Abandoned Airship Fields IN JAX area... Build on HISTORY

[Ocklawaha]

Besides seeing blimps out near the river at NAS JAX, we also had two other fields with airship landing facilities. One, Francis LTA-OLF Naval station was designed to handle coastal patrol blimps. Switzerland, OLF was both a training field for airplanes AND for Blimps, but the airships moved to Francis in WWII and Switzerland's Blimp Circle was turned into a bomb range target. Perhaps something survives at Switzerland? I haven't been back to look, but someone said new construction was started when the bottom fell out of the housing market. Wonder if they destroyed it all?


Switzerland long after abandonment, the Airship facility was in the upper left of the photo.


Airship Pad at Switzerland in 1942 - Mid WWII.


Francis Field, (World Golf Village) taken in 1940's shows heavy use of the mooring mast, a 30 ton monster that was "movable", thus the marks on the ground. The Airship approached like a plane, a large ground crew in a "V" shape took up the lines and ran up each leg of the "V". The Mast was positioned to come in and link in the middle or between the two top parts of the line men. The ship was moored to the center of the circle and weighted to stay level. The mast allowed it to pivot, so it was ALWAYS facing the wind. Thus the circle.


Francis Field, (World Golf Village) in a fairly recent photo, looks like we could land any time.

For you airplane types there were three more fields down this way besides St. Augustine. Trout Creek NOLF was between Switzerland and Francis, last I heard it is all developed now. Lee Field NAS was at Green Cove Springs long dead base and "industrial park" (gee wouldn't a Navy recall to Lee be better then Cecil?) There was also Thunderbolt (Named for the famous fighter plane) on Flemming Island, that served out it's final years as a drag race track, before being developed.

Check out the Zeppelin Post and see how we could use this again... Is JAXPORT or JAA paying any attention?

Ocklawaha

[stephenc]

Not sure if it was military or not but didnt there used to be an old airfield out where oakleaf planation is today, near the intersection of argyle and old middleburg?

[Jason]

I've been seeing hot air baloons at World Golf Village a lot recently.

[Ocklawaha]

Might be a connection there Jason, though they are not "dirigible" (a French word from Latin, that means "steerable" or "controllable" ( Latin drigere, to direct; see direct + -ible ) which is why the field was built the way it was. It would be great if they decided to use it for this purpose, bring in the new Zeppelin NT and run excursions. Not even MICKEY could pull this off without a lot of work. We have it turn-key! Thanks for the info, maybe I'll chase it down when I get back... I mean how many airplane crews and aviation buffs play golf too? Duh?

StephenC, You are right about that too. It was Branan Field Navy OLF. It is suspected that the first Blue Angels stunts were practiced their. It was used under the cover of the statement "we practiced in the Everglades" (but aircraft range and costs of the day make that sound like code-speak for "somewhere out of sight") Brannon is slowly being developed and not even a marker to it's former glory. There is also a bomb range and Clay County is building a school on it. I hope those kids are not into digging holes in the ground like some of my friends were, THAT could be an ugly sandpile.

StephenC This photos for you:

A well used Branan Field. Even looks like some traffic on a longer approach upper right. It was shaped like this and marked off in Air Craft Carrier lengths. So as a carrier turned into the wind, whatever the compass setting, the field could copy it with a simple wind sock.


THIS IS THE JACKSONVILLE SW GROUP
:
Belmore LTA? NOLF  - Branan NOLF - Fleming Island NOLF -  Foremost NOLF - Howey Airport - Lake Butler NOLF -Middleburg Airprot / Middleburg NOLF  - Stengel Airport


Ocklawaha

[stephenc]

Thanks, Ock! Grew up around there and saw it on maps growing up but couldn't find a way back there without trespassing. Thanks for the pic.

[civil42806]

great pics, the history aspect of this site is one of its strongest assets

[blizz01]

Pretty good article from the T-U last month - I used to hang out at the abandoned strip in Fleming Island (Thunderbolt) when I was young(er)

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062908/met_297155707.shtml

[BridgeTroll]

Very cool... Thanks Ock...

[Ocklawaha]

Great replys guys, didn't know anyone but myself even cared about this stuff. I still wish we could save a tiny fragment of Branon, as it WAS where the Blue Angels first practiced. I have spent many hours at both Switzerland AND Thunderbolt in the days before the City ate them.

I really don't trust the clean up effort enough to turn this land at Spencer into a school! Something more passive maybe, like a nature preserve with a warning not to touch ANY odd object.

Ocklawaha

[civil42806]

Actually the history part, at least in my mind, is one of the strongest assets of this site.  My mothers family has been here since before the great fire, and actually have a mayor in my ancestry.   Though far more of my relatives have spent there time in the jail.  The citizens of jax really don't have a grasp of our past.  I'll admit I didn't know that Jax beer was originally brewed here.  I hope we can reclaim the brand.  In the mean time keep making posts like this and we need to find more.