The British TV Station ITV Local Anglia featured a small report about the Zeppelin today. You can watch it here. Besides containing the information that the Zeppelin is delayed at least until tomorrow because of the weather and an Interview with Erwin Krijger organizer of the Flights, it was the first time the new Branding on the Zeppelin NT could be seen publicly. It's not one single Sponsor this time, but a total of 4 Sponsors.
The Nose (first third) of the Envelope is sponsored by Taigle International, they already feature the Zeppelin prominently on their Website as you see in the picture of this post, a short article is available on their website in dutch (here the auto translated English version).
The second sponsor taking the center of the envelope is Rabobank, they also have an article about their sponsoring involvement on their website.
The tail and last third of the main envelope area is home to the Aerwin Logo and the Website Address http://www.zeppelinvlucht.nl/. Aerwin is the organizer of the Flights over the Netherlands.
Having covered the 3 main sponsors, one can make out a small ZF Logo, which is the logo of ZF Friedrichshafen, right in front of the gondola on the underside of the envelope.
I want to thank Trevor Monk for finding this TV Report and sending the link around. We hope to get some pictures of the Zeppelin some time soon, tomorrow or by the end of the week. If you get a chance to take a picture please let us know, upload it and send us the link or send it directly to us in an email.
Update: Airshipventures has some shots of the Zeppelin with the new Branding, check them out in their latest blog post. Revealing also the opposite side of the Envelope with the Branding of the Rotterdam Port announcing their Wereldhavendagen harbour festival September 5 to 7th. According to Airshipventures the Zeppelin will be at the festival at that time, so a good time to get some nice pictures of the Zeppelin.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Zeppelin now longer in Rotterdam, later in the US
Zeppelin just issued a press release informing that the Zeppelin NT#4 will stay a bit longer in Rotterdam than originally anticipated. The Zeppelin will stay until September 21st in Rotterdam which means the date the Zeppelin leaves for the US moves back about two weeks. [Updated] We attached the English and the German Press release below. To read more about the Zeppelin in the Netherlands please check out our previous posts titled "The Zeppelin will come to the Netherlands"
Here is the press release:
Here the German PDF of the release:
Here is the press release:
Here the German PDF of the release:
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Zeppelin NT#4 is in Cardington
We had mentioned in one of our previous posts that the Zeppelin will be in Cardington before starting on it's cruise to the Netherlands. This is the first time since 1930 that a Zeppelin visits Cardington according to John Christopher from Zeppelintours. The Zeppelin arrived safely from London on August 21st at 17:38 according to Alexandra Hall from Airship Ventures
The Zeppelin is scheduled to leave Cardington on Wednesday. There was a press presentation scheduled on Tuesday according to Arnold Nayler,donät know if it happened.
As soon as the Zeppelin arrived in Cardington it was brought into the hangar and the Stella Artois branding was removed and replaced. Who is the new sponsor? We don't know but maybe this picture and this one allow for some speculation. The Zeppelin will fly from Cardington to the Netherlands and will then be transported with a Ship called Combi Dock 1 to North America. To read more about the Ship go to the Combi-Lift website check out the 3D presentation it's quite impressive. The ship will probably leave from Rotterdam or somewhere close to Rotterdam, since this is where the Zeppelin will be flying to in the next week. The question then remains were will the Zeppelin arrive in the US. According to Ryan Myers from "The Beaumont Enterprise", the Zeppelin will arrive at the Port of Beaumont around September 26th will then fly from the port to Southeast Texas Regional Airport, stay there for about 3 days before flying to San Francisco. This information is not confirmed by Airshipventures so pure speculation and rumor at this time. Here are the two articles that Ryan Myers wrote: Article 1 and Article 2
And last but not least Alex Hall from Airshipventures was interviewed on NHPRs Word of Mouth on August 4th. You can listen to the interview by going to the website and downloading the MP3 file of the radio show. Fast forward to Minute 25:30 where the whole 10 Minute interview starts.
