New remote controlled webcam at Zeppelin

Just adding to this weeks Zeppelin news, we would like to share the new Zeppelin Webcam with you. This brand new Webcam can be controlled by you. Yes by you, it is a remote controlled webcam, you can tilt it, rotate and use the zoom. It's really worth a try, click on the image below to jump right to it.

We have to thank H.P.Stroehle a Pilot at Zeppelin for his announcement on the Airhip-list. He gave a little bit of an explanation on how to use the camera:

Normally, after getting into the webcam, clicking on the picture, you get into a waiting position, if there´s somebody else using the camera movement tool. On top of the picture you will see, which is your number in the waiting list. As soon as it´s your turn, you will have approx. 120 seconds to play with the camera yourself. If you Zoom in properly on the ship, you´ll be able to see quite some details.

Here´s Friday´s schedule:

Friday morning, at 08:00 hours, European Time ( 06:00 UTC or ZULU) you will see the Zeppelin leaving the hangar. We´ll be doing some engine checks and adjustment, since we changed the aft engine today.

We are planning to fly throughout the whole day. At approx. 14:20 local (12:20 UTC) we should be landing for a REFUEL and I´ll be taking over the afternoon shift.

We are planning to fly tomorrow until 20:30 (local), 18:30 UTC.

Have fun checking it out. I´ll be putting on my best smile into the cam.....:-)

He continued in a second mail saying

If you Zoom in on -7 Vision Angle and -18 Pitch Angle with approximately 50% of ZOOM you will see the Dornier Float Plane standing in Front of our Hangar. This is the one that Iren Dornier flew around the world a few years ago.

And this plane you also see in the picture above, since it is night in Germany and was already when I took the picture, it's quite dark but one can see the plane. So if you are now intereted, go to http://dvmail.zeppelin-nt.com:8080/lisa/index_e.html but make sure you have Java installed and activated. If you do not have it, the webcam can not be used, go to http://www.java.com to download and install the Java Runtime Environment.

Airship Ventures also having a press release

Yesterday Airship Ventures also went online with the press release that Zeppelin issued earlier the day. You can see the Airship Ventures press release at their new website. In addition to the press release they also went "a little more official" on their blog, explaining their motives and giving some background information in their latest post. We are preparing a longer interview with Alex and Brian Hall so please send us your questions that you would like us to ask Airship Ventures. Send your question to airshipworld+questions@gmail.com.

RC Airship Regatta - official results

So just a quick follow-up article to our previous post about the rc airship regatta 2007. The official results are out here is the list of the airships and their pilots:

1. Iris - Johannes Eißing
2. Centriolo - Dominik Baumüller
3. Dubbel Bubbel 2 (TU München) - Christian Rößler
4. Homer - Phillip Neuhaus
5. Hinkelstein (TU Berlin) - Martin Zobel
6. Kirby (Stuttgart) - Wolfgang Heydlauff
7. Microbe (Beyond Gravity) - Dominik Baumüller
8. LarsPing (TU Berlin) - Martin Zobel
9. Dubbel Bubbel - Gerhard Hattinger
10. EAP-Blimp C20 - EMPA-Erich

To get a even more detailed list with times and sizes, and statistics you can go to the files Section of the rc_airship_regatta Yahoo group under München 2007 you will find the Results labeled "Auswertung_Airship-Race2007_Muenchen.pdf". You can only access these Files if you are a member of the Group, but membership is free so join the group, and tell them that we sent you. Also in the group you can find some additional photos from the event in the Photo Albums under Muenchen DGLR2007.

