Blimp Operations and Testing

Blimps were a component of the Navy's operational maritime patrol forces for only the 20-year span of 1942 to 1961.  While no lighter-than-air craft was ever subsequently made part of the Navy's operational inventory, the Navy did occasionally experiment with a few blimps that were being considered for use in long-duration surveillance applications.  

This page summarizes the airship testing and operational activities that are known to have been staged from NAS Patuxent River and its environs.   

Updated 6 Aug 2024.  The material herein, excluding images, is copyright the author, Robert Tourville, and the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum.  Image copyrights are as noted.

Sources:

On this page, the Dept of Navy’s ‘Allowances & Location of Navy Aircraft’ reports constitute the primary source for data pertaining to the timeframe in which a specific aircraft type/model/series (TMS) was operating in the Pax River area. Please note that these reports are incomplete before January 1949, so information regarding testing that occurred before that time has been assembled from the unofficial, secondary sources noted below.  While these sources are generally believed to be credible, ongoing research is attempting to identify all of the aircraft tested at Pax River during the 1940s and to determine their testing timeframes. 

The following sources were consulted, along with any additional TMS-specific source materials that may be identified in each section of this page:


"Special Missions"

The earliest known use of blimps in Southern MD was in October and November 1944, when squadron ZP-24, homeported at NAS Weeksville, NC, operated a blimp from Pax River for what the squadron’s war report simply termed “special missions”.  
 

Over the course of two months, three different Goodyear K-Type blimps (external link) like the one shown above were used for these mysterious operations.

Additional sources include:


Torpedo Test Support
 
Immediately after ZP-24’s departure, squadron ZJ-1 (redesignated ZP-12 in June 1945) sent blimps to Southern Maryland for a year-long stay.  Homeported in NAS Lakehurst, NJ, the squadron detached blimps to the Naval Mine Warfare Test Center (NMWTC) in Solomons, MD.  In these operations, which were conducted from November 1944 through October 1945, the squadron used six different Goodyear G-Type blimps (external link), like the one depicted below.
 

Staging from the NMWTC, a blimp would fly to Piney Point, MD to support the testing of newly manufactured torpedoes on the Potomac River, where runs on a 13-mile range ensured that the torpedoes ran true and at the proper depth.  For these production tests, the torpedoes were inert and configured to float to the surface when their compressed air propellant was expended.  The blimp crews were tasked with locating the floating torpedoes at the end of their test runs and directing a recovery boat to retrieve them.   
Additional sources include:


Testing K-Class and N-Class Blimps 

Less than three years after ZP-12 completed its aforementioned torpedo test support missions, another airship came to Southern MD.   In the spring of 1948, the Electronics Test Division of Pax River’s Naval Air Test Center (NATC) tested a Goodyear ZP2K K-Class blimp (external link) from NAS Lakehurst, NJ.  A post-war K-Class blimp is shown below; it differs in many respects from the earlier K-Class blimp illustrated previously on this page.   


NATC’s role was to assess various antisubmarine (ASW) warfare radars intended for  use in ZP2Ks, which were were later re-designated 'ZSG-2s'.  (You can read more about Pax River's role in testing ship- and land-based ASW airplanes here and here.  The operational ASW squadrons that were based at Pax River are outlined here.)   

In November 1955, a ZSG-2 returned to NATC for additional testing, along with a ZSG-3 (formerly designated 'ZP3K').  Derived from the late-1930s K-Class blimp design, some ZSG-2s and ZSG-3s remained operational into the late 1950s.  
 
November 1955 also saw NATC test a Goodyear ZPG-1 N-Class blimp (external link), like the one shown below.  Designed in the late 1940s, N-Class blimps were airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft intended to augment fixed wing AEW aircraft and land-based and sea-based radars.   (You can read more about Pax River's role in AEW testing and operations here and here, respectively.)


Exactly two years later, in November 1957, NATC tested another N-Class blimp, this time a ZPG-2.  This 1957 test marked the last known visit to Pax River of any airship of a type in use by the operational Navy.  N Class blimps were all retired by 1962.

Additional sources include:
  • Article - 'LTA Blimp Comes to ET for Testing', Tester, 18 Mar 1948
  • 'Images of America, Naval Air Station, Lakehurst', Pace, Montgomery, Zitarosa, 2003


Testing a Skyship 500
 
After the ZPG-2's departure, a quarter-century elapsed before another blimp came to Southern MD.  In June and July 1983, NATC evaluated the Airship Industries Skyship 500 (external link) for the Navy and Coast Guard.  The airship used in this test is pictured below at Pax River.  In coordination with the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) in Warminster, PA (external link), NATC developed an extensive test plan.  Beyond assessing the airship’s flight performance and the capabilities of its Sea Searcher radar, NATC and NADC apparently also measured the airship’s radar cross section and evaluated its ability to be refueled in-flight from a surface ship.   
 

Additional sources include:
  • Article - 'Airships for the 1990s?', Naval War College Review, Jan/Feb 1983
  • Article - 'Industry Observer', Aviation Week, Feb 21 1983 


Operating the MZ-3A Testbed
 
As of this writing (2023), the most recent airship tested at Pax River was the American Blimp MZ-3A (external link).  Until 2007, the MZ-3A was based at Lakehurst, NJ, where it had been operated by a detachment of Pax River squadron VX-20.  Two years of storage followed.  In 2009, the airship was taken on by Pax River squadron VXS-1, the flying arm of the Naval Research Laboratory (click here for more about VXS-1).  


Experimenting with and demonstrating various sensor and communications technologies, VXS-1 flew the MZ-3A (shown above and in the Navy video clip below) from various sites around the country.  For example, the MZ-3A operated from MCAS Yuma, AZ in support of various federal agencies surveilling along the Mexico border, and participated in the 2011 Deepwater Horizon oil spill recovery operation.  


Between 2012 and 2014, when operations ended, VXS-1 operated the MZ-3A from locations in the Caribbean, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey. 
 

Additional sources include:
  • Article - 'Navy Requests Airship for Surveillance, C3', Aviation Week, 8 Sep 1986 
 
Aircraft
Timeframe With Pax River
K-class blimp
Oct & Nov 1944 (Note – differentiating these K-Class blimps from the ones listed below, these airships were operated not by NATC but by fleet squadron ZP-24)
G-class blimp
Nov 1944 to Oct 1945 (Note – blimps were operated not by NATC but by fleet squadron ZJ-1 / ZP-12, and staged from Solomons, MD across the river from NAS Patuxent River)
K-Class blimp (ZP2K / ZSG-2 & -3 types)
Spring 1948, Nov 1955
N-Class blimp (ZPG-1 & -2 types)
Nov 1955, Nov 1957
Skyship 500 blimp
June & July 1983
MZ-3A blimp
2009 to 2012 (Note – blimps were operated not by NTWL, NATC's successor, but by Pax River-based squadron VXS-1)

 


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