Weeksville Dirigible Hangar 1
[One of 7 photos] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
In World War II, German U-boats terrorized shipping in the Atlantic region, not just military vessels but merchant ships as well. The United States Congress authorized strengthening the nation’s naval air presence. Weeksville, near Elizabeth City, North Carolina was the location of one of the air stations. The base's proximity to Cape Hatteras and to Norfolk with its naval installations made the choice a good one. Construction began in 1941 on Weeksville Naval Air Station; the pictured blimp hangar was completed in 1942. A second hangar of wood was completed in 1943. Steel was the material of the first, but wood was used for the second because of a shortage of metal. The base covered 822 acres and had over 10 miles of railroad tracks. The steel hangar pictured here is 960 feet (290 meters) long, 328 feet wide (100 meters), and 190 feet high (58 meters) or the equivalent of 20 stories in height; it covers more than 7 acres (300,000 square feet). The doors of the dome are called clamshell doors and the leaf of each weighed 420 tons. A view of the ends of the hangar shows an overlapping of the surface of the larger hangar area. The dome is supported by arched steel trusses; the flooring is concrete.
This steel hangar could house 12 of these giant K-class blimps, which were 252 feet long en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-class_blimp . They were armed with machine guns and depth charges and had a crew of 18 men. Shallow enemy subs could easily be spotted from air, allowing for the deployment of depth charges. The blimps provided escort for coastal ship convoys, and they performed search and rescue duties. The airships could cruise at 60 miles per hour (for up to 38 hours) and had a range of over 2000 miles. In early 1942 many ships had been attacked off the Carolina coast, as frequently as every other day; after the airships took to the sky, the attacks dropped to 1 every 2 1/2 months.
In 1946 the last dirigible left Weeksville. Then until 1948 the facility was storage for fixed-wing aircraft. Finally in 1957 the naval air base ceased operations for good. After a stint as a furniture plant, the wooden hangar was sold in 1986 to TCOM, an aerostat manufacturing company. The wooden hangar burned in 1995; TCOM then bought the steel structure in 1996. The company manufactures airships and is not unusual to see the aerostats in the air over Elizabeth City. The company has a Facebook presence www.facebook.com/TCOMLP/
Online sources consulted:
scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960404/...
www.atlasobscura.com/places/weeksville-dirigible-hangar
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Weeksville
web.archive.org/web/20090323080732/http://www.elizcity.co...
web.archive.org/web/20090324061335/http://www.elizcity.co...
www.ourstate.com/weeksville-air-station-blimps/
tcomlp.com/our-company/facilities/
www.ncpedia.org/transportation/blimps
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Weeksville Dirigible Hangar 1
[One of 7 photos] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
In World War II, German U-boats terrorized shipping in the Atlantic region, not just military vessels but merchant ships as well. The United States Congress authorized strengthening the nation’s naval air presence. Weeksville, near Elizabeth City, North Carolina was the location of one of the air stations. The base's proximity to Cape Hatteras and to Norfolk with its naval installations made the choice a good one. Construction began in 1941 on Weeksville Naval Air Station; the pictured blimp hangar was completed in 1942. A second hangar of wood was completed in 1943. Steel was the material of the first, but wood was used for the second because of a shortage of metal. The base covered 822 acres and had over 10 miles of railroad tracks. The steel hangar pictured here is 960 feet (290 meters) long, 328 feet wide (100 meters), and 190 feet high (58 meters) or the equivalent of 20 stories in height; it covers more than 7 acres (300,000 square feet). The doors of the dome are called clamshell doors and the leaf of each weighed 420 tons. A view of the ends of the hangar shows an overlapping of the surface of the larger hangar area. The dome is supported by arched steel trusses; the flooring is concrete.
This steel hangar could house 12 of these giant K-class blimps, which were 252 feet long en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-class_blimp . They were armed with machine guns and depth charges and had a crew of 18 men. Shallow enemy subs could easily be spotted from air, allowing for the deployment of depth charges. The blimps provided escort for coastal ship convoys, and they performed search and rescue duties. The airships could cruise at 60 miles per hour (for up to 38 hours) and had a range of over 2000 miles. In early 1942 many ships had been attacked off the Carolina coast, as frequently as every other day; after the airships took to the sky, the attacks dropped to 1 every 2 1/2 months.
In 1946 the last dirigible left Weeksville. Then until 1948 the facility was storage for fixed-wing aircraft. Finally in 1957 the naval air base ceased operations for good. After a stint as a furniture plant, the wooden hangar was sold in 1986 to TCOM, an aerostat manufacturing company. The wooden hangar burned in 1995; TCOM then bought the steel structure in 1996. The company manufactures airships and is not unusual to see the aerostats in the air over Elizabeth City. The company has a Facebook presence www.facebook.com/TCOMLP/
Online sources consulted:
scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960404/...
www.atlasobscura.com/places/weeksville-dirigible-hangar
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Weeksville
web.archive.org/web/20090323080732/http://www.elizcity.co...
web.archive.org/web/20090324061335/http://www.elizcity.co...
www.ourstate.com/weeksville-air-station-blimps/
tcomlp.com/our-company/facilities/
www.ncpedia.org/transportation/blimps
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.