Zeppelin NT soon in California [update:confirmed]

I just received this press release. This is an unofficial press release as of now, since I could not find anything on the Websites of Zeppelin or Airshipventures. Until it is confirmed this information should be considered speculative. [update]I just contacted Zeppelin and yes it is confirmed. This is an official press release. Attached are also some pictures at the end of the post.[/update]

ZEPPELIN LUFTSCHIFFTECHNIK OPTIONS ZEPPELIN NT TO AIRSHIP VENTURES

Zeppelin Airships Return to the US

Friedrichshafen, Germany and Los Gatos, California, June 26, 2007 - Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik (ZLT) and Airship Ventures today announced that Zeppelin’s fourth Zeppelin NT 07, currently under construction in Friedrichshafen, has been optioned by California based Airship Ventures, Inc. It is projected to arrive in the US in the second quarter of 2008.

Airship Ventures Inc, a corporation formed to bring passenger Zeppelin operations to the US, intends to conduct exclusive flight-seeing tours as well as carry scientific and other special mission payloads.

Thomas Brandt, CEO of ZLT and Michael Schieschke COO of ZLT, announcing the agreement, said “We had previously identified the San Francisco Bay Area as a highly promising location in the world for a Zeppelin to operate. And in Airship Ventures, we are proud to find the partner that has taken the step into the optioning of the airship to bring this historic opportunity closer to realization.”

The Zeppelin NT 07 airship, carrying up to 12 passengers, will be the largest airship flying in the US. At 246 feet in length, it is more than 50ft longer than the largest blimp. Using the inert gas helium for lift, and vectored thrust engines for flight, the Zeppelin NT has been flying with an unparalleled safety record in Germany, Japan and South Africa since 2001.

Brian Hall, President of Airship Ventures commented “We are excited to be working with Zeppelin to bring this unique vehicle and its breathtaking passenger experiences to the US. The San Francisco Bay Area has a rich history involving airships in such locations as Treasure Island and Moffett Field and it will seem particularly appropriate to have the Zeppelin operating here.”

The NT 07 airships have been commercially operated since 2001 carrying more than 65,000 passengers and have flown for over 10,000 flight hours to date. It has also performed numerous special missions such as traffic control during the 2006 FIFA Soccer World Championship, diamond exploration on behalf of DeBeers in Southern Africa, and is currently the largest ever flying art project, bearing the colourful and unique artwork of Stefan Szczesny in support of an international art festival on Mainau Island, Lake Constance, Germany.

Alexandra Hall, CEO of Airship Ventures said “The Zeppelin is such a well thought out and engineered vehicle. It is uniquely suited to both leisure operations and as a platform for conducting experiments. I’m particularly excited about the range of science and industry partnerships that this will enable. The view from the airship will be magical, but then it will be flying over some of the most innovative and exciting landscape in the country!”

ABOUT ZEPPELIN LUFTSCHIFFTECHNIK GMBH & CO KG

Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co KG, headquartered in historic Friedrichshafen, Germany, develops, manufactures and markets the Zeppelin NT, a modern lighter than air multi-purpose airship. There are three Zeppelin NT airships currently operating in the world – one in Japan, one in South Africa, and one in Germany. In partnership with Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, a Zeppelin NT 07 has flown commercial air tours, advertising, and scientific missions throughout Europe since 1997.

ABOUT AIRSHIP VENTURES, INC.

Airship Ventures Inc., founded 2007 in Los Gatos, California, is a privately owned corporation formed with the initial objective of bringing a Zeppelin NT07 airship to the US for commercial air tours, scientific payloads, media and advertising operations.
# # #

Airship Ventures is a trademark of Airship Ventures, Inc. Zeppelin is a trademark of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co KG. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Zeppelin Contact:
Kathrin Runge
Press Relations
k.runge@zeppelin-nt.de
+49-7541-5900-547

Airship Ventures Contact:
Alexandra Hall
CEO
pr@airshipventures.com
+1-408-317-4310

Thanks to John Christopher for publishing this first on the Airship-list.

