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Now vanished from the skies, U. S. Navy free balloons—and the men who flew them—were once important players on the world aeronautical stage. Between the two World Wars, the spherical bags of gas, with a wicker basket suspended beneath, were a not-uncommon sight drifting with the wind above the American countryside. They were to be seen, too, overseas, where they rode the breeze as U. S. entries in the international balloon races of the day.
Training, not racing, however, was the prime reason the Navy built and flew such craft. With the free balloon, the prospective airship pilot practiced aerostatics, the principles of lighter-than-air flight. He learned how to maneuver by valving gas, dropping ballast, and varying his altitude to make best use of the wind—the only means of control available to him if the airship he was being trained to fly someday lost its engine power.
Aboard a free-drifting balloon, a trainee could and did learn many skills . . . when and how to use the valve cord and how long to pull it to stop a climb or initiate a descent . . . how much sand ballast to drop and under what conditions . . . how to find more favorable winds and altitudes . . . when to anticipate changes in the aerostat’s behaviour resulting from variations in sunlight and temperature . . . how to make use of the drag rope as a ballasting device and as a brake to slow the rate of drift across the ground . . . the technique of valving down to a soft landing . . . how to brace oneself for the impact and shock of a hard one ... and at what split-second to yank the red-dyed rip cord that would spill the gas from the envelope.
During World War II, some l,bOO naval aviators (lighter-than-air) were trained at NAS Moffett Field, California, and NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, for duty in the Navy’s antisubmarine blimp fleet. Operations with free balloons formed an essential part of the training. Both hydrogen and helium were employed. Flights varied in length, lasting an hour or more, but usually terminating before dark so that the balloon could be easily found, packed up, and returned to base by the Navy “chase truck" that followed behind. Terrain and obstacles permitting, intermediate landings were often made, and then the balloons would fly again until time for the final valvedown.
Training flights were normally carried out in light winds, and the distances covered were not great, probably averaging well under twenty-five miles. Overnight flights, however, provided some notable exceptions. Two that originated out of Lakehurst will be long remembered: one for the excitement caused by an unscheduled landing in the environs of Baltimore, Maryland; the other for the unusual distance the balloon traveled in reaching and landing in southern Canada.
Following the war, primary and refresher training in free ballooning continued at a reduced pace. Then, in the early 1960s, the Navy’s airship arm was disestablished and the raison d’etre of the balloons essentially ceased to exist.
The accompanying pictures, taken of training activities at Moffett Field during World War II, suggest something of the spirit of adventure, the sense of the unusual, the fascination, and the beauty that were to be found in every free balloon ascent— characteristics that made each such flight a memorable experience for all who participated, whether as pilot, passenger, ground crew member, or spectator.
At right, in a 19kb photograph in Moffett Field’s Hangar Number 1, five balloons are readied for a training flight. Just beyond, two blimps receive an overhaul.
Laid out on a protective groundcloth and covered with a netting, each rubberized cotton envelope would be slowly filled with gas. As the balloon inflated, the circle of 30-pound sandbags which held it to earth would be moved down the netting, a web at a time, until the basket could be attached.
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At take-off, the ground dropped effortlessly away as the wind began to carry aerostat and crew to a destination unknown.
At altitude an unearthly quiet engulfed the balloons as they drifted slowly over the California landscape. Then, back to earth, and with the pulling of the ripcord, each balloon, so recently a silver-colored object of beauty, was transformed into a crumpled and deformed pile of fabric.
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