US Navy spares Silicon Valley's 'Alexandria Lighthouse' Hangar One, the onetime airship station that has long symbolized California's Silicon Valley, won't be destroyed after all. The US Navy will allow it to stand - without its clothing. More than two years ago, the Navy designated Hangar One for demolition, after discovering that the mammoth Mountain View landmark was poisoning …
pctechxp and Gordon Pryra
A quote from the article "the Navy said it will leave the hangar's steel skeleton in place while removing its toxic siding."
Did you even read it or did you just go into gut reaction anti-American mode?
Finally, Gordon, 2 blimps set sail from here and were lost (so yes, that's all of them). Unlike Britain, where the R101 crashed and burned on its maiden voyage killing 46 people and the R100 was sold for scrap for £600. Another triumph for Britain!
The airship Macon for which hanger was designed, as were the R100 and R00, were of the rigid variety, one might even say "Zeppelins" if that is politically correct.
Blimps are soft bodied dirigibles; the hanger could hold both the Macon and a handful of blimps simultaneously.
Paris because....
Isn't it about time that we started using blimps for <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/11/skyhook_jhl_40_boeing/">heavy lift operations</a> again? Since they have their own buoyancy, fuel consumption is greatly reduced. And current fuel prices are killing the American Airline industry.
Re: a previous comment:
<i>Every blimp that set sail from this place crashed and burned
By Gordon Pryra</i>
That's just ignorant. Not only was the Macon a Helium filled zeppelin (and it didn't burn) but there were many other lighter than air ships that operated out of Moffat Field. Just look at <a href="http://www.moffettfieldmuseum.org/history.html">ZP-32 during WW2</a>, which operated about 20 different blimps on anti-submarine patrol of the West Coast.
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