Posted: 9/27/2012 11:16:45 AM EDT
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In my childhood the Navy was still flying some of those for real - used for radar pickets. http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/10/gannett-navy-after-50-years-airship-program-resumes-102711/ After 50 years, Navy resumes airship programThe Navy’s old lighter-than-air flight program at the Lakehurst naval air station ran from 1921 to 1962, when the last Cold War-era generation of blimps were decommissioned. At more than 400 feet long, those ZPG-3W ships were twice the size of the Navy’s new airship, and carried radar systems as part of the national early-warning network to watch for Soviet bombers approaching coastal cities. The airships carried crews of more than 20 men and logged long-range patrols that stayed in the air for as long as 58 hours. "They were also known as M ships. The largest ships ever built by Goodyear,” Jablonski said. But the Navy aviation community was split internally over the continued use of lighter-than-air technology, which some saw as an obsolete drain on resources better spent on rapidly evolving high-performance aircraft. |
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http://i.imgur.com/370Cl.jpg This is what DOD/Military cutbacks look like! we're breaking out the blimps. 
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http://i.imgur.com/370Cl.jpg This is what DOD/Military cutbacks look like! we're breaking out the blimps.
Sequestrationmania! |
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http://i.imgur.com/370Cl.jpg This is what DOD/Military cutbacks look like! we're breaking out the blimps.
In other news, the US Navy has picked it's next gen carrier based fighter- 
Off their new flattop- 
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I took that picture last night while at my golf class. The course is right next to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, an Army base. It's not too late to give up golf. Haha, I know. I've been playing for years (still not very good), this class is actually a college PE class. |
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That's pretty cool. |