(CVE-106), airships were capable of

conducting at sea replenishment of stores and fuel.

67

141564-141570, 144239-144241 and146294-146295.

In 1954, a major change occurred inthe designation system for airships. Itwas similar to the system the Navy usedfor its other aircraft. The difference wasthe inclusion of the builder’s initial in theairship’s designation. The changes wereas follows: ZP2K became ZSG-2; ZP3Kbecame ZSG-3; ZP4K-ZSG-4; ZP5K-ZS2G; ZPN-ZPG-1; ZP2N-1 - ZPG-2; andZP2N-1W - ZPG-2W.

One of the characteristics of the Navy’snon-rigid airships over the years hadbeen the letter-class identification of “N”for non-rigid. It is fitting that the story ofthe last airships operated by the Navywere initially given the class designationof “N.”

XVI. LTA Records Set in the 1950s

The story begins with the success ofthe K-class airships in WW II ASWoperations. This diminished the need forthe much improved M-class of the lateWW II period, only four of which werebuilt. Following the war, it was clear thatthe improved versions of the K shipscould handle many LTA tasks. However,with the installation of radar, towedsonar and other new ASW systems, inaddition to the need for greater patrolranges, there was a need for ships largerthan the M-class.

In 1947, the Bureau of Aeronauticsinitiated a design competition for a largerASW airship to incorporate the newrequirements. Goodyear and Douglaswere contenders. The Navy purchasedthe Douglas design, but subsequentarrangements led to Goodyear buildingthe new Nan ship.

Initial go-ahead in 1948 covereddesign engineering, mock-up and aground test propulsion system. TwoWright R-1300-2 air-cooled engines,mounted in the car, drove two reversible-pitch propellers on outriggers, withclutches and transmissions so that eitherengine could drive both propellers, oruse both engines. While this workproceeded, the contract for the ZPN-1prototype was signed. It would be thelargest nonrigid airship built, with an875,000-cubic-foot envelope, a double-deck car with ample provision for the 14-man crew, extensive ASW equipmentand in-flight refueling capability forex tended opera t ions re fue led byaccompanying Navy ships.

In January 1950, the ground test rigwas running, but even this lead wasn’tenough when transmission difficultiesencountered later in the year delayed thef i rst f l ight into 1951. Meanwhi le,production versions were ordered as theZP2N-1, which had many improvements,

68

including a larger envelope of 1,011,000cubic feet.

The ground rig resumed running inearly 1951, with power plant installationin the N-1 in April, and first flight in June.It was soon realized that the ballonetswould have to be replaced because offabric characteristics, but this waspostponed until after the Board ofInspection and Survey (BIS) trials. Late in1950, flight testing was interrupted formodifications, including increased finstrength and reduced control systemfriction.

Early 1952 saw final solution of the findesign problem, with tail surfacesfurther modified for final tests at Akron,followed by June delivery to Lakehurst,and Navy Preliminary Evaluation (NPE) inJ u l y . T h e N P E r e s u l t s w e r edisappointing, particulary in the airship’sperformance and further tests followedto explore specif ic improvements.Meanwhile the first production ZP2N-1was approaching completion and anAEW version of the N-type, the ZWN-1,was begun. Activity came to a halt atGoodyear during a fall strike, and the firstZP2N-1 did not fly until May 1953. By thistime the ZWN-1 had been redesignatedZP2N-1W, a prototype ordered, and firstflight scheduled for September 1954. Itwould feature larger radar antennas

Right, postwar airships, including ZP4Ks(later designated ZSG-4s) and ZP5Ks (laterdesignated ZS2G-1s), in their hangar at NASGlynco, Ga., 1956. The rear left and frontright airships are the ZP5Ks. Below, a newpostwar airship, designated ZP5K (laterredesignated ZSSG-1), operates withUSS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) nearGuantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1956.

inside the envelope than could bemounted externally without excessivedrag.

Lakehurst operations with N-1 andflight testing of the ZPPN-1 at Akroncontinued through spring, summer andinto fall. Mock-up inspection of the -1Wtook place in May. While the flights of N-1 showed the potential of the Nans, theyalso confirmed the need for the largerenvelope, as in the case of the ZP2Ns. InNovember, N-1 was deflated for theb a l l o n e t r e p l a c e m e n t , a n d w a ssubsequently overhauled and rebuiltw i t h a l a rge r 975 ,000 -cub i c - f oo tenvelope.

