The Second
LTA Era Inside the Airdock ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:  NASA ADDITIONAL PHOTOS: |
After World War II the blimps left and the prime mission of Weeksville turned to heavier-than-air craft and motor vehicle storage with a peak of 700 planes and 2,200 vehicles. In 1947 squadron ZP-1 was transferred from California to Weeksville starting the second LTA era. This was the beginning of the most exciting period of Navy LTA history with advances in technology, new ideas, new missions, new larger and more capable airships, and the desire to take LTA to the limits. Weeksville played a large part in all of this with its pilots and blimps testing and refining day and night carrier landings, ship to airship inflight refueling, and the formation of anti-submarine hunter/killer groups. In the mid fifties Weeksville was at its zenith with two blimp squadrons (ZP-1 and ZP-4), Fleet Airship Wing One (FASW-1), and an anti-submarine helicopter squadron (HS-3) calling it home. Inventory records show 10 blimps and 12 helicopters based here. An interesting note from one of the blimp crew members during this period was although they normally patrolled for submarines occasionally they were called upon to patrol over land looking for moonshine stills. His comment was they preferred looking for submarines, they didn't shoot at you! Throughout this period buildings were added to accommodate additional personnel, existing facilities upgraded, and equipment added to support the growth in operations. Because of its proximity to Norfolk there was a constant flow of temporary assignments of airships and aircraft to participate in fleet exercises off the North Carolina coast, making Weeksville a very busy place. |
