One hundred years ago this month, Ocean County, N.J. was preparing to become the center of the aviation world. The U.S. Navy had purchased the R-38, the world’s largest dirigible, from Great Britain and was renaming it the ZR-2 (the ZR-1 was under construction at Philadelphia).

After its test flights and the training of the U.S. crew, the ZR-2 would fly nonstop across the Atlantic to its new home port, a brand-new hangar and the world’s largest building, located it Lakehurst, N.J.