Jump over to the Airshipventures Blog to get lots and lots of pictures of the Zeppelin in Cardington.
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The Zeppelin is scheduled to leave Cardington on Wednesday. There was a press presentation scheduled on Tuesday according to Arnold Nayler,donät know if it happened.
As soon as the Zeppelin arrived in Cardington it was brought into the hangar and the Stella Artois branding was removed and replaced. Who is the new sponsor? We don't know but maybe this picture and this one allow for some speculation. The Zeppelin will fly from Cardington to the Netherlands and will then be transported with a Ship called Combi Dock 1 to North America. To read more about the Ship go to the Combi-Lift website check out the 3D presentation it's quite impressive. The ship will probably leave from Rotterdam or somewhere close to Rotterdam, since this is where the Zeppelin will be flying to in the next week. The question then remains were will the Zeppelin arrive in the US. According to Ryan Myers from "The Beaumont Enterprise", the Zeppelin will arrive at the Port of Beaumont around September 26th will then fly from the port to Southeast Texas Regional Airport, stay there for about 3 days before flying to San Francisco. This information is not confirmed by Airshipventures so pure speculation and rumor at this time. Here are the two articles that Ryan Myers wrote: Article 1 and Article 2
And last but not least Alex Hall from Airshipventures was interviewed on NHPRs Word of Mouth on August 4th. You can listen to the interview by going to the website and downloading the MP3 file of the radio show. Fast forward to Minute 25:30 where the whole 10 Minute interview starts.
Jump over to the Airshipventures Blog to get lots and lots of pictures of the Zeppelin in Cardington.
If you like our Blog please subscribe you can do so via email or in a feed reader like Bloglines. Subscriptions are of course completely free and you get new articles automatically delivered to you. Also let us know what you think of us and our articles send us an email to airshipworld at gmail dot com or leave a message in the comments. You can also participate in the Forum and exchange your thought with other readers.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Historic Airship Pictures (the Shenandoah, the Los Angeles, the Akron and the Macon as well as the Zeppelins and many more
The web is a big place and there are many hidden gems, websites that have been put together that contain a wealth of information but see only a few visitors. This post today was inspired by two pictures that I found online. Jim Ford had linked to them on his Delicious account One of the pictures was the homepage of George Starcher called Georges World he has a small section on Airships and some really nice pictures of the USS Los Angeles.
The second picture that Jim had linked to brought me through the Wikipedia to the Naval Historical Center I had bookmarked the website before but got lost in it's vastness. The best thing to navigate that website is the Search function. With this and a bit of knowledge about the Navy Airships you can get to the pages of the:
If the big Navy rigids aren't you favorites, how about some German Zeppelins? While continuing my search for great historic airship sites I stumbled accross this page called "Luftschiff Zeppelin" I had never seen this page before but was so much more surprised what a wealth of information and content the site had to offer. It contains information about all historic Zeppelins from LZ1 all the way to LZ131 either by serial number or name. So have a look at the Luftschiff Database you have to select either serial number (Baunummer) or name (Bezeichnung). But the page does not stop at the information it contains lot of pictures of airships (Luftschiffe) hangars and people from the industry (Luftschiffer). It contains a database of people and hangars with additional information. Eventhough the page is in german it's a real hidden gem. And if your German is rusty the auto-translated English page is also available here
But those aren't the only good historic resources with pictures. The Homepage of Ford U.Ross featuring pictures of Navy Blimps is a great page. Also a wealth of information can be found at Pilot und Luftschiff unfortunately also a German page but you can find information about Airships check out a lot of galleries find out about different airship types and much more. For the English translation follow this link. There are many more interesting historical websites for example DJ's Zeppelin Page or the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society that contain more historical images and information.