Windream One, the first airship to cross the atlantic in this century

The last transatlantic flight by an airship was around 1937, the crash of the Hindenburg put a sudden end to this era. Now more than 70 years later a new project is under development, called Windream One. It is financed and sponsored by Theolia, an independent European company producing 100% clean energy from wind power sources and others, like biomass or solar energy. The project was already announced on march 20th this year but we haven't yet had a chance to report about it. Now they have reached another milestone which lead us to report about it. The project consists of a team of twenty private and university researchers, technical and financial partners, all thanks to the inspiration, knowledge and daring of the project’s pilots – the creator behind the project Stéphane Rousson, well known in the LTA (lighter than air) industry for his Zeppy Project and the navigator-adventurer Peggy Bouchet, whose project expertise and experience include rowing solo across the Atlantic. The Windream One is a dirigible that is powered by the sun through solar power the wind and the sea using a unique technology called « chien de mer » (CDM). I could not yet figure out exactly how it works, but as soon as we find out we will report on it. Stéphane has started tests with the CDM just a few days ago, as is reported by gizmag. The article also contains some pictures of the Zeppy Blimp using the CDM.
The actual crossing flight of the Windream One is scheduled for 2008, right now the team has set up a camp at a former Naval Air Station on the French Mediterranean coast. Besides technical tests, Stéphane and Peggy go through survival and flight trainings, to be prepared for the great voyage.
We will continue to report on the progress of the project, if you want even more infos right now, check out these PDFs especially the press pack is very interesting since it gives you an overview about the whole project. They are in chronoloigcal order, the last one is the newest one.

• Press release : Official Launch of the Windream One project.
• Press pack : The WINDREAM ONE project
• A New Stage for the THEOLIA-Windream One Team

Is there anything that you would like to know in particular? Anything that we should investigate? Email us or post in the comments, we will try to address your questions in our next post about the Windream One project.

Airshipventures brings the Zeppelin to the US

Yesterday CNet released an article about Airship Ventures, we have talked about them before. The company run by Alexandra and Brian Hall is planning to get a Zeppelin NT to the US and make tourist flights as well as other missions with it in the San Fransisco Bay Area. To read the full article go to CNet.com. This announcement was made unofficially in a report given at Ester Dysons Flight School. Airship Ventures has not yet issued an official press release or made an announcement of that kind. But this is planned once talks with investors are sorted out and many of the questions raised in the article will be answered at that time. We are in very close contact with Airship Ventures and know that this is a serious business done by professionals. Talks with Zeppelin are on the way and according to Bruce Blake of the Airship-list the FAA approval of the Zeppelin NT is progressing,

a recent meeting (ZLT + FAA) in Cologne was successfully completed. Acceptance of the Type in the USA is anticipated by the end of Summer'07.

Airship Ventures also went live with their new company website, which is run in parallel to the Blog. It's definitely worth a look and gives a lot more of insight information. For those in the industry the "Careers" page is worth bookmarking. For people interested in flying with the Zeppelin the "How to buy a Ticket" site is useful. Make sure to check back here at our Blog for more updates about Airship Ventures in the following weeks. If you haven't yet subscribed to the Blog you can do this either via email, to get updates delivered right into your inbox or you can subscribe to our RSS Feed, and read it in you aggregator. If you don't have an aggregator yet, check out Bloglines for example.

Zepplin NT at the Aero 2007

Just found this video during my lunch break and thought I publish it on the blog. It shows the Zeppelin NT at the Aero 2007 in Friedrichshafen with the Design by Stefan Szczesny just coming back from a flight.

=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 3

The time has come for the third installment of =Future>Flight. Paul Boldt sent us the next part of his story, if you have missed the previous episodes read them here:
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 1
=FUTURE>FLIGHT - an airship story - Part 2

=FUTURE>FLIGHT

Installment Three: From Shore to Ship.

