Evan Seitz sent in this photo, snapped when he was visiting Quillayute State Airport (UIL), on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula in a 1966 Cessna 150G. “Quillayute Airport is an old 1930s Navy blimp base,” he says. “You can see one of the old abandoned hangars in the background.”
When I was a kid, in the 1950’s, there were US Navy Blimp active blimp stations in Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Waves, NC. In the 1980’s, early 1990’s some of these blimp hangers burned. But I think some of them survive to this day. ????????? The new blimp, dirigible in England. The Army blimp – the one that crashed recently. ??????????? Disney, Carnival Cruise Lines blimp trips to the south islands. Nassau, etc.
Day Dreaming.
If you want to see a real blimp hangar go down to Tillamook, OR. They have one hangar left that is an original wood hangar that would hold about nine WWII blimps. It is an air museum now and used to be really good with lots of WWII aircraft before the guy with the WWII aircraft moved them inland to get away from the salt air. still a nice place to stop and has a snack bar to get a bite. The still have a few at Moffet field near San Jose, the big one is managed and being restored by Google as I understand (they needed someplace close by to keep there Jets). Also I think the one that was in the Movie “an Officer and a Gentleman” with Richard Gere (where he fought his training sergeant) it is at the old base in Port Townsend, WA. Also the hangar in this picture would not hold a Blimp, and has a hell of a hoist on a track in it.
@Marvin. Yes this is the sad state of aviation in Canada. Our Federal government does not have a viable policy to support medium or small size airports. The government view is short sided. Maintaining/upgrading airport facilities will cost much less than rebuilding one. An airport bring status and economic activity to a region so maintaining them makes sense if you are thinking of the future.
Jacques
Such a picture strikes a pain in me , We have one in Dauphin Manitoba,
Although it was a BCTC (British commonwealht) Gone are the days when these places were alive.