From #LATimes ... I'm heartbroken. The two blimp hangars are perhaps the most famous and significant landmarks in Orange County CA. One was used as a film stage; among its many films was "Apollo 13."
@WordsmithFL a similar thing happened to one of the two blimp hangars in Tillamook, Oregon. The remaining hangar is an air museum, I think. They're really massive. At one time one was used for a sawmill operation, I believe.
@joycereynoldsward The two OC Marine Corps bases, Tustin and El Toro, have a shared history with Patrick AFB and Cape Canaveral AFS here in the #SpaceCoast.
Both Tustin and Patrick began during WW2 as submarine hunters. Patrick never had blimps, just seaplanes.
The early El Toro and Cape hangars used the same blueprints. When I moved here in 2009, I thought, "Those hangars look familiar." It turned out they were based on El Toro hangars.
@WordsmithFL here's an article about the Tillamook blimp hangars:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/us-naval-air-station-dirigible-hangar-b.htm
@joycereynoldsward Thank you for sharing. From the article:
"All, including the Lighter-than-Airship Hangars in Tustin, California, were built using the same plans and construction began during the early years of World War II."
They do look identical. I wonder if they were the same size.
It's interesting that the Pacific Coast went with dirigibles but Florida went with seaplanes to chase enemy submarines. Both were naval air stations at the time.
@WordsmithFL I wonder if weather conditions were a factor?
As far as size is concerned...those Tillamook hangars are HUGE.
@joycereynoldsward A dirigible could remain stationary, while a seaplane did not (obviously).
It may have been the Atlantic theater was more active, with U-boats prowling off the Cape to intercept military and commercial convoys. On the Pacific Coast, we didn't have convoys trying to run shipments like we were to Europe. I doubt there was much Japanese sub activity off CA/OR, although there were a few. They didn't pose the same threat.
@WordsmithFL nah, we just had incendiary balloons and kamikazes. Stationary might work better with spotting incendiary balloons.
Might also speak to a difference in the roughness of the ocean.
@joycereynoldsward A Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara in February 1943, but that's about it so far as I know.
@joycereynoldsward This Wiki page about the Santa Barbara attack also indicates the Japanese submarine presence off the Pacific Coast was somewhat minimal.