Tustin’s immense blimp hangars were a wartime answer to a shortage of steel. The American Society of Civil Engineers explains that steel was needed for ships and other military equipment, so timber became the framing material for structures large enough to shelter six airships apiece.
Each hangar stretched more than 1,000 feet long, with a ceiling height of 178 feet. The engineering feat was the vast open space between supports: a blimp needed room to move, and a forest of interior columns would have defeated the purpose.
The city’s base history adds a detail that is easy to miss. Operations began in 1942 with one blimp, then expanded to 12 using a concrete mat and mooring mast while the hangars were completed the following year. Those aircraft patrolled the coastline after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The buildings later found another use. When the base returned to military service in 1951, their enormous interiors accommodated helicopter storage and maintenance. The north hangar was destroyed by fire in 2023, making older photographs especially valuable records. This is a historical look at the original pair, not an invitation to enter the former military site.