We have shown you only a few of those great websites that you should bookmark because they are gems and not easy to be found. We save everything we find and write about in our delicious account currently 520 bookmarks to pages, pictures, videos and other airship related resources on the web. You can take a look at all our bookmarks by going to delicious. Do you know some hidden gems? A site that you think is a fantastic airship related website that we should mention but maybe haven't yet? Is there a link that we have not in our bookmarks? Let us and everyone else know by posting your favorite airship website in the comments section.
The second picture that Jim had linked to brought me through the Wikipedia to the Naval Historical Center I had bookmarked the website before but got lost in it's vastness. The best thing to navigate that website is the Search function. With this and a bit of knowledge about the Navy Airships you can get to the pages of the:
- USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), Airship 1923-1925
- USS Los Angeles (ZR-3), Airship 1924-1939
- USS Akron (ZRS-4), Airship 1931-1933
- USS Macon (ZRS-5), Airship 1933-1935
If the big Navy rigids aren't you favorites, how about some German Zeppelins? While continuing my search for great historic airship sites I stumbled accross this page called "Luftschiff Zeppelin" I had never seen this page before but was so much more surprised what a wealth of information and content the site had to offer. It contains information about all historic Zeppelins from LZ1 all the way to LZ131 either by serial number or name. So have a look at the Luftschiff Database you have to select either serial number (Baunummer) or name (Bezeichnung). But the page does not stop at the information it contains lot of pictures of airships (Luftschiffe) hangars and people from the industry (Luftschiffer). It contains a database of people and hangars with additional information. Eventhough the page is in german it's a real hidden gem. And if your German is rusty the auto-translated English page is also available here
But those aren't the only good historic resources with pictures. The Homepage of Ford U.Ross featuring pictures of Navy Blimps is a great page. Also a wealth of information can be found at Pilot und Luftschiff unfortunately also a German page but you can find information about Airships check out a lot of galleries find out about different airship types and much more. For the English translation follow this link. There are many more interesting historical websites for example DJ's Zeppelin Page or the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society that contain more historical images and information.
We have shown you only a few of those great websites that you should bookmark because they are gems and not easy to be found. We save everything we find and write about in our delicious account currently 520 bookmarks to pages, pictures, videos and other airship related resources on the web. You can take a look at all our bookmarks by going to delicious. Do you know some hidden gems? A site that you think is a fantastic airship related website that we should mention but maybe haven't yet? Is there a link that we have not in our bookmarks? Let us and everyone else know by posting your favorite airship website in the comments section.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Documentary "The Best Shot in Golf" featuring the Metlife Blimp re-airing this weekend
© MetlifeHere is the latest media alert by Metlife with all the details:
To give you a sneak peak of what to expect I dug out two videos from YouTube that are scenes of the documentary. Enjoy!
Best Shot in Golf
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Airship Videos of the Day
Since I have quite a few Videos of airships that I want to present I decided I am going to start a regular feature were I publish between 5 and 10 videos related to airships. I don't know if it will be a daily thing or probably every second day or weekly we will see. Or better you tell me, how often you would like such a feature. So here are todays videos:
Airshipworld Video of the Day 080812
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Airshipworld Video of the Day 080812
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Zeppelin will come to the Netherlands
© ZET- The Zeppelin Cruise page of Zeppelintours, John Christopher's non stop shop for flights with the Zeppelin. You can book directly through them.
- Zeppelinvlucht.nl - the homepage of Aerwin about the Zeppelin Flights, unfortunately in dutch, so jump to the auto translated English version here
- Zeppelin Europe Tours with additional background information and a map of the tour.
