Zeppelin Returns to the US

The largest airship in the world, the Airship Ventures Zeppelin, recently completed a trans-oceanic crossing from Hamburg, Germany, to Beaumont, Texas, aboard a container ship. It has since completed a flight under its own power from Texas to its new home—the former naval air station at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, which is about 64 km south of San Francisco.

Its trans-US journey took the airship west through San Antonio and Fort Stockton, Texas, to Deming, New Mexico; Tucson, Arizona; Palm Springs and Salinas, California. Along this route, the airship crossed the Continental Divide in New Mexico and the San Bernadino Mountains at Banning Pass in California. On its final leg, the Zeppelin travelled up the coast over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Its US ferry flight marked the first time in 71 years that a Zeppelin had flown in the United States. Airship Ventures, the company operating the American Zeppelin, dedicated its trans-US journey to the memory of aviation adventurer Steve Fossett, who set the airship speed record in the Zeppelin (111.8 km/h [69.5 mph or 60.4 knots])—a record that still stands today.

Once established in the San Francisco Bay Area, the airship will offer the only passenger airship flight service in America. “Flightseeing” tours will be offered from several Bay Area locations, showcasing the San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley, Sonoma/Napa wine regions, and the Monterey/Big Sur coastline.

The airship will also be used for a variety of technological and scientific research missions. Round-trip rides from historic Moffett Field began in late October, and flights from Oakland International and Sonoma County Airport start in November, with ticket prices starting at US$495 per person.

In the 1920s and 30s, Zeppelins offered the ultimate in luxury air travel. However, that all changed in 1937 when the Hindenburg exploded as it arrived in Lakewood, New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 people aboard. This signalled the end of passenger airship travel until the German company Zeppelin NT (for New Technology) redesigned the classic airship in the early nineties and its first new Zeppelin began offering passenger flights in Germany in 2001.

The new aircraft is about a third the size of the Hindenburg at 75 metres long, with an internal capacity of 8,255 m3, but is still longer than a Boeing 747 (the Hindenburg was 245 metres long with an internal capacity of 200,000 m3). Instead of hydrogen, as was the case in the Hindenburg’s day, the new aircraft is filled with non-flammable helium.

The Zeppelin NT is a semi-rigid airship. While original Zeppelins had rigid aluminium skeletons, the Zeppelin NT has an internal triangular truss made of graphite-reinforced plastic and three aluminium girders to connect the triangular members along the frame. The frame holds the engines, control car and steering fins.

Unlike earlier airships, the new Zeppelin is not always “lighter than air”. At its maximum all-up weight, the aircraft’s gas cells do not produce enough buoyancy for flight and in order to fly, the airship relies on engine power from three vectored thrust Textron Lycoming IO-360 piston engines driving propellers.

The Zeppelin NT carries a crew of two and twelve passengers in its gondola, and has a useful load capacity of 1,900 kg.

Airship Ventures’ Zeppelin is one of just three in the world so far—the others are in Germany and Japan. Airship Ventures has ordered another two Zeppelins, which should be completed by 2010.