Army's new spy blimp makes first test flight over N.J.

After a two-month delay, the Army's high-tech spy blimp has made its maiden flight, over the New Jersey Shore.

The football-field-size airship -- Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, in Army parlance -- was put through its paces for 90 minutes Tuesday evening at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a military spokesman confirmed to our Gannett colleagues at the Courier News.

Technicians are "checking to see how the vehicle withstood the flight ... aerodynamic loads," said John Cummings, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command.
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