Helicopter (let alone airship?) rides don’t agree at all with my stomach, so I popped a Dramamine as I was downloading the info on my watch previously. Now, as I exited to the top floor for the helipad, I walked down the hall to one of the kiosks and putting my wrist under the reader I let it scan the info from my watch. The video monitor identified the attendant on the other side of the screen as Trulee from Guam. “How are you doing your afternoon, Mr. Arday?” her voice slightly rolling the r in my name. Her software enhanced makeup keep changing the colors of the eye shadow around her eyes, giving a slightly hypnotic attention draw to her beautiful blues. “I’ve had better days, Trulee”. “Sorry to hear that Mr. Arday, I see that you don’t have any special dietary needs for the upcoming airship flight to the Bahamas, has that changed? “No”. Do you have any special requests or travel arrangements you’d like me to book for you, Sir?”, “No, not right now, thanks”. “Well, have a great flight on board the Stratus, and please watch the virtual attendant presentation that I’ve just downloaded to your infoband within the next hour. Thank you Mr. Arday, bye, bye”. And she was gone with a wink of an eye.

Looking out toward the helicopter my intestines started to knot. As I walked toward the thing with five little popsickle sticks that rotated around at high speeds hopefully to fly us from high on top the rooftop to on top of a moving vehicle floating around the skies. Luckily, I was moving to the middle of the roof and not towards the edge.

I slide into the furthest seat in the back the hell-copter, one without a direct window view. I slipped on my virtual visor and settled back and watched the mandatory safety viewing that you either have to be there in person aboard the airline to watch, i.e. this is a safety buckle latch (like a seat belt at an impact at 400+ mph on a jet airline is supposed to save you, or your air masks will fall out of the ceiling (like that is going to happen when all the electronics are on fire in the cockpit).

At least I never saw this presentation, as it was to be my first airship ride. The presentation was introduced by an animatronic (cg robot) who the company lovingly named Sao Elmo, which could speak any language on the planet, I switched on Afrikans just to see if sounded like Dutch, it did. I switched the program back to English. Elmo reinstated the fact that I knew, that these airships flew with helium as opposed to hydrogen (which didn’t help the Hindenburg, except with better lift). The presentation first showed the whole airship model being rotated 360 degrees, showing its sleek design, the robot giving the virtual tour first showed which was the front of the airship and then what the rear looked like.

Zoom views gave the major entrances, and the program even gave me a personalized viewing of the entrance I’d be going into, the helipad which was on top of the airship less than a third of the way back from the bow of the airship. Elmo explained how the airship would be slowing slightly to create less turbulence. The virtual helicopter aligned and touched the landing pad, and was instantly electromagnetically secured. Bay doors opened up and swallowed the 20 person helicopter that always rode piggyback throughout all the flights, picking up and dropping off innermedairies.

After the helicopter was lowered down into the bay, the bay doors would close, making the airship streamlined again, then we could get out. We would then travel down on a 25 degree slope on a transport trolley to the passenger level. Elmo showed me all the way to the single cab room I’d be riding in, even though my watch could also guide me to the room after I actually arrived. Impressively, all the sleeping cabins had windows. I felt the actual helicopter that I was now actually flying in lurch into the air off of the rooftop out across the city below. Errgh.

My presentation went on about how safe these new airships are and gave info on evacuation into the parachuting life pods at the bottom of the ship, that were life boats that could seat 30 people in each, and would float on water, and even had emergency supplies and water. The mandatory portion for viewing was completed. I started to view the rest of the infosite.

(Next Installment to follow: IV Renaissance)

Zeppelin NT in Japan soon to offer sightseeing flights?!?

I took notice of the fact that the Nippon Airship Corporation had something going on though a Forum post that I stumbled over today. So we started our high tech auto translator and tried to decipher some of what was written on the all Japanese website of NAC. The most interesting we found was:

Aeronautical transport business permission was delivered!
2007 June 1st

　The japanese airship, May 31st, acquired aeronautical transport business permission from the national traffic ministry.
When after this, it receives various tests and facility inspection and passes to those everything, the transport business more and more by the airship becomes possible. In this, also sightseeing flight is included of course.

