Friday, August 31, 1962: Last Navy airship flight

From the Associated Press: "LAKEHURST NAVAL AIR STATION, N.J. -- A big white airship ghosted up from its moorings Friday and loomed in the sky for two hours. With its descent the era of the Navy blimp was over. ... The Navy abandoned the blimp program last November. The ship that made Friday's ceremonial trip had been retained by the service for research purposes now completed."

Photo from U.S. Naval Institute. Caption reads, "Airship ZPG-2 (Serial #141559) made the last flight for a U.S. Navy airship on August 31, 1962, thus ending a 45-year Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) saga that began with the DN-1, the Navy's first airship."

* Naval Airship Association website: @

* "Kite Balloons to Airships ... The Navy's Lighter-Than-Air Experience" (Naval Historical Center): @

* "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program" (Joseph Gordon Vaeth, 2005): @

* "Airships and Balloons in the World War II Period" (U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission): @

* "Last One Out, Shut Off the Helium" (Air & Space magazine, 2011): @

* "After 50 years, Navy resumes airship program" (Navy Times, 2011): @

* 1957 ad: @

* 1958 newsreel: @

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