Hangar No. 1 is an

airship hangar Airship hangars (also known as airship sheds) are large specialized buildings that are used for sheltering airships during construction, maintenance and storage. Rigid airships always needed to be based in airship hangars because weathering was a ...

located at

Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst Lakehurst Maxfield Field, formerly known as Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst (NAES Lakehurst), is the naval component of Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst (JB MDL), a United States Air Force-managed joint base headquartered approximately ...

in Manchester Township, in

Ocean County Ocean County is a county located along the Jersey Shore in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It borders the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Its county seat is Toms River.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. It was the intended destination of the

rigid airship A rigid airship is a type of airship (or dirigible) in which the Aerostat, envelope is supported by an internal framework rather than by being kept in shape by the pressure of the lifting gas within the envelope, as in blimps (also called pres ...

LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' prior to the ''Hindenburg'' disaster on May 6, 1937, when it burned while landing. Built in 1921, it is one of the oldest surviving structures associated with that period's development of

lighter-than-air A lifting gas or lighter-than-air gas is a gas that has a density lower than normal atmospheric gases and rises above them as a result. It is required for aerostats to create buoyancy, particularly in lighter-than-air aircraft, which include fre ...

flight. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1968.

Description

In 1921 the US Navy established Lakehurst Naval Air Station to serve as its headquarters for

flight. The new base became the center for experimentation and development of rigid airships for strategic and commercial purposes as well as the control station for all Naval lighter-than-air flights. Hangar No. 1 was the first major facility built at Lakehurst to house the huge

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

-filled dirigibles. The hangar was completed in 1921 by the Lord Construction Company, with trusses erected by the

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

Company. The hangar is long, wide and high, with a floor area of . The hangar is typical of airship hangar designs of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, utilizing counterbalanced doors similar to hangars built in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. At each end are two pairs of massive steel doors mounted on railroad tracks. These double doors are structurally separate from the hangar itself. Each

counterbalance A counterweight is a weight that, by applying an opposite force, provides balance and stability of a mechanical system. The purpose of a counterweight is to make lifting the load faster and more efficient, which saves energy and causes less wear ...

d door weighs 1,350 tons and is powered by two 20-

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...

motors, although provisions were made to open the doors manually, which required the assembled manpower of nine men. Service mezzanines are located on each side of the hangar. The hangar also had a system of

railroad tracks A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...

that led to the mooring areas outside the hangar. The hangar was large enough to house two rigid airships as well as additional non-rigid airships (

blimps A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hyd ...

Operations

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00828, Lakehurst, Luftschiffe ZR-3 und ZR-1

The hangar was used to construct the USS ''Shenandoah'' (ZR-1) from 1922 to 1923. On September 4, 1923, the ship made a brief maiden flight in the vicinity of Lakehurst and was christened on October 10, 1923. In 1924 the US Navy obtained its second rigid airship built in Germany and delivered to the United States as a war reparation payment. The USS ''Los Angeles'' (ZR-3) shared Hangar No. 1 with the USS ''Shenandoah''. The hangar also provided service and storage for other airships including the ''Graf Zeppelin'' (LZ 127), USS ''Macon'' (ZRS-5), USS ''Akron'' (ZRS-4) as well as the German LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' during its transatlantic flights. Today the hangar holds a mock aircraft carrier

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopte ...

, used as a training facility for aircraft carrier flight deck personnel. The East Coast Indoor Modelers club, a chartered club within the auspices of the United States' official aeromodeling organization, the

Academy of Model Aeronautics The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), based in Muncie, Indiana, United States at , is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of model aviation as a recognized sport as well as a recreational activity. It is the largest organizati ...

, has been allowed to use the hangar since 1926 to fly indoor free flight model aircraft, these self-powered aircraft models benefit from the large wind-free open space of the hangar. Since 1994, Ocean County Vocational Technical School has operated its Career & Technical Institute in the hangar, the institute offers adult tech programs in aviation and electronic technologies. In addition to Hangar No. 1 there are five other airship hangars at Lakehurst, which today are used for training, testing and storage. File:USS Shenandoah Bau.jpg, USS ''Shenandoah'' (ZR-1) under construction inside the airship hangar No. 1 in 1923. File:LZ 129 Hindenburg with RD-4 over Lakehurst May 1936.jpg , ''Hindenburg'' arrival at Lakehurst, May 9, 1936. With Hangar One and USS ''Los Angeles'' (ZR-3) moored in the background. File:NAS Lakehurst NAN5-48.jpg, Hangar N°1 on the Naval Air Station Lakehurst, about 1946/47.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography