It was a roundabout debut for the Army's new airship. It began life as an American Blimp Corp. civilian airship designated the A-170. After appropriate modifications to military specifications, it became the Navy MZ-3A, and operated as a flying laboratory. To squelch any comments by the ignorant about useless lighter-than-air craft, it actively assisted in cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now it's switching services in a rare mutation, and becoming a dirigible for the U.S. Army.
At 178 feet in length, it's no toy balloon. Instead of the Navy placing it on inactive status, the Army will utilize it as a test aerial vehicle at (most appropriately for this service-switching behemoth) the major facility in central New Jersey which is a joint operating amalgam of the former Fort Dix, McGuire Air Force Base, and the iconic Lakehurst Naval Air Station --- site of the incident that some will never let airship advocates forget --- the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Can you imagine if every fixed-wing airplane crash were held up to the face of Air Force pilots as an example of how unsafe airplanes are ? Nonetheless, that has been the effect of the sad end of the Hindenburg, appearing to put an end to hopes of much wider (and wiser) use of dirigibles in transportation. Meanwhile, stalwart airship advocates continue to utilize them for the many activities in which it can play an ideal role.
The MZ-3A will --- hopefully --- be seen by many as it pursues its research activities over Chesapeake Bay in Maryland in warmer weather and in Florida skies during the winter season ... a mission displaying a wise division of labor .
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