A DEVASTATING fire has destroyed the only existing, Westinghouse Sentinel 1000-001 airship and its hangar.
The fire broke out on 2 August at the Westinghouse Airship Flight Centre at Weeksville, North Carolina. The hangar, one of the largest wooden structures in the world, was built more than 50 years ago, and used by the US Navy to house ZPG-3W airships during and after the Second World War.
Westinghouse's immediate plans are unclear, but William Adams, the firm's chairman and chief executive, says that the company is "looking at alternative facilities for airship construction and service business".
Claimed to be the largest non-rigid airship operating, the 67m-long helium-filled Sentinel 1000 was certificated by the US Federal Aviation Administration in November 1993. It was a one-half linear-scale model of the Sentinel 5000, which Westinghouse wants to build for the Pentagon. Funding for the US defence project is not assured.
Source: Flight International