　Already, from many everyone in regard to sightseeing we receive the inquiry, but start time (*) and fee setting and the place etc have not reached to still last decision. As soon as the rule, because at this home page we guide, now please wait for a while.

　* It is schedule after this fall.

In plain old English that means to me that they got a permission to make passenger flights on May 31st only some tests have to be made until they are allowed to start scheduling flights. The first flights might be scheduled this fall. I will try to get into contact with NAC to get some inside information form them but the Google Language Tools definitely where helpful. To check out the NAC Website in English(or what's supposed to English) got to this Google Translated Site. I suggest to look across the page, there are some nice pictures of the Zeppelin NT in Japan and some more stories, like the earthquake disaster restoration investigation from April.

Skycruise SKS600 (aka The Spirit of Dubai) now Allegro.pl

The story of the Spirit of Dubai today comes to a final closing, since it is no more. The Skyship which was at the Zeppelin Hangar in Friedrichshafen for maintenance (we reported earlier here and here) is now on it's way to Poland for it's new contractor Allegro.pl. According Trevor Hunt form the Airship-List it is an "E-bay type company" and the airship "will be visiting a variety of Polish cities until the end of September."
Here is a picture of the new design, provided by Arnold Nayler via the Airship-list

More pictures can also be found on the Airships Europe Blog at
http://airships-europe.blogspot.com/2007/06/of-palm-to-allegro.html
The airship is owned and operated by the swiss company Skycruise Switzerland which will also carry out the flights in Poland.

RC Airship Regatta Munich coverage

Sorry that there wasn't a post yesterday, but I was out on the (rail)road to Munich for the RC Airship Regatta. The regatta was the closing event of this years DGLR workshop. Here is our coverage complete with pictures and videos. There were 10 airships present, in order of appearance those were:

• Kirby - Wolfgang Heydlauff(TU Stuttgart)
• Centriolo - Dominik Baumüller
• Homer - Philip Neuhaus
• EAPinguin -Erich Fink
• Double Bubble - Gerhard Hattinger
• Double Bubble 2
  
• Mikrobe - Dominik Baumüller
• LarsPing - Martin
• Iris - Johannes Eißing
• Hinkelstein - Martin

The RC Airship Regatta was first held 4 years ago and ever since it has been held in context of the yearly DGLR meetings and at special events. The goal is to try out new airship designs in the small and let them compete against each other. It's also an opportunity for students and younger people to get interested and involved with airships and LTA technology. Johannes Eissing is the organizer of the regattas and set up a yahoo group at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rc_airship_regatta for communication, organization and planning of regattas. Everybody interested in remote controlled blimps and airship design is welcome to join. Right now these events are only in Germany, but if there are interested people around the world who would like to set up such events in their country, please contact us at airshipworld or Johannes. Mini airships are a great way to get involved and also to raise the visibility of airships in the public. The designs competing this the race should not be confused with toys, they are built by people who are involved in airships in the day job, like Johannes who previously worked for Cargolifter and is now working for Zeppelin. If you already have a remote controlled blimp and would like to race someone, send us an email, and we will help you organize a race.
Check out our slideshow and webalbum on Picassa containing fotos of the race:

We also have a few videos of the runs up on YouTube as a playlist, check them out:

Hyperblimp an UFO over Salt Lake City

A few days ago Daniel Geerys Hyperblimp caused some buzz around his hometown Salt Lake City. He tried out a new propeller which showed good results, but turned out to suck the battery dry in minutes. The result was that the Blimp was left uncontrollable hovering over the downtown area of Salt Lake. All this caused quite some people to look into the sky and worry what that UFO up in the sky might be. The local TV Station KUTV has an extensive Article about the event with video and picture footage. it's worth a read. Also FOX news reported on it with a video. This is of course some great publicity for blimps and airships, since it shows once again what kind of outreach an airship can have when used for advertising, but I think Daniel, had not really intended to create so much media attention. If you want to see more of this RC-Blimp (remote controlled blimp) check out these YouTube videos

To see even more videos you should check out Daniel Geerys YouTube Site. If you want to see some other RC-blimp and airships fly and you happen to live in Europe why don't you check out the RC Airship Regatta this Saturday in Munich Germany, we will be there and take pictures and videos, hope to see you there. For more informations email us at our known email address or post a comment. If you can't stop by check the blog, we will cover the event with some special posts.

