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The Navy airship ZR-1 (USS Shenandoah) under construction in 1922-23 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey. The 680-foot, 36-ton zeppelin, the first rigid airship to use helium rather than hydrogen, broke up in a storm over Ohio in 1925 with a loss of 14 lives. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.
My father worked as a draftsman in the blimp program at Lakehurst in the late 50's and early 60's. He took me into this hangar to see a blimp up close when I was a little tyke. I remember the place looked empty when we walked in. Then I looked straight up and there it was. The doors moved on railroad tracks and were powered by diesel engines. When Kennedy was elected, the lighter-than-air program was canceled.
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