Photo by Christine Basham The VXS-1 MZ-3A airship is moored to its mast truck on Pax River’s Trapnell Field.

The VXS-1 MZ-3A Airship — in other words, a blimp — moored near Hangar 109 March 5 on its way from Lakehurst, N.J. to Yuma, Ariz., where it will be stationed for at least the next six months. While there, the airship will be an integral part of ‘‘a multi-service venture to impact the war fighter, we hope, very soon,” said VXS-1 Commanding Officer Cmdr. Chris Janke.

VXS-1 is a part of the Naval Research Laboratory, and the time at Yuma will be ‘‘the first level of development for war fighter systems,” said Janke. ‘‘We try as many different flight regimes as we can, so the client can test things at airship height and speed.”

An airship’s ability to travel slowly and hover for long periods is just as valuable to the war fighter as it is for sporting event coverage. Aside from the height and speed capabilities of an airship, their fabric construction means that onboard radar equipment is not troubled by the ‘‘shadow zone” of a standard aircraft.

The blimp has spent the past two years at Lakehurst. While it is owned by NAVAIR, Lakehurst has one of the country’s few airship hangars, and NAVAIR had existing tenants there. NAVAIR is responsible for ensuring that maintenance, operations, and qualifications all are kept to Navy standards.

Burt Race, a retired Navy pilot, works as a civilian employee of NAVAIR to verify that Integrated Systems Solutions — the California, Md. firm that operates the airship — follows all NAVAIR requirements. He also intends to become a certified airship pilot himself.

For now, though, the craft relies on Chief Pilot Peter Buckley, a dual United Kingdom⁄United States citizen with approximately 24,000 hours of flying time in airships, and second pilot Russell Mills. ‘‘I’m very interested in the science of it, and now I’m involved in the design and engineering of airships,” Buckley said.

Buckley started flying them in 1975, trained by Goodyear blimp pilots who received their training from the last U.S. Navy airship pilots. This direct line of succession brings airships back to the Navy for the first time since 1962.

While in transit to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, the VXS-1 MZ-3A relies on a mast truck to provide a broad, stable mooring area at each stopping point. ‘‘It secures to the truck, but weathervanes around,” explained Janke. ‘‘It needs a big circle.”

At 175.5 ft. in length, with a volume of 170,000 cubic feet, the MZ-3A is an imposing presence on the airfield. Compared to the World War II-era warships of about 1 million cubic feet, however, it’s almost tiny.

The unique requirements of an airship extend beyond the hangar. In flight, the MZ-3A stays in constant radio contact with its ground crew. On this trip, the blimp and crew will follow two interstate highways, first I-95 South and then I-10 West.

Whether or not to follow highways doesn’t really matter to the airship, but it does to the ground crew. They need as simple a path as possible, so they can keep track of the blimp’s location at all times. The ground crew also transports spare parts, an additional mast, and a mobile fuel tank.

‘‘The fuel has to be on a truck that’s running, so it can move if the wind moves the ship,” Janke explained. Of course, the MZ-3A never moves very fast. It travels about 55 mph, depending on wind conditions. Over the course of an 8-10 hour flight, that translates to about 250 miles.

Doesn’t the saying go, ‘‘slow and steady wins the day”?