After a delay to correct a transmissionproblem, the first ZP2N-1 was deliveredto Lakehurst late in the year for Navyt r ia l s . A ba l lone t fa i l u re , due tooverpressurization in January 1954,required corrective action to thepressure system, but the fourth ZP2N-1was delivered that month. Spring sawthe first APS-20B installation in the fifthship, with BIS trials of the new radar atLakehurst. The airships were alsoredesignated at about this time, with theNs becoming ZPGs. The ZP2N-1 and 1Wbecame ZPG-2 and 2W, respectively. Thefirst fully-equipped ZPG-2 was deliveredfrom Akron to the fleet for operationaluse in July.

BIS trials of the ZPG-2 were completedin December, and ZX-11 began extendedoperational trials early in 1955, whileanother ZPG-2 went to Naval AirDevelopment Unit, South Weymouth,Mass . , fo r a l l -wea ther tes ts w i themphasis on extreme winter-weatherconditions. The first flight of the ZPG-2W

In the foreground is the N-1 airship, the prototype for the Navy’s last great series of airships designed for long-range patrol. A K-type airship is inthe background.

69

early in the year coincided with increasedinterest in the use of nonrigid airships aspart of the national early warningne two rk . The ZWG-1 , des i gnedspecifically for this mission, was orderedbut was subsequently replaced by amuch-modified ZPG design as the ZPG-3W. Larger radar antennas wereinstalled inside the 1,516,000-cubic-footenvelope, while the higher-poweredWright R-1820-88 engines werereturned to external nacelles.

With the first ZPG-2W delivered toLakehurst in May, production andoperation of the ZPGs continued,interrupted by a suspension cable failureproblem that resulted in grounding theships for replacement with redesignedcable assemblies during the summer. Byend of the year, the mock-up inspectionof the ZPG-3W had been completed, aswell as first delivery of a ZPG-2W to ZP-3.

Before the ZPG-3W made her firstflight in July 1958, production of the 12

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ZPG-2s and five ZPG-2Ws purchased hadbeen completed and the -2s had set anumber of records for extended-durationf l i g h t s . F o u r Z P G - 3 W s w e r esubsequently delivered, but a fatalaccident to the first one at sea in thesummer of 1960 and a change in earlywarning mission left the ZPG-2s as themajor LTA long-endurance aircraft.

Operations continued into the fall of1961, when all fleet operations wereended. Two research and developmentZ P G - 2 s c o n t i n u e d t h e i r s p e c i a lassignments as a flying wind tunnel andan ASW research laboratory throughAugust 1962, and then all Navy LTAoperations came to an end.

The Navy ’s las t a i rsh ips weresophisticated vehicles and lighter-than-air advocates of the day believed them tobe competitive with other airbornevehicles in the Naval Aviation inventory,particularly in the areas of airborne earlywarning (AEW) and antisubmarine

The moored airship is a ZPG-3W, the largestnon-rigid airship built in the world. It wasthe last type of airship the Navy built beforebringing a close to its LTA era in 1962.Directly above the ZPG-3W is a ZPG-2W.Both of these airships were designed forairborne early warning duties. In thebackground is a postwar K-type airship.

warfare. One of their strong points wasthe ability to remain in the air for longperiods of time. Every opportunity wastaken to demonstrate th is uniquecapability and in the process many newrecords were established.

The first of these was set in May 1954.A ZPG-2 airship under CommanderMarion Eppes departed NAS Lakehurstfor an endurance flight which took hernorth to Nova Scotia, east to Bermudaand then south to Nassau, the CaribbeanSea and the Gulf of Mexico. The airshiplanded at NAS Key West on May 25 with

an elapsed time of 200.1 hours in the air.It was a notable achievement and Cdr.Eppes was awarded the HarmonInternational Trophy for his achievement.

At about this time, the Chief of NavalOperations ordered a series of tests toevaluate the all-weather, continuous-patrol capabilities of the airship. Thesefeatures were of particular concernduring the 1950s because the U.S. wasseeking a reliable, high-endurance AEWplatform which could detect incomingenemy bombers.

