Sky Ships. William Althoff
Britain’s R-34 at Roosevelt Field, NY, 6–9 July 1919. R-34 made the first transatlantic leap by airship and was the third aircraft of any kind to cross. Its round-trip transit underscored the commercial potential of rigid airships. Observer: Lt. Cdr. Zachary Lansdowne, USN, the first American to cross by air. In 1919 the concept of practicable transoceanic air transport—aircraft plus payload—meant airships, not airplanes. Note the hydrogen cylinders. B. J. Countryman
The final design was a structure 943 feet long, 350 feet wide, and 200 feet high overall. The hangar space would be, for some years, the largest single room in the world: an 804-by-264-foot room having a 193-foot clearance at the centerline. Structurally, the hangar was comparatively simple. Ten steel arches (the world’s largest) were supported on towers tied together with longitudinal girders, the entire assembly covered with corrugated asbestos sheathing bolted to the framework. The four 1,350-ton doors were an engineering challenge, however. The two leaves on each end were mounted on eight-wheel trucks, which rolled sideways on standard gauge tracks. Each door was freestanding, counterweighted with concrete, and operated by a twenty-horsepower electric motor, which opened each leaf in thirteen minutes. Three sets of railroad tracks were built through the hangar and fifteen hundred feet beyond each end. These would receive taxiing cars for the centerline gondolas of each airship. Mechanical assistance was augmented further by three docking rails or trolley slots; bow and stern handling lines would be made fast by tackles to mobile trolleys during the docking evolution.
The Lakehurst hangar, known as Hangar No. 1, was intended to be largely self-contained. Living as well as office and shop spaces were provided along both sides of the berthing space in a two-deck arrangement. But the barracks, cafeteria, medical dispensary, and other accommodations were little used and were converted quickly to other purposes. The hangar’s work spaces included offices and shops essential to the operation of a large military airship: a wire shop, joiner shop, fabric shop, motor repair shop, machine shop, offices for administration, a gas-cell storage and repair space, blueprint and drafting rooms, instrument repair shop, and others.
Sealed proposals from private bidders were accepted in Washington until 6 August 1919, when the competition officially closed. The Lord Construction Company was selected as the general contractor with a successful bid of $2,900,000. The Bethlehem Steel and Bridge Company would erect the steel framework. The contract was signed on 8 September 1919, and work on the site started two weeks later. A force of eight hundred men set about clearing a site and laying a branch line to the main railway, which had to be done before the hangar itself could be started. Foundation work for the huge structure was completed over the winter months of 1919–20, and the first truss was hoisted into position on 17 May. The remaining nine arches were erected one a week thereafter. The east doors were the last part of the structure to be completed. By late 1920 general outfitting and application of the asbestos siding was under way. These panels were arranged in alternating strips of gray and two shades of brown to ease the monotony of a solid color and, according to Aviation magazine, to break up the outline of the building and thus “make it difficult for a hostile observer to locate it from the air.”4
Proposed layouts for the new base had been prepared as early as October 1919 by Cdr. Ralph D. Weyerbacher, Bureau of Construction and Repair (Construction Corps, CC), who was later named manager of the station when it was ready for occupancy and assembly of the airship. These early plans included the hangar and landing field, as well as an administration building, garage, mess hall, barracks, chief petty officer (CPO) quarters, a recreation building, hospital, a bachelor officers quarters (BOQ) and quarters for married officers, a “Wireless and Meteorology Station,” a power plant, a hydrogen plant and gas storage, rail lines and roads, water supply, sewage disposal, and miscellaneous storage spaces and shops. Conspicuously absent from the list was a mooring mast.5
A permanent coal-fired power house was an early priority. As work progressed on the hangar, the power house was completed near the Ridgeway Branch. The plant would furnish electricity for operating the massive hangar doors and for lighting, as well as supplying steam for heat. It was intended to heat the 36-million-cubic-foot berthing space, so the necessary equipment was built into the shed. But early tests showed this was impractical, and the attempt was abandoned.6
Lakehurst’s hangar under construction, January 1921. The steelwork arches and the west door leafs are nearly complete, with application of asbestos siding under way. Note the branch railway to the main line and, at left, the barrack from Camp Kendrick. On 28 June 1921 the (incomplete) base was commissioned as the Naval Airship and Construction and Experiment Station. Complement: 17 seventeen officers and 230 enlisted men. NARA
Hangar No. 1. As fireproof as possible, it was intended originally for hydrogen-inflated rigid airships. Its berthing space was for a time the largest single room in the world. The siding pattern was an attempt at camouflage. Mrs. F. J. Tobin
The decision to inflate America’s airships with helium was still two years in the future. Thus, a hydrogen generation plant was constructed for the station. The plant was capable of generating seventy-five thousand cubic feet daily. A one-million-cubic-foot gasometer, two small holders, and space for five thousand cylinders were provided as storage. A sixteen-inch main would conduct the inflammable gas to the nearby hangar. Inside, this line fed to outlets along each side of the berthing space. These could be connected by flexible tubing to an airship’s inflation manifold to replenish her cells. A deflation line beneath the roof was provided for exhausting gas. (After the decision was made for helium, a repurification plant was completed in 1924. The deflation piping exhausted the impure [mixed with air] gas to the plant, after which the repurified helium was routed into storage or returned to the ship under overhaul.)
But the new shed was designed for hydrogen, so a great deal of attention was paid to ventilation and to the prevention of sparks. All electricity was brought in through gastight transformer rooms cut off from the hangar interior. All inside floodlights were behind heavy gastight covers, and, where possible, wiring was on the outside of the building. Fire protection was extensive.
The hangar’s unique berthing space was designed for the assembly, repair, and maintenance of rigid airships. Consequently, the two-ship room was elaborately equipped.
Overhead trussed purlins provide for suspension of airships. Catwalks and hinged gangways at different levels provide access to different parts and to the tops of ships in their docking position. A generous supply of traveling platforms and extension ladders afford workmen proper stances. Elevators provide access to all levels.7
The concrete floor was covered with asphalt blocks to prevent sparks from falling tools. Tie-down ring bolts were countersunk into the deck for ships’ handling lines. Overhead, skylights of special amber-colored glass reduced ultraviolet rays and their destructive effects on airship fabrics. A battery of outside floodlights was installed on each corner to illuminate the field and “also to search the skies for enemy aircraft in case of hostilities.”8
A large landing field was laboriously cleared and graded, especially to the south and west of the shed. Men were detailed to cut down the ubiquitous scrub oak and pine and clear away undergrowth while tractor tanks pulled stumps. By August 1921 about five hundred acres had been prepared. By 1927 the Lakehurst field was one of the largest in the world. The airfield was seeded in grass and fertilized in a frustrated attempt to grow “almost anything” to provide firm footing for ground crews and to reduce blowing sand from wind and whirling propellers. Officers and enlisted men quarters were permanently established, and barracks and mess halls for five hundred personnel were provided by fitting out the Army barracks already on site.
One early problem was the lack of quarters for married officers. Except for the commanding officer and the medical officer, the station’s complement of married officers was obliged