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This space is open for any information or stories you might have about Lakehurst NAS, or LTA in general, as long as it contributes to the subject of my web site. E-mail me with what you have to offer.
The following comments were provided by Rick Zitarosa (RZita@aol.com) 9/97
The doors of Lakehurst's Hangar One still open on the west end. The ones on the East end were opened in the mid-80's when the building had its transit asbestos sheeting removed and the big (152lb./yard Pennsylvania RR (???) ) steel rails were swapped with those from the oft-used end ( which had developed a sag.)
Outside of this, I don't believe the Lakehurst "East Doors" had been opened in over 25 years. The Lakehurst doors even had a MANUAL opening feature which consisted of a capstan by which 8 spokes with 4 sailors on each spoke could walk around in circles at "low gear" and open a door in two hours ( I think it was actually done once! )
The Lakehurst Hangar One doors are massive, concrete-counterweighted affairs weighing 1350 tons each. Powered by 4-20 hp. electric motors, they could each open in about 20 minutes. On each door, near the middle end point, is a "control house" complete with ammeters, gauges and "Frankenstein switches."
Hangar Five was the closest [to hangar 1], if you were standing in front of Hangar One's west doors. Five has the water tower alongside it. It was damaged in an unusual incident in l976 when a "mini twister" blew along its north wall and the corresponding sudden pressure differential caused a 50x50 foot section of the wall to "blow" out. This was subsequently repaired in due time. This hangar has been used for a variety of activities, some of them apparently of a highly classified nature. Hangar 6 is apparently used very little.
Many of the station air shows and exhibits were held in these two sheds over the years, partly due to their proximity to runways, etc. Mat One now has many areas where the asphalt is 40-50 years old and crumbling, with weeds growing up through the cracks. The old east field is heavily forested in pitch pines now. I don't think any airships crossed through the East Doors after the mid-1940's and THAT may even be a late guess.
One person who is a real fountain of information on NAS Lakehurst is the former station fire chief, Hank Applegate. He can be reached at HanksZepps@aol.com.
The following comments were provided by Hank Applegate 10/8/97
From: HanksZepps@aol.com
To: airships@geocities.com
Larry -
Enjoyed your "scrapbook" from the LTA days at Lakehurst. I was the
civilian Fire Chief at NAS Lakehurst = Now called Naval Air Engineering
Station, Naval Air Warfare Center, Lakehurst = (retired '96, after 30 years)
and started at NASL just after the airships left, and retired just after they
"came back" (civilian types).
Don't know if you ran into / served with my uncle, Harry Baker (from Camden,
NJ) but he was there about same time as you, and I think he was in ZP3....
Was one of the founding members of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society (325
members strong) and still serve as Treasurer..... We will put up a web page
someday, we publish a newsletter 6x a year - hold meetings on south side of
Hgr. 1, under the water tower - place has / hasn't changed much - old
barracks gone, Chief's club gone, (most all old wooden bldgs. torn down) -
Hank Applegate
This little bit of LTA history was sent to me in an email by Mike AirNikon@aol.com:
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 23:34:22 EDT
From: AirNikon@aol.com
My interest in airships recently surfaced after returning from Davis-Monthan
AFB in Tucson, and seeing the remains of a USN airship gondola, STILL THERE!
It's a ZPW-3 and still has the serial number on it! (144243) (Picture taken April 1999)
[Larry's comment: There was originally another deck above the forward part of the condola where there
were 9 bunks, stacked 3 high. Aft of the bunk room was a galley with stove, refrigerator, and eating
area. These are shown in another of my web pages.]
Back to "Lakehurst NAS page"
-- Aboard A Blimp Hunting U-Boats; A Day Above The Atlantic Reveals Navy Talk And Navy Ways, Creeping Convoys And Torpedoed Wrecks.
-- Airships: A Popular History of Dirigibles, Zeppelins, Blimps, and Other Lighter-Than-Air Craft
-- Adventures of Buddy The Blimp.
-- The complete book of airships: Dirigibles, blimps & hot air balloons.
-- The Blimp Book.
-- Roo Kickkick and the Big Bad Blimp.
-- The Blimp Boys Go to War:
-- Friendly skies for Fujifilm blimp:
-- Blimps & U-Boats: U.S. Navy Airships in the Battle of the Atlantic.
-- Navy Boats and Blimps:
-- Buy me a Blimp!
-- The Story of Flight: Early Flying Machines, Balloons, Blimps, Gliders, Warplanes, and Jets.
-- Blimps Balloons and Bombs.
-- Blimp RAID: Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment system.
-- The Blimp Crew.
-- Manufacturer finds variety of uses for modern blimps.
-- Navy Airships at War.
-- Famous Blimps.
-- Blimp!
-- Blimps in space.
-- Blimps: Flying Machines.
-- On the Move... Blimps
-- Up, Up, and Away!: All About Balloons, Blimps and Dirigibles.
-- Airships in World War I & II:
-- A practical guide to building small gas blimps.
-- AIRSHIPS, A POPULAR HISTORY OF DIRIGIBLES, ZEPPELINS, BLIMPS AND OTHER LIGHTER THAN AIR CRAFT.
-- Battle Blimps at War.
-- Some technical notes on thermal blimps.
-- Navy Airships and Blimps:
-- Footnote to history: Salvage of the USN Blimp K-14
-- Blimps: Big & Beautiful.
-- Mysteries of the Blimp.
-- Blimps & Such.
-- Airships
-- Airship Technology.
-- Airship Aerodynamics:
-- Zeppelins: German Airships 1900-40
-- Warriors Airships and Blimps:
-- The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship Division 1912-1918.
-- From Airships to Airbus:
-- Giants in the sky: A history of the rigid airship.
-- Up Ship!: A History of the U.S. Navy's Rigid Airships 1919-1935.
-- Birth of the Blimp:
-- Lighter Than Air: History of Hot-Air Balloons and Airships.
-- Airship Patents:
-- Golden Age of the Great Airships: Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg.
-- When monsters roamed the skies;: The saga of the dirigible airship.
-- Kite Balloons To Airships: The Navy's Lighter-than-air Experience.
-- The Disaster of the Hindenburg: The Last Flight of the Greatest Airship Ever Built.
-- Balloons, Blimps, and Ballast:
-- The Goodyear Blimp Story.
-- Bring On the Blimps!
© 2007 Larry Rodrigues. All rights reserved.