Beginning January 14, 1957, acontinuous patrol was maintained for 10days, 200 miles off the coast of NewJersey, by personnel from the Naval AirDevelopment Unit, South Weymouth andA i r s h i p A i r b o r n e E a r l y W a r n i n gSquadron 1.

The weather proved to be the roughestpart of the test. It was the worst the areahad experienced in 35 years. The crewsand their airships dealt with snow,freezing rain, icing, sleet, fog, rain, zerotemperatures and high surface winds.During the patrol , al l mi l i tary andcommercial aircraft were grounded dueto severe weather, but the airships keptgoing and continued their patrolswithout mishap.

W i t h t h e s e t e s t s c o m p l e t e dsuccessfully, the drama involving thefinal phase of the tests, a long-distanceflight, took center ring. The Navy was outto do nothing less than break the long-distance record set by the German rigidairship Graf Zeppelin in 1929, when sheflew nonstop from Friedrichshafen,Germany, to Tokyo, Japan, a distance of6,980 miles, without refueling. Therehad not been a transatlantic airship flightin 12 years.

The long-distance flight had its origins

Above, a view of a ZPG-3W cockpit. The N-series airships were the first non-rigid airships tohave controls similar to those of an airplane. Below, a ZS2G-1 airship operating at NASLakehurst. In the background is a ZPG-2W airborne early warning airship.

A close-up view of a ZPG-3W being prepared forundocking. The triangular-shaped mooring masthad a two-foot-wide center shaft and was sevenstories high.

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in the early fifties when the Navy’s LTAadvocates were struggling to prove thecapabilities and suitability of airshipoperations in a modern and fast-movingNavy. The success of the airship in WW IIhad been eclipsed by the new advancesin fixed-wing aircraft. Thus, it wasthought necessary to demonstrate anewthe capabilities of the airship platform toprove it could perform the duties requiredfor ASW and AEW operations. Theserequirements were accentuated by thegrowing need for a reliable airborneplatform which could operate around theclock in all types of weather.

The crew of the Snow Bird (the name ofthe ZPG-2 airship used in the long-distance flight) was a specially selectedgroup of volunteers. Each man had aspecial talent which would contribute tothe success of the operation. The pilot incommand was Commander Jack R. Hunt,supported by two copilots, CommanderRonald W. Hoel and L ieutenantC o m m a n d e r R o b e r t S . B o w s e r .N a v i g a t o r s f o r t h e f l i g h t w e r eLieutenants Stanley W. Dunton andCharles J. Eadie. Lieutenant John R.Fitzpatrick and Mr. Edgar L. Moore ofGoodyear served as flight engineers.Moore was the only civilian to make theflight. The crew chief was CPO Lee N.Steffen who also doubled as radarmanand radioman. Aerology and photographywork was done by Petty Officer FirstClass William S. Dehn, Jr. Petty OfficerFirst Class Thomas L. Cox and PettyOfficer Second Class James R. Burkettwere the flight mechanics, while PettyOfficer First Class Carl W. Meyer was theelectrician. Petty Officer Second ClassFrancis J. Maxymillion worked with ChiefSteffen as radioman and radarman. PettyOfficer Second Class George A. Locklear,served as rigger and doubled with PettyOfficer First Class Dehn as cooks for theflight. Cdr. Hoel was the commandingofficer of the Naval Air Development Unitat South Weymouth and senior officer onboard the flight, but Cdr. Hunt flew asairship commander. Cdr. Hunt and Lt.Cdr. Bowser were the only two LTA pilotson the flight.

Extensive preparations had been madefor the flight. Fuel consumption wascarefully calculated and graphicallyplotted. Every item taken aboard wascarefully weighed to ensure the ZPG-2airship would be within the weight limitsnecessary for correct fuel consumptionand lift rate. Other problems, such asweather reports and communicationlinks, were meticulously worked out.Tension and excitement brought thecrew to a high pitch of enthusiasm as thehour drew near for takeoff. On Monday,March 4, 1957, at 1832 (EST) Snow Birdlifted off from Naval Air Station, SouthWeymouth for her epic-making flight.