Dynalifter update. It's still alive

Robert Rist from Ohio Airships provided me with a quick update on the Dynalifters state, this is what we wrote:

The Dynalifter's Hangar was damaged, and maintained somewhat intact after today's inspections. Main collapse missed the Dynalifter's main beam by inches. The aircraft is repairable, not destroyed. We are looking for a new location.

It's good to know that the Dynalifter was not completely destroyed but the repairs will obviously take some time. We will keep you posted, when the Dynalifter found a new hangar and is ready to fly again.

Want to pilot the goodyear blimp ?

The website Jetemployment offers jobs in the global aviation industry, and this time in the LTA (Lighter Than Air) industry. Their current job offering is for a "Zeppelin Pilot", but to be more precise they do not look for a Zeppelin pilot but for a blimp pilot no just any blimp no they are looking for a pilot of the Goodyear Spirit of America the job offering reads the responsibilities in this job as follows:

• Operating the airship safely, effectively and efficiently to assure optimum utilization of the aircraft for favorable exposure of the Goodyear name.
• In concert with the Pilot-in-Charge, accomplishing public relations assignments by planning, organizing, directing, operating, maintaining and administering the airship operation, including airship, personnel, passenger safety and ground support equipment and obtaining maximum exposure of the company name.
• Commanding and assuming responsibility for the aircraft and functional operation during take-off, flight and landing when piloting alone.
• Assisting in forward planning of airship mission requirements with respect to travel accommodations (airports and motels) movement of the airship and ground support service vehicles and airship personnel.
• Assisting the Pilot-in-Charge in ensuring compliance with all company standard practice and policies, as well as FAA Regulations.

If you want to read the full job offering go to http://jetemployment.com/zeppelin-pilot/.
It sounds like a great job, and if you need more information go to www.goodyearblimp.com and check out the Goodyear Website. I just discovered it, via this job posting and have to say it's a really great site with lot's of background information and nice videos and images. It's worth a look even if you don't want to become an airship pilot.

Dynalifter prototype destroyed

Mark Fisher sent this already around the Airship-list but we would like to share this sad news with those who do not subscribe to this list. The Dynalifter prototype got wrecked by a storm this last weekend. On the X-Plane Forums there was a post by Robert Rist reporting that the Dynalifter prototype got severely damaged. Here is the full text:

See attached Pictures, Winds Last Friday hit hanger near 80 Plus MPH. The hanger protected the prototype till the end. There is damage to aircraft, but all and all not too bad. The aircraft bent under the stress of the hanger rings, but if you notice the south wall held, and the aircraft fell under the south wall. The main beam of aircraft though bent is intact and still there. The tail though beat up still solid. The aircraft was undergoing modification to lower weight of landing gear. If you look close you can see the new Starboard landing gear took the brunt of the load and just flatten the tire. We have not seen the cockpit yet. Thanks for all your support in this project. I think we can rebuild the aircraft, but need to now find another airport, and hanger. As you know, it takes a lot of ups and downs to get an aircraft as new as this going. We are very positive for the future, and we consider this an act of God, and we proceed. As it says on the side of the aircraft... WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, including wind burst. We go on.

Bob Rist
OAi

These are the pictures which are mentioned in the post, click on them to get a bigger size.

If you want to read the original post then go here. It's sad to see this happen. We are still waiting for an interview by Robert Rist but haven't gotten back from him. We will now add more questions about the storm wreckage and how the project will now continue to our interview.

