The Navy ordered its first blimp and balloons in 1915, and over the course of the next forty-seven years lighter than air played a significant role in naval operations. In both world wars blimps logged thousands of miles of patrols over the Atlantic covering convoys against the threat of U-boat attacks, and in the first decades of the Cold War continued this antisubmarine mission and flew barrier patrols to warn of possible Soviet attacks. During the 1920s and 1930s, having witnessed firsthand the operations of Zeppelins by Germany during World War I, the Navy operated a small fleet or rigid airships, executing one of the most the most unique operations in history in their launching and recovery of aircraft from a trapeze that was lowered from an internal hangar on board the airship. Pilots hooked on to the aircraft using a skyhook affixed to the upper wing of their biplanes.
The Lighter Than Air exhibits includes artifacts from all facets of the Navy’s lighter than air experience, the centerpiece being actual craft from World War II to the Cold War era. They include the restored control car of a K-class airship outfitted as if ready to log an antisubmarine patrol and the forward section of the control car of “Snow Bird,” a ZPG-2 airship which logged a record-setting 9,448-mile flight. Also on display is the two-person gondola in which Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor Prather, MC, established a world record altitude for balloon flight, reaching 113,739.9 feet on May 4, 1961.
View Additional Photographs of Lighter Than Air Exhibit