The Newsmagazine of Long Beach Island and Southern Ocean County

By Anita Josephson | on June 29, 2022

Sitting in the middle of the New Jersey Pinelands as 1922 began, one of the world’s largest buildings, Hangar No. 1 at Lakehurst, sat empty and unused. The site had been slated to become the center for the U.S. airship program, but a series of events had raised doubts.

Following World War, I the major nations of the world fought for airship supremacy. The U.S., lagging behind, did not have any rigid airships, so was forced to buy them from Europe. The Lakehurst hangar was completed in August 1921 as the British-built ZR-2 was preparing to fly across the Atlantic, where it would be turned over to the United States. Unfortunately, on Aug. 24 the hydrogen-filled ship exploded, killing 44 of the 49 men on board.

Back in this country, the Navy was in the process of building a “made in the USA” airship, the ZR-1. The military Aeronautics Magazine of October 1921 explained.

“The frame members are being cut and assembled at Philadelphia, to be knocked down when complete and shipped to Lakehurst, where they will be reassembled and placed in the ship.

“The gas bags are destined for either hydrogen or the new non-explosive, but highly expensive helium gas discovered during the war. At present plans call for the use of hydrogen because of the excessive cost of producing sufficient helium to fill the bags to their full (capacity).”

Meanwhile, the Army was not to be outdone by the Navy. It had purchased the semirigid airship Roma from Italy and in December 1921 based it at Langley, Va.

In January 1922, the Long Branch Record reported the Navy had some good news.

“Another period of activity at the Naval Air Station here is promised. Rumor has it that a big dirigible gas holder will be built. The story has it that the Bethlehem Steel Company has the gas plant and holder contract and will have a hundred men on the job soon. The fact that the officers at the Lakehurst plant are urging Toms River to supply more housing and are now endeavoring to get a work train to and from Lakehurst from Toms River are looked upon as very favorable sidelights on these rumors.”

Then on Feb. 22, the Langley base newspaper told the country, “The Giant Airship Roma, which for some months past has been the pride of the U.S. Army Air Service, while making a practice flight yesterday afternoon became unmanageable and crashed into the wires near the warehouses at the Army Supply Base, Norfolk, Va.

“Thirty-four members of the crew were instantly killed by the explosion which followed the crash.

“Lieutenant Burt, who escaped uninjured, said that the elevators refused to respond to the turning of the wheel and when it nosed down attempts to elevate the nose were futile, the momentum of the ship drove it forward into high tension wires which ignited the hydrogen gas in the envelope.”

Again hydrogen seemed to be the culprit.

“The instant the nose of the great ship came in contact with the high-tension wires an explosion took place which completely enveloped her in blue, white flames and in a very few seconds the entire structure had collapsed.

“Not a member of the crew made an attempt to jump to safety until the ship was enveloped, and then only three of the forty-five aboard escaped uninjured.

“Apparently those aboard were not aware that an accident was coming so certain were they aware the ship was perfectly safe.”

The Virginia crash could have an effect on what was going on at Lakehurst, the Secretary of the Navy reported after the crash.

“After many delays due to appropriations for lighter-than-air, the construction of this airship (ZR-1) is now proceeding satisfactorily. It is estimated that about 53 per cent of the construction work of this ship will be finished as of July 1, 1922, and it is believed that this ship will be ready to go in commission during the summer of 1923.

“A committee of expert engineers and physicists appointed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, at the request of this bureau, is engaged at the present time in going into all of the details of the design of ZR-1. It was considered desirable to have this matter thoroughly gone into in view of the disasters to the ZR-2 and to the Roma to make sure that every resource of modern science has been made use of to insure against an accident from faulty design due to inexperience.”

While the experts debated, the New Jersey Courier updated its readers on March 31, saying, “With the destruction of the Italian built semi rigid, the Roma, the United States is left without lighter than air craft larger than non-rigid blimps.

“Within a month, however, the actual erection of the ZR-1, an American designed dirigible, will be begun in the large hangar at Lakehurst, N.J., and in a year it is expected that this ship will be ready to take to the air.”

The local paper told of the scope of the project underway.

“The ZR-1 will be 675 feet long and 78½ feet in diameter. It will contain gas cells that are about 33 feet long and will contain one large cell in the center of the ship that, taken alone will contain about 200,000 cubic feet and be larger than the non-rigid airships now in this country. … It will have six engines, and is designed to normally operate with one or two engines idle. A speed of 70 miles an hour under best conditions is expected.”

In April, the Lakewood Citizen ran an editorial.

“Disasters like the Roma are sad blows in the human lives they cost. But they do not condemn the airship as impractical. To make the airship entirely safe from fire it is necessary to use either a non-inflammable gas like helium or have a gas bag that won’t burn.

“I do not believe helium will be available for commercial use in the present generation, because it is so rare and so expensive to purify. It costs fully 100 times as much as the hydrogen gas now used. Moreover, it weighs twice as much as hydrogen and is deficient in lifting power. Its only known source of quantity supply is from natural gas by liquefaction and distillation.”

The nation learned of the Navy’s decision when the Associated Press carried a story on May 9.

“The navy department expects to determine decisively through experiences with the ZR-1, now building in Lakehurst, N.J., whether rigid airships are practical, either for war or commercial purposes. Rear Admiral Moffett, chief of the navy bureau of aeronautics yesterday advised the Senate Naval Committee.

“Admiral Moffett’s statement was incidental to presentation of requests for an increase of navy aeronautic appropriations, … Sufficient helium gas now is on hand, Admiral Moffett said, for the ZR-1 and other Naval dirigibles.”

With the world watching, there was some criticism as Independence Day 1922 approached. The New Egypt Press announced, “An expert in Zeppelin construction, Captain Heinen, formerly of the German dirigible service, is now living in Toms River, and is in complete charge of building the huge airship, ZR-1, at the Naval Air Station Lakehurst. Heinen arrived in New York last Friday from Germany and came direct to Lakehurst.”

“Heinen may be an expert flyer and mechanic but since the government has had two foreign built aircrafts, both of which were failures and cost many true Americans their lives, it would seem that a job of this kind should be placed in the hands of a true American and not in the hands of a stranger.”

The empty hangar was now alive with workers and a nation was hoping for their success.

Next Week: A giant erector set.

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