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| ° The U.S. Navy airship ZR-1, The Shenandoah, was built & based at Lakehurst Naval Air Station |
| ° Lakehurst NAS drop football for 1944 due to restricted college schedules. |
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| ° Shenadoah (ZR-1) was 680 feet long, 76' 9" hull diameter. Top speed of 40 knots. Top speed 60 knots (70 mph). Crew of 40. |
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| ° Shenandoah was the first airship to use helium instead of hydrogen. |
| ° Used six 300 horse power, 8-cylinder, specially housed Packard Motor Car Company gasoline engines |
| ° Launched 8/20/1923, crashed, torn apart in a squall, in Ohio 9/3/1925 on its 57th flight. It was the first of 4 United States rigid airships berthed at Lakehurst |
| ° The Shenandoah was the first rigid airship to make a transcontinental flight. |
| ° Carried six 30-calibre Lewis machine guns and eight 500-lb. bombs. |
| ° Hindenburg Disaster: In 1937, the hydrogen-filled German dirigible, the Hindenburg caught on fire at the Lakehurst mooring mast. |
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| ° In 1916, the site began as an ammunition-testing site for the Imperial Russian Army |
| ° During World War One, housed the United States Army. Named Camp Kendrick, used as an ammunition proving ground. |
| ° Bought by the United States Navy in 1921 and renamed Naval Air Station Lakehurst. |
| ° 1921 to 1961: Housed the Lighter Than Air Center (LTA). |
| ° Anti-submarine blimps based at Lakehurst during World War Two. |
| ° Since 1950s, the Navy has trained Aviation Boatswain's Mates in the operation of catapults and arresting systems for air craft carriers. Naval Air Test Facility (NATF) since 1958. |
| ° Hanger 1 where the Shenandoah was built, 1922-23, is now a national landmark. When built it was the largest room in the world. |
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| ° Hanger 1 housed the German Zeppellin, the 803.8 foot long Hindenburg (LZ-129) on its first trip to the United States, as well as the Graf Zeppellin It was home to four United States Navy dirigibles, including USN Los Angeles (ZR-3), the USN Akron (ZRS-4) amd the USN Macon. as well as the US Army's semi-rigid RS-1 in 1927. Today, Hanger One is known as Hanger 4. |
| ° The high mast in the first image on this page was 160 feet high. Last used in 1929. |
| ° Named Maxfield Field in 1944, for Commander Louis H. Maxfield who died in airship USN ZR-2's crash at Hull, England, in 1921. A.K.A. 87th Air Base Wing (87 ABW). |
| ° Since 2009, its official name is Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, a unit of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL). |
| ° Under jurisdiction of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Lakehurst os the largest naval aviation installation in the Northeast. |
| ° NAS Lakehurst still has two operating 5,000 feet runways. |
| ° Housed the Vigalance (ZPG-3W), the largest non-rigid airship ever built, was over 400 feet long. Manufactured by Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, first flight 1958, known as an N-Class, was commonly called Nan Ships. It housed a huge radar antenna housed inside the helium envelope that, due to its low frequency, could detect aircraft better than any other system before or since.. Was part of the Airship Airborne Early Warning Squadron ZW-1 (AEW). Decommissioned 1962 when the lighter than air program ended. See an image of the largest blimp ever, ZPG-3W. (click here) |
| ° In 2006, after 44 years, the U.S. Navy restarted airship operations at Lakehurst again, with the MZ-3A airship. |
| ° The airship program is part of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at Lakehurst |
| ° MZ-3A was renamed Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1) in 2011 |
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