Problems with strong crosswinds wereexperienced on takeoff but they wereovercome and Snow Bird was airborne.Cdrs. Hunt and Hoel and Petty OfficerLocklear had to repair Lt. Eadie’s bunk,which was smashed on takeoff becauseof the weight of equipment stored on it.Aside from this mishap, the first fewhours o f f l i gh t we re p roceed ingaccording to plan.

Snow Bird experienced her secondproblem not more than 600 miles at sea.The airship entered a storm area wheresnow was falling, with a fair amount ofturbulence in the air. The previous threephases of the tests had proven theairship’s capability to withstand badweather and the crew was confident ofher ability to survive without mishap. Theproblem resolved itself as Snow Birdmoved out of the storm area.

It was early morning, March 6, and thelog read, “Lights below...freighter. Radarshows no land...good...there are peaks inthe Azores. “Snow Bird was making goodspeed and, as they neared the Azores, themoun ta inous i s l ands cou ld havepresented a problem. Altitude was 1,000feet, well below the peaks.

The transatlantic flyers were assistedby a wind blowing from the southwestwhich was acting as a tail wind for theairship. The critical decision now waswhether to head southward toward the

easterly trade winds which would helpthem on their return flight. The problemlay in the leg south where they would bebucking a head wind which would slowtheir southerly journey and requiregreater consumption of fuel. The crewgrew more anxious as they awaitedweather reports from Fleet WeatherCentral in Washington, D.C.

Reports for the evening of March 6were not favorable. Nevertheless, SnowBird turned south and attempted toeconomize on fuel with slow enginespeeds. Weather reports on the morningo f t he 7 th con t i nued to ca l l f o runfavorable wind conditions on thisheading. A course change was made andSnow Bird headed east, going to single-engine operation to conserve fuel.

Minor problems began to crop up. Anengine sputtered or the air pressurealarm went off, causing brief periods ofanxiety before each si tuat ion wasrectified. The wind, however, continuedto be the major problem. The voyage hadbeen planned to allow for a moderateconsumption of fuel which would keepSnow Bird in the air for 12 days. If shecontinued to experience head windproblems, there would not be enough forthe return flight. The airship commanderbriefed the crew on the possibility oflanding at Port Lyautey, Morocco, to takeon fuel in keeping with contingency

Members of the Snow Bird crew that set the long-range endurance and distance records for anairship in 1957.

The ZPG-2 Snow Bird as it departed NAS South Weymouth, Mass., on its record-breakingflight in March 1957.

plans. A portable mooring mast had beenstowed aboard Super Constellationwhich was to fly ahead of Snow Bird andbe available at designated landing sites ifneeded. Snow Bird continued eastwardand delayed the decision about landing.Nevertheless the Super Connie wasdirected to fly to Port Lyautey and makecontingency preparations in case theairship had to land.

On the the evening of the 7th, lightswere sighted on the southwest tip ofPortugal. Snow Bird headed south at thispoint toward the Canary and Cape VerdeIslands. One leg of the trip had beencompleted. This in itself was a significantachievement, for an airship had notcrossed the Atlantic since-the days ofWW II. Further, the crossings made byZP-14 in 1944 and 1945 were by way ofthe Azores. Snow B i rd ' s nonstoptransatlantic crossing was the first for anonrigid airship.

The winds along the Portuguese coastwere out of the south but not as strong ashad been encountered further out to sea,and Snow Bird was able to make bettertime. By the morning of the 8th, theairship had passed Casablanca, theweather had improved and conditionslooked better for the return trip. Thedecision was made at this time not toland at Port Lyautey. The log read, ”Nowwe’re committed.” It was the beginningof the long leg home. As they neared theCanary Islands late on the evening of the

8th. the log read, “Good tailwind. Crewhappy.”

On the evening of March 9, after fivedays in the air, Snow Bird passed theCape Verde Islands heading for theCaribbean. It was a long 2,500 miles toPuerto Rico.

