Warbird Information Exchange

just had a thought about warbird blimps. I seem to remember that the US navy used some for coastal patrols. did any of them ever see any action other than excersizes?

I know that there were some exchanges between airships and u-boats during the war, with, I believe, loses on both sides, but as always, I would refer to Col. Rohr for details.

Back when I was starting into my delusions of direct involvement in WWII operations (they are full fledged today), there was a guy in New Jersey, name of Mahalchek (sp) who passed away and his estate was claimed by the state for back taxes (he lived in a rivetted teepee and said it was temporary so said he owed no property taxes). Anyhow, some of the things that were present at the auction included 8 WWII Z or N class gondola's for USN dirigibles. They were all rotted, but supposedly one or several of these was acquired by someone who got them into the hands of Pensacola, and there is where I have no more information. If anybody is good about tracking this stuff down, it might be worth looking into who got the rest of the items. I'd certainly like to hear more about them.

Also, one of my UFO's which I pictured here was guessed by an old timer that it went to an airship. Dunno!

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Some of those Z-Class gondolas wouldn't be part of the Weeks collection would they? There is a storage barn across the street from the entry gate of FoF with several gondolas and I can't figure out what their ID is from that distance.

Ryan Keough

are any of the old, WW2 vintage, blimps in operation these days?

surely in some ways these thigns would be cheaper to operate than some of the warbirds out there?

In the earley 1960's Navy Blimps could still be seen flying
up and down the Atlantic coast out of Lakehurst.
When I was "much" younger I vacationed
at the NJ shore each summer on Long Beach Island.
I took the below photo with one of my first cameras,
a Brownie Bullet. Anyone familiar with these old cameras
will know how low and close to the beach this blimp was
to get this picture.
(Took me a while to dig this one out.)

Bill