Let's Zeppelin: Todd Lappin tours a new airship
Boing Boing pal Todd Lappin took a preview ride in the Airship Ventures craft that will be debuting on Halloween in the Bay Area (see previous BB post about that). Here's a snip from Todd's account:
Operated by a startup called Airship Ventures, the Zeppelin NT will be based out of Moffett Field, Calfornia -- a fitting home, as Moffett was built by the US Navy during the 1920s to serve as a base for military dirigibles.Flight Report: Aloft in a Zeppelin Airship (Telstar Logistics)The new Zeppelins are filled with the inert helium instead of highly flammable hydrogen, they're only about one-quarter the size of than the old giants, and they're equipped with modern technology and avionics. Power is delivered by three Lycoming engines that put out around 200 horsepower each, and the airship frame is constructed from a combination of of aluminum and carbon fiber.
Boarding an airship is not at all like boarding a conventional aircraft, because an airship doesn't sit still; it tends to bob and sway as the wind blows the big balloon around. As a result, climbing on board the Zeppelin is a bit like stepping from a stable dock onto a boat that's rocking on a gentle sea.
Previously: Historic Halloween Steampunk Airship Ride With Victorian Rockers Abney Park
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I want one.
Yesterday when I was on the VTA on my way to work (2 train stops past Moffett Field stop) I saw the blimp. It was incredibly gray outside yesterday morning so when I saw it, it seemed like a ghost, blending in with the clouds.
Let me be the first to say Zeppelin NT?
"NT"!!??
Yikes.
I can't wait for this one:
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q3/080708c_nr.html
http://www.skyhookintl.com/
Somewhere, The Count and Eckener are smiling.
They lost me when they said it was helium. If they used hydrogen (or better yet, a nanomaterial chamber with a vacuum) I would have been all over it.
I always get irritated when people are afraid of hydrogen.
By god that is one ugly interior! Have they no sense of style? So much effort goes into renewing the good name of Zepplin and this is what we get?
I'm thoroughly dissapointed. Neither did they go Buck Rogers nor did they go Steam Punk or even something radically new or different.
Instead we get an afterthought that looks like a crummy plastic monorail train from the mid-90s.
That dirigible is disappointingly small. So much for ocean liners in the sky.
Patience, patience. You cannot expect them to go completely over the top on the first one out the door. Remember, the SS Andrea Doria was not the first cruise ship ever built.
They've got to prove themselves--they're on a budget and starting a business. Baby steps.
If we don't have a crazy superliner on the drawing board in ten years, then we should be disappointed.
(+1 on the not-hydrogen disappointment. Helium is a limited resource and we need it for welding and low temperature research more than flying. Hydrogen can be perfectly safe.)
And I thought helium was too rare (and nonrecoverable once it goes into the atmosphere) to be used like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium#Extraction_and_use
Ah, it's a great day to be working at Moffett. Now where's my checkbook!
(How does the price compare to a hot air balloon up in Napa?)
For those who haven't, and who will be on base, be sure to visit the history museum. It's near Hangar 1, and mostly open around lunchtime. Wonderful exhibits and staff. Too bad they aren't in Hangar 1 anymore, used to be able to walk around inside. Maybe someday, when we get a Macon-sized ocean liner and the Hangar has the outside replaced with something not containing asbestos and PCB's.
Let's see, this one holds 14 people. Double the length, and the lift goes up 8x, so one twice as long should lift 112 people; say a crew of 12 and 100 guests...
Reminds me of the Skyship 200 and 600 floating around over my parents house in Bedford in the UK in the mid-80's. They'd come out of the Cardington hangars, travel north over the town, then turn around over Brickhill and go back. My dad got a ride in one and took a (blurry) photo of our house. These were the ones used in 'View To A Kill' - although in the movie it was shown inflating out of a shed - the real ones were rigid.
I am sooooo envious. Count another vote on saving helium, but IIRC this semi-rigid ship uses ballonets to maintain its shape and control bouyancy, which prevents venting helium.
Please tell me they blast "Immigrant Song" as they sweep over terrified villagers.
Maybe they'll get around to longer flights - there are still some Zep hangers the Navy set up along the Western seaboard for the USS Macon when she was the West Coast scoutship. There's one in Tillamook, Oregon that's calling...
Modern engineers and scientists may come down in favor of hydrogen, but the public is still too terrified by the last seven decades' worth of misinformation about the Hindenburg for any hydrogen-filled craft to get off the ground (so to speak).
Hmm, I have my (fixed wing) Commercial Pilot's License. Who do I have to bribe to get a Zeppelin CPL, please?
Screw being a passenger. They're just self-loading freight. I want to FLY these things!
seems to me, something small enough to keep in a very large garage or small barn ought to lift two using a pedal propeller system...any sky-bicycle plans out there?
video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzE2WTEkHeg
Finally got a chance to look at Todd's flickr set; that ship is beautiful!
Thanks Takuan, vectored flight on an air-bike or bike-blimp or..., pure genius.
This is a blimp: it has no rigid framework inside it. Airships like the Graf Zeppelin had an aluminium frame.
DEWEXDEWEX: This is *not* a blimp, it is an airship with a rigid frame. Just take a look at the pictures: blimps have their engines mounted to the cabin, rigid airships like this one can have them mounted elsewhere to reduce noise for the passengers.