| JB MDL Lakehurst | |
|---|---|
| Part of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) | |
| Located near: Trenton, New Jersey | |
Front gate at Lakehurst |
|
| Built | 1916 |
| In use | 1967-Present |
| Controlled by | United States Air Force |
| Garrison | 87th Air Base Wing (USAF) |
| Lakehurst Airfield Maxfield Field |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: NEL – ICAO: KNEL – FAA LID: NEL | |||
| Summary | |||
| Elevation AMSL | 103 ft / 31 m | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 6/24 | 5,000 | 1,524 | Asphalt |
| 15/33 | 5,001 | 1,524 | Asphalt |
| Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] | |||
JB MDL Lakehurst (Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst - Lakehurst) is a United States Navy base located approximately 16.1 miles (25.9 km) south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Lakehurst is under the jurisdiction of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). It became part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL) on 1 October 2009.
Contents |
Also known as Maxfield Field, the host unit at Lakehurst is the United States Air Force 87th Air Base Wing (87 ABW). The 87 ABW provides installation management to all of JB MDL.[2]
Its history begins as a munitions-testing site for the Imperial Russian Army in 1916. It was then gained by the United States Army as Camp Kendrick during World War I. The United States Navy purchased the property in 1921 for use as an airship station and renamed it Naval Air Station Lakehurst.[3]
The Navy's lighter-than-air program was conducted at Lakehurst through the 1930s. It was the site of the 1937 LZ 129 Hindenburg airship disaster. During World War II, anti-submarine patrol blimps were operated from Lakehurst. Since the 1950s, aviation boatswain's mates have been trained at Lakehurst to operate catapults and arresting systems on aircraft carriers. Lakehurst conducts the unique mission of supporting and developing the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment and Support Equipment for naval aviation. The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and the Advanced Arresting Gear system that will replace the existing steam catapults and the Mk-7 arresting gear are being developed and tested at Lakehurst at full-scale shipboard representative test facilities here.[3]
Previously known as Naval Air Station Lakehurst, the installation is most famous as the site of the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. Despite the notoriety and well documented nature of this incident, today there is a simple memorial that denotes the location of the crash at then-NAS Lakehurst in the field behind the large airship hangars on base. A ground marker, painted black, and rimmed by a bright yellow painted chain, locates where the gondola of the German zeppelin Hindenburg hit the ground.
Prior to this event, NAS Lakehurst was the center of airship development in the United States and housed three of the U.S. Navy's four rigid airships, (ZR-1) Shenandoah, (ZR-3) Los Angeles, and (ZRS-4) Akron. A number of the airship hangars built to berth these ships still survive. Hangar One, in which the Shenandoah was built, held the record for the largest "single room" in the world. According to an article in the January, 1925 issue of National Geographic Magazine, the airship hangar "could house three Woolworth Buildings lying side by side."
Maxfield Field was named 6 January 1944 in honor of Commander Louis H. Maxfield, Naval Aviator No. 17, who lost his life in the R-38/USN ZR-2 airship crash, 24 August 1921 at Hull, England.[4]
The base housed many Navy non-rigid airships, otherwise knowns as "blimps," in several squadrons before, during, and after World War II. This included the U.S. Navy's ZPG-3W (EZ-1C), which was deactivated in September 1962.[5] In 2006, after a 44 year hiatus, the U.S. Navy resumed airship operations at Lakehurst with the MZ-3A.
The former NAS Lakehurst also hosted the U.S. Navy's first helicopter squadrons, HU-1 (later HC-1) and HU-2 (later HC-2); the "A" and "C" enlisted training schools for the Aerographer's Mate (AG), Aviation Boatswain Mate (AB, ABE, ABF, ABH), and Parachute Rigger / Aircrew Survival Equipmentman (PR) ratings until their transfer to other Naval Air Technical Training Centers; and an Overhaul & Repair (O&R) facility for fixed-wing aircraft, the forerunner of the former Naval Air Rework Facilities and Naval Aviation Depots (NADEPs) now known as Fleet Readiness Centers (FRCs).
Today the base is used for various Naval Aviation development programs. NAES Lakehurst's main airfield has two 5,000 foot runways under its own control tower, while a separate 13,000 foot test runway equipped with a separate control tower and pavement-mounted catapults and arresting gear for testing carrier suitability of new naval aircraft and new flight deck systems is located approximately a mile to the northwest.
Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst is an activity of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIRSYSCOM) and is part of the Navy Lakehurst / Fort Dix / McGuire AFB Complex.
Naval Air Engineering Station (NAES) Lakehurst (also known as NAVAIR Lakehurst and/or Navy Lakehurst), is the northeast's largest naval aviation installation and home to the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, as well as fourteen joint and interagency commands. NAVAIR at NAES Lakehurst is the world leader in Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) and Support Equipment (SE). Our mission, the Aircraft Platform Interface (API), assures that fixed and vertical wing aircraft operate safely and effectively from aircraft carriers, air capable ships and expeditionary airfields worldwide.
With a rich heritage as the nation's lighter-than-air center, Navy Lakehurst is now the DoD's Aircraft Platform Interface expert.
Lakehurst is the world's only provider of full spectrum support for aircraft launch, recovery and support equipment systems for U.S. and Allied Naval Aviation Forces at sea and Marine Corps Expeditionary Aviation Forces ashore. Lakehurst provides these services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, both from the homebase in New Jersey as well as aboard US Navy deployed ships and Marine Expeditionary Forces. From system development, prototyping and manufacturing, testing, training, and in-service engineering, NAES Lakehurst provides the US Navy and Marine Corps aviation forces with "one-stop shopping" for all their Aircraft Platform Interface (API) needs. When it comes to deployed Navy and Marine Corps aviation, the NAES Lakehurst motto says it all: "Without Us, They Don't Go and They Can't Get Back".
NAES Lakehurst is also a joint training and operations base. Host to tenant organizations from Ocean County, the state of New Jersey, the United States Army, United States Air Force, New Jersey Army National Guard, New Jersey Air National Guard, United States Navy Reserve, United States Public Health Service and the United States Department of Justice, NAES Lakehurst provides unparalleled mission capability for its tenants while making innovative use of tenant reimbursements to buy down the total installation infrastructure cost to the Department of Defense and the U.S. Taxpayer. Finally, NAES Lakehurst is part of a unique, three base "Mega-Base" complex with the Army's Fort Dix and the Air Force's McGuire AFB. All told, the unique contiguous arrangement of these three bases provides resident organizations with over 42,000 acres (170 km2) of unique capabilities to meet their mission needs, while surrounded by 58,000 acres (230 km2) of state and federally managed land to protect against encroachment. As such, coupled with its "Heritage of Service", NAES Lakehurst truly represents a "Model for the Future."[6]
In 2005, the United States Department of Defense announced that Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst would be affected by a Base Realignment and Closure. It will be merged with two neighboring military bases, McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix, establishing Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. This will be the first base of its kind in the United States.