A personal Blimp goes Cartoon and XLTA roundup

Dan Nachbar one of the creators of the Personal Blimp and organizer of the XLTA must have been stoked when he had seen this issue of the Comic Rose is Rose. The Blimp seen in the last picture looks extremely similar to his very own Skyacht.

Todd from the Airship-List had found the comic strip first and I really would like to thank him for the find. Check out Dan Nachbars Personal Blimp page for pictures of the Skyacht and compare yourself.
I had previously mentioned the XLTA, which was held from June 1-3, 2007, if you read the Blog you must have gotten the announcement for it. Dan just provided me with some more information on what has been going on. Dan reported that there was a total of 19 aircrafts and 50 pilots and crew participated from 11 states and Washington DC. 2 group flights were made Saturday and Sunday morning. The afternoon flights had to be canceled due to thunderstorms. After the winds calmed down, Keith Sproul gave tethered hopper rides during the evenings. The Alberto ship built by Dan Nachbar and Mike Kuehlmuss flew for the attendees on Saturday morning and in the afternoons there were informal workshops covering topics like "open source" balloon design projects or building a tetrahedron. For more information and a quite detailed report go to this post on the balloon-maker mailing list written by David Tanzer. If you are more a visual person I would suggest to check out the pictures that were taken during the event on the XLTA website. If you want to know even more or join one of the next XLTA meetings like the 2nd Annual XLTA - Seattle from August 3-5, 2007 in Seattle WA or the 4th Annual Amherst Experimental Balloon, Hopper, Chariot, and Airship Gathering (a.k.a. XLTA - Amherst) from May 16-18, 2008 in Amherst MA contact Dan Nachbar via XLTA

Zeppelin NT 004 picture

Yes you are reading right we got the first picture of the Zeppelin NT 004. Well, it's not really the NT004 yet but it's pieces of what is to become the NT 004. John Christopher of Zeppelintours was so nice to share this image with me.

In yesterdays entry about the Zeppelin Nose, I had assumed that it is not the Zepp 004 and that the nose that can be seen is the one of the Skyship 600. Turns out, I was right! John send me an email explaining it a bit more in detail this is part of what he wrote

The latest pictures in you show are definitely not the new Zeppelin 004. [...] It is, as you suggest, the nose of the SK600 - you can see the nose batons quite clearly.

When we were in Friedrichshafen just a few weeks ago the new Zepp 004 consisted of several piles of new girders and the girder-jigs in position on the hangar floor. Don't expect to see that baby poking its nose out of the door for many months to come. Probably not until early 2008.[...]

The photo of the unpainted Zeppelin is not 004 either, obviously. I see it was posted in April 2006, so probably 003 between advertising paint jobs. Note the absence of nose batons which are not needed on the Zepps.

If you want to get a close up look at the building of the Zeppelin 004 and fly in a real Zeppelin join one of John Christophers Zeppelintours they have just added several new tour dates to Friedrichshafen this summer - see their website tours calendar at www.zeppelintours.com. The website also has some new photos and information.

New Zeppelin nose ? [updated]

I found this picture on flickr the other day, and was wondering if the comment there is right. The comment reads

Die Nase des Neuen / The first Glimpse of the new Zeppelin

[update]Since the original picture somehow got marked private here is the link to the picture that I still have.[/update]

I think it's rather the Skyship formerly known as "The Spirit of Dubai"
if you look at this picture, that was posted previously here, the nose kind of looks like the one on the picture.

If you compare the nose in the top most picture to the one of the Zeppelin NT I really think it's the Skyship that's shown on the picture.

So what do you think? New Zeppelin or just the good old Skyship with new paint? Please leave a comment or send us an Email.

All those pictures are Copyrighted please follow the links to the originals, and more Copyright informations.