If you can't quite afford the 6500€(incl tax, hotels, meals, transfers) for the cruise the Cruise the next stop of the Zeppelin might be more for you. The Zeppelin will fly from Rotterdam until September 8th 2008 and offer round trips similar to those offered in London. Similar to London there is a number of different options available to fit every pocket. Starting with flight of 35 minutes for € 270,- going to 60 minutes flights for € 450,- and topping of with a 90 minutes flight for € 675,-. To find out more about the flights check Aerwins Homepage(in dutch) or have a look at the Zeppelintours Website for contact information and some pictures of last years flights. The flights over Rotterdam are a continuation of flights that were done last year in the Netherlands, some might remember our post and the unique branding of the Zeppelin with the highway number "N470" all this is of course the lead up to the great day when the Zeppelin NT is finally shipped to the US we reported earlier this year about this. I personally believe that the Zeppelin will be shipped from Rotterdam but this is just speculation on my side. It's good to see the Zeppelin NT #4 continuing the success story of it's older brothers and we wish Airship Ventures only the best for their operation in the US starting this fall.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Turtle Airships the brainchild of Darrell Campbell
While it is easy to write about the Zeppelin, the Goodyear Blimps or the Metlife Blimps. There are other posts that are a bit more challenging because they touch a controversial announcement or project. Today we want to take a look at Turtle Airships the company of Darrell Campbell. His concept and design was first made prominent as the Millenium Airship SkyFreighter which used Campbells deisgns as inspiration. He continued to develop his concept and now promotes his own airship called the Turtle Airship described as a
So what do you think. Does it sound like a hoax or a scam to you or do you think the idea is brilliant? Do you maybe even know more, have additional pictures or inside information? Please share them with us in the comments, by sending us an email or by talking to other fellow readers in the Forum
Rigid SHELLED Lighter-than-Air, >200mph, AMPHIBIOUS, all weather passenger airships. SOLAR POWERED with Bio-fuel backup powerUnfortunately there is today no airship that can even tick one of those boxes there is no rigid shelled airship, none that flies faster than 200mph, non that is amphibious or can fly in all weather. No human carrying airship that is solar powered or uses bio-fuel. Tree Hugger has written about Turtle Airships in 2007 but published a quite critical article just recently which you can read here. This article came in response to a press release that Turtle Airships issued. Read on for the full text:
Giant Flying Turtles to Revolutionize Global Aviation with Solar PowerThe claims that can be read in this press release are very bold, especially since an airship of that size will have to be certified by numerous aviation authorities and that it took Zeppelin almost 8 years to get the Zeppelin NT certified. So a round the world flight in 2009 seems very unlikely to me. We wish Darrell and his Company all the luck in the world and we hope to see pictures and videos of the prototype soon, because 2009 is approaching fast. if you want to read more about Turtle Airships it's best to take a look at the Turtle Airships Blog were Darrell actively promotes his designs and outline why traditional blimps are not the best solution. He also writes two other blogs MILITARY- AIRSHIPS (no blimps) and solar flight! which are also promoting his ideas.
A new way to fly! Turtle Airships company announces the beginning of construction iof a demonstration model of a new form for lighter-than-air airships. The airships are not blimps. They are solar powered and will reach speeds of 200 mph.
Valencia, Spain (PRWEB) July 2, 2008 -- Turtle Airships company will change the world aviation industry with 200 mph solar powered airships. Constructed with rigid shelled hulls of aluminum and carbon fiber, the airships look like giant turtles. These "turtle" airships are not blimps or zeppelins. The airships are being designed in Spain and the U.S.
Construction has started on a first prototype and the first flight and testing is scheduled to be done in Singapore this year. Turtle Airships will make a demonstration around-the-world flight of the new solar powered airship in 2009.
The airships' hulls are covered with solar cells which power the airships during daylight hours. For flying at night or cloudy weather, the airships use bio-diesel fueled jet engines as a back-up system. The airships cruise at speeds which are comparable to some airplanes.
The airships take off and land straight up and down like a helicopter and are amphibious. They land directly onto the water and take on water ballast for stability like a boat. The airships can land in harbors, rivers, mountain lakes, or the middle of the ocean.
The airships will also land on any empty field or at airports, and use built in systems to anchor to the surface without ground crew assistance. Turtle airships do not need huge hangers and can fly in any weather.