Habitability aboard Snow Bird wasproving to be palatable. Morale was highand the close quarters did not appear tobother anyone. Life was very similar towhat might be expected aboard a smallsurface vessel crossing the Atlantic.Even the gentle motion of the control carwas similar to the movement of a smallship. The car was 83 feet long and 11 andone-half feet wide, and was divided intotwo leve l s . The upper deck hadcomfortable bunks and a wardroomequipped with a modern galley. Thelower spaces housed the operational partof the car. This was where all the controlsfor flying the airship, as well as theequipment necessary to perform themission assigned, were located.

The dietary needs of the men had beenan important part of the planning for thejourney. Variety, space requirements andpreserva t ion were a l l taken in toconsideration when food was orderedand brought aboard. It was necessary toset up a ration system to ensure anadequate supply for the entire trip. Thiswas accomplished by placing each day’sration in separate bags. It also preventedany one item from being consumed

ahead of schedule. A total of 1,017pounds of food had been loaded aboardSnow Bird for the flight.

The trip had thus far provided a varietyof diversions. Icebergs had been sightedduring the early part of the journey in thenorthern Atlantic. A large number ofbirds, sharks and whales were always onhand. It was especially exhilarating to seeanother aircraft or a surface vessel comeinto view. It made one think of theexcitement which must have beengenerated in the days of sailing vesselswhen another ship was seen on thehorizon after a long period at sea.

The routine of watches and operationald u t i e s d u r i n g t h e v o y a g e w a saccompanied by good-natured banter. Anentry in the log for March 10 indicatedthat Cdr. Hoel and Lt. Fitzpatrick eachowed a round of beer for inadvertentlyringing the air pressure alarm bell. Infact, a sign was made for them for theirwatch. It read “Welcome to the BellRinger’s Club.”

Aircrewmen load food and supplies aboard theSnow Bird in preparation for its flight.

The camaraderie during the journeyextended to a surprise party held for PODehn in honor of his birthday on March12. PO Locklear put his inventive culinaryskills to work and baked a cake in anelectric frying pan. Candles had not beena priority item for the trip but the problemwas solved when filter-tip cigaretteswere substituted. It was a completesurprise to PO Dehn and the party wasenjoyed by all hands.

Tension and excitement began tomount on March 12. This was the eighthday of the voyage and Snow Bird wasclosing in on the record for continuousnon-refueled fl ight, which was 200hours and 12 minutes aloft. Snow Birdofficially eclipsed this record at 0245(EST) on March 13, and broke a secondrecord later that day. The distance recordestablished by the German airship GrafZeppelin in August 1929 fell when SnowBird passed the 6,980-mile mark in hertricontinental journey.

Snow Bird continued her flight, havingestablished two new world records. OnMarch 15, 1957, at 1844, Snow Birdlanded at NAS Key West. The voyage took

264.2 hours and covered a distance of9,448 miles. No airship of any type hadever flown that far or remained aloft thatlong without refueling.

Snow Bird was met by a large crowd.Crew members were personallycongratulated by Admiral William F.Halsey, Jr., on behalf of PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower and the U.S. Navy.Awards were presented and specialcommendations read. It was a greatmoment for the 14 members of SnowBird’s crew and a proud achievement forthe United States.

For his contributions as commanderand pilot of Snow Bird’s record flight, Cdr.Hunt was awarded the HarmonInternational Trophy on November 12,1958. The award was presented to himby President Eisenhower.

XVII. The Demise of LTA and aPossible Revival

Despite such impressive demonstra-tions, there followed a slow reduction inthe airship force. On June 28, 1957, ZPs

1 and 4 were disestablished, and ZX-11was disestablished on December 1 ofthat same year. Still, there was hope thatdecision makers could be convinced ofthe value of the airship to Naval Aviationand that the trend could be reversed.

During this period, airships continuedto undertake unusual projects not in therealm of normal operations. In 1958, aZPG-2 was assigned to assist in an arcticweather research project, which was toevaluate the use of airships in the harsha r c t i c e n v i r o n m e n t . T h e a i r s h i pproceeded across the Arctic Circlewithout incident. Mail and supplies weredropped to scientists at their arctic icestation and a number of scientificexperiments were conducted by theairship’s crew before they returned toSouth Weymouth on August 12, 1958. Inall, it had been a 9,400-mile journey, thelongest arctic flight ever made by a non-rigid airship.