1st International Airship Investors Conference - Update for May 2007

I would like to share some informations with you, about the current going ons around the 1st International Airship Investors Conference. In the last month we have gotten together and are taking up speed with the organization. After Paul, investigated South Africa as a location it turned out not to be the ideal place, because of different reasons. So we were looking for a new Location somewhere in the world where it is easy to get to and came to the conclusion to move the conference to Berlin, Germany. Germany has a great history with airships and seemed to be a good choice on first sight, but then we found out that in 2008 there is also the ILA in Berlin which is a great forum for the conference since the Berlin Air Show is one of the biggest Aviation trade fairs of the world. So the IAIC is planed to be in parallel to the Berlin Air Show ILA2008 which is in the time range of May 27th to June 1st 2008. We are still working out details but wanted to communicate this. We will also launch a special page where we will put more information about speaker, sign-up possibilities and lot's more. If you are interested in the Conference want to attend it or learn more information about it, please contact us via our email address which can be found in the upper left corner of the blog.
To further plan the conference we are meeting in Munich, Germany on June 16th parallel to the RC-Controlled Blimps Regatta at the Technische Universität München. Expect more updates after this meeting.

The Blimp [via Emergence Design]

Today I stumbled over the site Emergence Design, on it you find a collection of works, done by Master Graduates in Industrial Design from the Lund University in Sweden.
One of the Works is by Carl Hagerling, he designed an airship/blimp where the gondola moves and changes the center of gravity.
The description reads as follows:

the Blimp
The Blimp is a helium filled airship that could by changing the centre of gravity, fly in horizontal and vertical position.
This gives us an airship that is easier to maneuver and has good aerodynamics

I extracted some pictures from the press-kit, which you can check out here.

(Click the images for the full size)
I think the concept is very interesting, but feasibility has to be proven, also I am wondering if the size calculations and proportions are all correct. what do you as reader think, let us know. I am trying to get more information and maybe some in depth information about this project from Carl Hagerling. If we get updates they will be posted here.

Clearing the tubes

Just a quick announcement, I am working through all the news and it is really a lot of stuff, my tubes are quite filled if you understand what I mean. So I am working on it, also trying to improve my news scanning process to further speed it up, to be able to deliver more and better stuff faster. Bare with me, by the end of the week I hope to be back to par. There is also a redesign of the Blog in the pipes, that takes up some time, so if you have some news-items, that you think are worth mentioning on the blog, send an email to airshipworld at gmail.com

Some movies never get done aka (Zeppelin vs Pterodactyls)

So this has been floating around the last few weeks in the blogosphere and I just want to mention it shortly. In the 1970s a Movie Company called Hammer Film was planing on putting out a movie about a Zeppelin stranded in a Lost World, where it had to fight dinosaurs. The Movie should have been called Zeppelin vs Pterodactyls. I don't know where I first had read about it but Airminded was one of the first I remember. Unfortunately movies that do not get made are not much of a help I guess. So why not looking at some movies that are actually available. The AIRSHIP Website has a nice page listing quite a few Airship - Feature Films, of which i have probably watched a maximum of one or two, but if you are looking into which movies to rent or get for the next video night that list might be a good start.
If you are more interested in upcoming films, to plan your trips to the movie theater, checkout "Stardust" or "The Golden Compass". Actually i have some video footage of His Dark Materials that I would like to share.
The first Video is a teaser Trailer I found on YouTube:

The second one is a very high quality Trailer that I am just going to link to since I don't want that people have to download huge amounts of data. It shows the Airship which can be seen in the movie a lot better than in the YouTube Video.
So go to this page to check the Theatrical Trailer
Again comes my question for discussion in the Comments, do you think the fictional airships pictured in those movies could actually fly? What would they need to fly, how much bigger would they have to be in the real world, what would have to be changed. Share your opinions with us in the comments.

Back from holidays

I am back from my vacation and working through the many emails and news items, that accumulated in the last week. Check back tonight for the next news post. I'm probably gonna increase the frequency a bit in the next week to catch up with what was happening in the last one.