"Almost everyone immediately thinks of blimps or the Hindenburg," says company president, Darrell Campbell. "The Turtle airship is far more advanced in technology and capabilities."
Although there are less than fifty blimps or zeppelins in the world now, Turtle Airships expects to field hundreds of its' solar powered airships. Turtle Airships plans to invest over $200 million in airship manufacturing plants and airship operations by 2012; with an expected (IPO) public offering to raise over $3 billion scheduled for 2015. To reach these goals the company will work with local and national Economic Development agencies throughout the world to train workers and develop solar powered airship programs. Turtle Airships will also enter into joint ventures and is seeking venture capital and private investments which are directed toward alternative fuels and solar energy.
The company will concentrate on building airships meant for the travel market, with secondary emphasis given to military applications. The company had been originally considered for a U.S. Department of Defense airship program called "WALRUS", which was to create giant airships for military transport. Turtle Airships is designing airships for security surveillance and interdiction of pirates in the waters off of Somalia, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
Turtle Airships will also use "flying hospitals" to deliver worldwide humanitarian aid. Carrying doctors, foods, emergency equipment and other supplies, airships can avoid delays and complex delivery systems by flying to disaster areas and landing directly where help is needed. The airships will be made available to the United Nations, International Red Cross, Red Crescent, and other aid organizations.
"Turtle Airships is the only company in the world that is focused on creating a new aviation industry based on solar powered flight," says Campbell. "We can save over $100 billion each year on fuel costs alone, another several hundred billion dollars in airport construction, and eliminate a major source of carbon emissions. Airships are a trillion dollar industry, still in its' infancy, that will grow for decades."
Darrell Campbell is the designer of the "turtle" airship, and president of the twenty-seven year old company.
For additional information, and direct email address, visit the company Web page at www.turtleairships.com or visit a company Web blog at www.turtleairships.blogspot.com.
So what do you think. Does it sound like a hoax or a scam to you or do you think the idea is brilliant? Do you maybe even know more, have additional pictures or inside information? Please share them with us in the comments, by sending us an email or by talking to other fellow readers in the Forum
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Goodyear Blimp in pictures, stories, videos and more
© Michael Harley / Weblogs Inc.Today after looking at the Metlife Blimps last we look at the good old Goodyear Blimps and see what they have been up to. Back in April we last looked at them. Starting of today's post is a great article on Autoblog called "Above the Autoblog Garage: The Goodyear Blimp". The article is well written and talks about the Blimp how it is controlled and the overall ride experience. But this is not everything that the article has to offer. Along with the article Autoblog posted a picture gallery of 53 high resolution photos from outside and inside the blimp. Some really nice shots in that gallery. Also hot of the press and a big thanks to Ken DeLacy for finding this bit. At the 2:00 minutes mark of the Aero-TV's Daily Update from EAA AirVenture Oshkosh for Friday August 1st the Goodyear Blimp is featured as it made it's appearance to this years AirVenture Oshkosh.
Aero-TV:OSHCast 2008 Aero-TV Daily Update: Day Five!But this is of course not the only video that we were able to find, check out all these great videos of the Goodyear Blimp that we found on YouTube
But not only videos were made of the Goodyear blimp the Goodyear Blimp Blog is also always a great place to read more about the ongoing missions of the Blimp. Here are the latest articles:
- 4th of July Blimp Style
- 35 Years!
- Home for a bit
- Detour
- Nasty weather
- Blimps and dolphins
- Sweet home Alabama
- Back in the saddle
- A new pilot
- Pilot in Charge
- Marine invasion
- Winds and Mohawk haircuts
Do you have any more pieces about the Goodyear Blimps, then let us know. If you have just recently found us, check out our Forum where you can ask questions and share your thoughts. You can also subscribe to the Blog. Either subscribe to the RSS Feed or via Email and get the posts delivered right to your mailbox, for free.
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