But the stand-down continued. OnNovember 30, 1959, ZP-2, the oldestairship patrol squadron in the Navy, wentout of business. ZW-1 was redesignatedZP-1 on January 3, 1961, and continueda s a n A S W s q u a d r o n . B u t t h ehandwriting was on the wall.

That same month, an N-series airshipflew cross-country from NAS Lakehurstto MCAF El Toro to participate in anoceanographic research project off thecoast of Calif. Her return flight in Marchof that year was the last major long-distance flight of an airship in the U.S.Navy.

On June 21, 1961, the Secretary of theNavy announced plans to terminate theNavy’s LTA program and, by the end ofOctober 1961, ZPs 1 and 3 weredisestablished. They were the lastoperating units of the Navy’s LTA branch.

The last flight of a naval airship onAugust 31, 1962, saw the end of the LTAera in the Navy. During the followingdecade , va r ious ind iv idua ls andorganizations attempted to rekindle theNavy’s interest in LTA. These attemptswere generally not successful althoughsome minor s tudies on LTA wereconducted. During the energy crisis in1973 the Navy, as well as many othergovernment departments, made fueleconomy the number one priority. Withenergy conservation in mind, the Navyestablished an LTA Project Office atN a v a l A i r D e v e l o p m e n t C e n t e r ,Warminster, Pa., on July 29, 1975. Thepurpose of the office was to investigatethe status of LTA technology, in terms ofnew advances and improvements intechnology and the economic feasibilityof LTA applications in various roles.

The LTA Project Office studied thedevelopment of heavy-lift hybrid airshipsand evaluated airships for maritimesurve i l l ance and o ther m iss ions .Through these studies, standard design

The camaraderie during the journeyextended to a surprise party held for PODehn in honor of his birthday on March12. PO Locklear put his inventive culinaryskills to work and baked a cake in anelectric frying pan. Candles had not beena priority item for the trip but the problemwas solved when filter-tip cigaretteswere substituted. It was a completesurprise to PO Dehn and the party wasenjoyed by all hands.

Tension and excitement began tomount on March 12. This was the eighthday of the voyage and Snow Bird wasclosing in on the record for continuousnon-refueled fl ight, which was 200hours and 12 minutes aloft. Snow Birdofficially eclipsed this record at 0245(EST) on March 13, and broke a secondrecord later that day. The distance recordestablished by the German airship GrafZeppelin in August 1929 fell when SnowBird passed the 6,980-mile mark in hertricontinental journey.

Snow Bird continued her flight, havingestablished two new world records. OnMarch 15, 1957, at 1844, Snow Birdlanded at NAS Key West. The voyage took

264.2 hours and covered a distance of9,448 miles. No airship of any type hadever flown that far or remained aloft thatlong without refueling.

Snow Bird was met by a large crowd.Crew members were personallycongratulated by Admiral William F.Halsey, Jr., on behalf of PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower and the U.S. Navy.Awards were presented and specialcommendations read. It was a greatmoment for the 14 members of SnowBird’s crew and a proud achievement forthe United States.

For his contributions as commanderand pilot of Snow Bird’s record flight, Cdr.Hunt was awarded the HarmonInternational Trophy on November 12,1958. The award was presented to himby President Eisenhower.

XVII. The Demise of LTA and aPossible Revival

Despite such impressive demonstra-tions, there followed a slow reduction inthe airship force. On June 28, 1957, ZPs

1 and 4 were disestablished, and ZX-11was disestablished on December 1 ofthat same year. Still, there was hope thatdecision makers could be convinced ofthe value of the airship to Naval Aviationand that the trend could be reversed.

During this period, airships continuedto undertake unusual projects not in therealm of normal operations. In 1958, aZPG-2 was assigned to assist in an arcticweather research project, which was toevaluate the use of airships in the harsha r c t i c e n v i r o n m e n t . T h e a i r s h i pproceeded across the Arctic Circlewithout incident. Mail and supplies weredropped to scientists at their arctic icestation and a number of scientificexperiments were conducted by theairship’s crew before they returned toSouth Weymouth on August 12, 1958. Inall, it had been a 9,400-mile journey, thelongest arctic flight ever made by a non-rigid airship.

