September  8, 2005

 “Show and Tell” Meeting

 Goodyear Hall

1144 E. Market St .

Room 350A, 7 p.m.

See videos and still images of recent LTAS activities you may have missed, including the expanded Lock 3 Exhibit, The LTAS-hosted Classic Car Club of Ohio gathering, and a visit to the Shenandoah commemoration Sept. 4. There also will be sharing time for showing small artifacts. 

The L-T-A Society’s 

53rd Annual Banquet

Saturday, October 15, 2005  

Paul Martin University Center

105 Fir Hill, Akron, OH 44304 

Lt. Gen. James A. Abrahamson, USAF (Retired)

Chairman and CEO, StratCom International LLC

will be our Special Guest Speaker.

Gen. Abrahamson is Chairman and CEO of StratCom International, LLC, a company developing stratospheric airships for civil telecommunications and military applications.  He has worked closely through StratCom’s contracts with Lockheed Martin Maritime Surveillance Systems-Akron and another Abrahamson affiliate stratospheric airship company, SkySentry LLC, supporting Team Lockheed in the pioneering High Altitude Airship initiative.  

Abrahamson was one of the military’s most broadly experienced and successful program managers.  During his Air Force career he successfully managed the Maverick missile program, the F-16 multinational program, the Space Shuttle Program for NASA (as Associate Administrator for Space Flight) — and he served as the first director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO).  

He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS in Aeronautical Engineering) and obtained his MS degree at the University of Oklahoma in Aerospace Engineering.  He served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and later was an Air Force Test Pilot and he commanded the 4950^th Test Wing at Wright Patterson AFB.  He also was selected to be an Astronaut on the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program (later cancelled).  He served in the Executive Office of the President of the United States , and several other key Air Force staff positions.  He has over 3,500 hours of flying in a wide variety of military and civil aircraft.

His experience in research projects, new technology applications and ballistic missile defense provides unrivaled background in most areas of Missile Defense Agency systems operations, which, he writes, “will all be enhanced by strategic airships in the next few years.”  Abrahamson has been honored with Exceptional Service Awards from the DoD, NASA, USAF and DoE.

Upon retirement, Gen. Abrahamson became Executive Vice President of Hughes Aircraft Company, where he formed and was designated President of Hughes’ Transportation Sector working with civil aircraft and air traffic control initiatives. Later, he became a full time working Chairman of software giant Oracle’s Board of Directors before starting StratCom International, LLC.

Also on the program: An 80th anniversary tribute to the Goodyear blimp “Pilgrim” and a recap of recent Society activities!  Plus: The latest news on the Zeppelin NT in Japan from ZLT Representative.

November 10, 2005

 “The American, Pacific and International Zeppelin Transport Companies"

Attempts to Establish Passenger Airship Service in the United States.   

Goodyear Hall

1144 E. Market St.

Room 350A, 7 p.m.  

This presentation by Eric Brothers delivered to a recent conference of aviation history writers reviews proposals of Zeppelin Transport Companies, chartered to engage in commercial airship operations in the 1930's. 

January 12, 2006

Rick Reitzel

 Reitzel Productions of Columbus, will speak on the production of a new documentary film

"Wreck of the Shenandoah"

February 9, 2006

Eric Brothers

This month's topic will include videos of 

"Airships in Newsreels of the 1920's"

April 13, 2006

Walt Bjerre

Narrating a slideshow of rediscovered 1944-1945 images of 

"BLIMPRON 14 - Overseas"

US Navy Blimp Squadron 14 (ZP-14, or “BLIMPRON 14”) was the only unit in WWII to deploy airships to Europe. This monumental feat required flying K-ship blimps across the Atlantic in the summer of 1944, and establishing bases of operation in North Africa and later In France and Italy.

Highlights of the entire operation — from crews departing home base at
Weeksville, NC to VE Day celebrations in May 1945 — were documented in a series of confidential photo albums produced by squadron photographers. These albums were produced in very limited quantities, and saw even more limited distribution.  While examples of the first and second albums have appeared at naval airship veterans’ reunions, the third and fourth volumes have rarely been seen since WWII.

Recently, examples of all four OVERSEAS albums were located in Naval Historical Center files, and digital images made of the yellowing pages.  Selected images from all four albums will be featured in this presentation, with commentary by Walt Bjerre, who went overseas with ZP-14.  Also included in the program are photos of Bjerre’s later airship activities, including rare color images of some of the post-war blimps he flew, among them the Douglas Leigh “Wonder Bread” ship, the Goodyear ZPG-2 airships he test-piloted, and the Naval Reserve blimps that visited Akron’s ZP-651 Squadron — for which Bjerre served as commanding officer.

Bjerre last spoke to the Society in March 1957, so don’t miss this chance to hear him revisit some of the topics he discussed then, now newly illustrated!

June 8, 2006 7 pm

Rigid Airship Mini Film Fest:

"The USS Akron"

and 

"The Navy's Scouting Airship USS Macon:

Its Construction and Trial Flights"

-- plus some surprises

 Don't miss these rarely-seen cinematic productiions about the rigid airships built in Akron!

Friday, August 11, 2006, 6 pm 

In place of the annual Wingfoot Lake picnic, the Lighter-Than-Air Society 

and the Rubber City Stamp Club will hold a joint picnic 

celebrating the 75th anniversary of the christening of the USS AKRON.

_ _ _ _ _

meeting location

Weltzien Skypark

3071 Greenwich Rd

Wadsworth, OH

(330)-334-9921