Have You Seen the Navy Blimp Lately?
Blimp has been spotted while making flights around Ocean County
Photos
Look up and you just might catch a glimpse.
The U.S. Navy's blimp, which calls the Lakehurst portion of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst its home base, has been spotted throughout Ocean County this week.
The blimp was spotted in Toms River on Thursday afternoon near Island Heights. On Wednesday morning, it flew over Lakehurst toward Whiting.
Last month, it made an appearance near Lakehurst's baseball field during National Night Out.
If you've seen the blimp recently and were able to snap a photo, share it on Patch!
The blimp's envelope holds 170,000 cubic feet of air and the blimp can travel at speeds up to 45 knots, according to Steve Huett, director of the Navy’s Airship Systems Engineering Team.
While its home base is Lakehurst, the blimp and its crew travel all around the country conducting missions and assisting the Army and the Air Force — which each have larger blimps — in learning about the capabilities of the airship and how those services can put it to use.
The 180-foot blimp was purchased by the Navy in 2006 and has been in use on a number of research operations and assisted in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup efforts.
More information about the blimp is available in this Manchester Patch article from last October when it was unveiled.
Burd Turglar
7:50 am on Monday, September 17, 2012
This one has been flying over our homes lately too... pretty cool operations being conducted right over us! Neatoo!!
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/army-spy-blimp/
sickler
7:50 am on Monday, September 17, 2012
The blimp.has been out everyday for the last 2 months.beside rainy days.that second picture is the army blimp not navy blimp
Hector Logan
2:41 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
The one you saw at the NNO is a different blimp, just saying, but who cares about details and accuracy.
i don't get it??
7:50 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
Every sunny day...are people living in bunkers???!!!??
Burd Turglar
2:52 am on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Both blimps are pictured in the article.. the Army one is a pretty advanced camera system that will possible replace the aerostat surveillance devices we are currently using in Iraq, Afghanistan and a few other hush hush locations. The current ones are fixed to a tether that prevents it from floating away. This new technology will make our surveillance more versatile.