But the stand-down continued. OnNovember 30, 1959, ZP-2, the oldestairship patrol squadron in the Navy, wentout of business. ZW-1 was redesignatedZP-1 on January 3, 1961, and continueda s a n A S W s q u a d r o n . B u t t h ehandwriting was on the wall.

That same month, an N-series airshipflew cross-country from NAS Lakehurstto MCAF El Toro to participate in anoceanographic research project off thecoast of Calif. Her return flight in Marchof that year was the last major long-distance flight of an airship in the U.S.Navy.

On June 21, 1961, the Secretary of theNavy announced plans to terminate theNavy’s LTA program and, by the end ofOctober 1961, ZPs 1 and 3 weredisestablished. They were the lastoperating units of the Navy’s LTA branch.

The last flight of a naval airship onAugust 31, 1962, saw the end of the LTAera in the Navy. During the followingdecade , va r ious ind iv idua ls andorganizations attempted to rekindle theNavy’s interest in LTA. These attemptswere generally not successful althoughsome minor s tudies on LTA wereconducted. During the energy crisis in1973 the Navy, as well as many othergovernment departments, made fueleconomy the number one priority. Withenergy conservation in mind, the Navyestablished an LTA Project Office atN a v a l A i r D e v e l o p m e n t C e n t e r ,Warminster, Pa., on July 29, 1975. Thepurpose of the office was to investigatethe status of LTA technology, in terms ofnew advances and improvements intechnology and the economic feasibilityof LTA applications in various roles.

The LTA Project Office studied thedevelopment of heavy-lift hybrid airshipsand evaluated airships for maritimesurve i l l ance and o ther m iss ions .Through these studies, standard design

criteria for LTA vehicles were developed b y a s s e s s i n g t h e t e c h n o l o g i c a limprovements and mating them with theparticular requirements of a specificmission. The ai rship performancecapabilities determined were used infeasibility studies by the Navy, CoastGuard and NASA.

In March 1977, the Navy was involvedin testing a scale model of an LTA vehiclecalled “Aerocrane.” This hybrid designcombined the buoyant lift of a heliumenvelope with the aerodynamic lift of arotor. The vehicle was to act as a

Navy. The Heli-Stat is a quadrotor hybridairship, used to demonstrate thefeasibility of a short-haul, heavy-vertical-lift, aerial-logging vehicle. This hybridvehicle combines an airship with fourhe l i cop te rs . The Navy p rov idedcontractual and technical assistance tothe Forest Service, and furnished somegovernment-surveyed equipment to thecontractor to minimize sponsor costs.The Heli-Stat completed static testing ofthe interconnecting structure, mating thehelium bag with the helicopters. Duringflight testing of the Heli-Stat on July 1,1986, one of its heliopters experienced afailure and the vehicle crashed.

The LTA Project Office has continuedto expand i ts study and researchprogram. In 1984, the office completedits Patrol Airship Concept Evaluation

Study. This involved flight testing andmission-oriented technical evaluationso f the t i l t - fan / t i l t - ro to r a i r sh ip tod e t e r m i n e i t s m a r i t i m e p a t r o lapplications for the Navy and CoastGuard. During the study, a 250-flighthour technical demonstration wasconducted on a British-built airship, theSkyship 500. It arrived at Patuxent Riveron June 23, 1983. Testing includedvarious sensors that were placed aboardthe airship.

As a result of the testing, several newinitiatives have taken shape. Studies arebeing developed on a Battle SurveillanceAirship System that involves a completesurveillance system featuring an airshipfor use with a surface group, particularlynoncarrier groups. Another study isbeing conducted by the Coast Guard on

using the airship as part of a PatrolAirship Law Enforcement program. Thisinvolves the use of radar and infraredequipment in an airship on an actualoperational basis to assess its future rolein such missions. Also, a feasibility studywill be made by the Air Force on usingairships in the Arctic to perform transportroles over long distance in support ofunmanned radar sites.

The tilt-fan/tilt-rotor concept incorporated in the British Skyship 500 was tested at NAS Patuxent River, Md., in 1983.

Ouch, accidents do happen. Adocking accident at NASRichmond, Fla., during WW II.

A gathering of LTA craft.

.