Zeppelin Could Return to NASA Ames

Airship Ventures, a company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a thing for rigid helium filled airships. They plan to bring a modern carbon composite Zeppelin and offer sightseeing flights around the Bay to the public for $250-500 a ride, perhaps as soon as October 2008. They have been working with the local city governments early in the process to address any concerns they may have about hangearing the ship at NASA's Moffett Field during inclement weather and for maintenance. They hope to have tourists board their flight at Moffett in addition to other potential sites around the Bay and Wine Country.

Flying at 500 to 1000 ft above the ground, you will have a bird's-eye view of famous landmarks (such as the Golden Gate bridge, Coit Tower,
Alcatraz, etc in the San Francisco Area)

Modern Zeppelins are already carrying passengers in Germany, Japan and South Africa (the third ship was used in Botswana to search for diamonds). You can check out pictures of their operations on the Airship Ventures website.

Alexandra Hall is the CEO of Airship Ventures and a PhD Astrophysicist. Before starting Airship Ventures with her husband Brian, she was the head of the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California. Together the Halls have taken their common love for airships (you should see how many they have on their Christmas tree) and have turned it into a business that will bring their beloved vessel back to service in the US.

"Is this a blimp?"

No. While externally Zeppelins and blimps look quite alike, and indeed its not uncommon to hear people talking about zeppelins when they mean blimps, there is a significant difference. A blimp does not have an internal rigid frame. This means that typically the engines have to be mounted to the gondola. In a Zeppelin, the engines are mounted to the frame on the side of the hull, where they are both more effective, and quieter than their gondola mounted counterparts on blimps.

In return for providing a hangear big enough for an airship, NASA would receive payment that can help fund operations of the airfield and use the airship for scientific instrumentation and data collection of their own. The major advantage of the Zeppelin is that it is a lot quieter then than traditional aircraft and thus more likely to keep the neighbors happy.

Of course you can't talk about bringing Zeppelin's back without a Led Zeppelin reference. In Airship Ventures' blog they discuss that in reading the original history of Count Zeppelin's airships that they originally called the steps leading up into the airship's gondola "Himmelstreppe" in German or "Stairway to Heaven."

In tribute I will now put on one of my favorite Zeppelin tunes- "Over the Hills and Far Away". I hope the new ships will have a really good sound system...

Zeppelin Plan Picks Up Speed [Palo Alto Daily News]

Images: NASA and Airship Ventures