Blimps Make Comeback In Aerial Security

Blimps Make Comeback In Aerial Security

Navy Makes New Use Of Old Technology

POSTED: 7:14 a.m. EDT May 21, 2002
UPDATED: 8:16 a.m. EDT May 21, 2002

NEW YORK -- At a time when Vice President Dick Cheney says terrorists almost certainly are plotting more attacks on America, the government's planning a back-to-the-future defense.

A White House memo obtained by NewsChannel 4 indicates blimps could soon be flying again to protect cities like New York.

The new program's ready for takeoff at Floyd Bennett Field.

It says Fuji, but this week the blimp's been loaned to the Navy. With Fleet Week about to start, the government's floating a new dimension on homeland security.

In 2002 America, blimps are no longer just a fun flying advertisement to be watched. Now they're also looking back at you.

"The camera on board the airship is so powerful that it can read the newspaper over your shoulder from 1,000 feet," Bruce Renny of the Lightship Group said.

Renny's Lightship Group owns and operates two-thirds of the world's blimps -- including one that brought the Rolling Stones to New York this month.

The company's on a White House memo obtained by NewsChannel 4 that describes a global inventory of blimps. All of which, the memo says, "can provide surveillance of general urban areas and strategic facilities (like ports, nuclear plants, and waterways)."

This week, the Fuji blimp, operated by Airship Management, will become an observation platform for military agents and the NYPD. They'll be watching over a visiting fleet and thousands of sailors, as, for the first time since Sept. 11, the public has a chance to tour U.S. Navy ships.

"You can have personnel talking to vehicles on the ground, to personnel on the ground, who can intercept the bad guys," Fleet Week spokesman Capt. William Armstrong said.

It's not the first collaboration of blimps and security since September. Blimp operators say they've taken FBI agents over at least 15 sporting events, including the Daytona 500 and the Sugar Bowl.

Outside that New Year's Day ballgame, a photographer in a blimp attempted a security score. He saw a suspiciously isolated bag.

"At that point the FBI officer on board the airship took command and directed his people on the ground to that bag. It turns out to have been simply an unattended bag. But the point is the incident was identified and was under control in less than a minute." Renny said.

The drafting of blimps in America's new war on terrorism comes four decades after the end of their last military mission. That's a mission that began in World War I and triumphed in World War II.

Blimps watched for enemy submarines.

"If it saw something suspicious, a piece of wreckage, or better yet a periscope, it could hover," William Althoff, author of "Sky Ships," said.

John Kane was an ensign when he was assigned to an airship squadron in 1944. By satellite from his hometown of St. Louis he recalls the ability of blimps to fly as far as to Africa and back without touching down or refueling.

"The main thing is the ability of the airship to remain aloft as a stable platform and I don't think any other powered aircraft today can do the same job," Ret. Capt. John Kane of the Naval Airship Association said.

So from scanning for bad guys at ballparks, to visiting vigilance over cities, blimps are back on patrol.

"Times have changed and the technology has changed. But this is an opportunity to marry old technology with new technology to meet today's needs," Armstrong said.

Blimps cost about $1,000 an hour to operate. For Fleet Week, when one will be watching over New York full time, it's been loaned by Fuji to the U.S. Navy for free.