After 44 years, Lakehurst back in lighter-than-air flight research

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/9/06
BY KIRK MOORE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU

LAKEHURST — It's been more than 43 years since the last military airship made touchdown here, but the Navy is now back into the business of lighter-than-air flight. The first Navy-owned airship to fly since 1962 is undergoing trials at Lakehurst Naval Air engineering Station, where officials say the 178-foot craft will be used for research and development projects, including sensors for future manned and unmanned lighter-than-air vehicles.

The Naval Air Systems Command is operating the airship from Hangar 6, one of several massive buildings that supported the Navy's early airship program starting in the 1920s and the large blimp fleet that hunted enemy submarines offshore during World War II. At a cost of $3.5 million, the American Blimp Corp. A-170 airship contract is small potatoes in the world of military aviation. But it's already generating a buzz in the lighter-than-air community, after the plain white airship made its first flights in recent days. "In this case, history repeating itself is a good thing," said Capt. L. Bret Gordon, the commanding officer at Lakehurst.

Funding for the airship comes from the Office of Naval Research and congressional additions to the Navy budget, said Tom Worsdale, a Lakehurst spokesman. The A-170 will be a flying research platform to test sensors and the use of lighter-than-air vehicles for protecting military forces at sea, he said: "There are no plans to deploy the airship overseas, but Wors-dale said it will be used to test technology for unmanned aerial vehicles in wide use among front-line military units."