2 years and 85.000 visits later

Welcome airship enthusiasts,
Airshipworld is a new Blog about anything Airship and nothing but Airships, if they are LTA or HTA doesn't matter, what matters is that we are wanting to bring the community together. This site should become the central hub for all Airship news, events, announcements, sightings and everything else of interest for the Airship community. In the next weeks there is going to be a lot happening, so stay tuned.

It was 2 years ago when I posted these lines and started this little experiment called "The Airshipworld Blog". Since then I have learned a lot about blogging, the airship industry and of course airships. I have met many great people and made contact to the Airship Association, the DGLR, IsoPolar and others. It is still hard to believe that 2 years ago no one in the community knew me. Thanks for letting me in and helping me to become a part of the community. I started with a simple Blogger blog template which was more or less suited for the Airshipworld Blog.
The template was nothing special but it was good enough to get the word out and to publish. With visitor numbers increasing it made sense to put up some ads to get a little kick back for my blogging work, and by the end of 2007 I had made enough money to get a full Domain with web space and all the bells and whistles someone could ask for. Airshipworld.info was born. In January 2008 we also did our first design refresh, moving away from the Blogger theme to a theme completely designed for Airshipworld.

This was how the blog looked ever since January 2008, visitor numbers grew fast to over 8000 visits a month in Summer 2008, this was probably also related to the many events that happened in 2008, like the Zeppelin NT #4 that was flying over London and then later transported to the US for Airship Ventures. Just look into the archives of 2008 it's crazy how much had happened, we even released our first Software the Gertler Series 58 Generator.
As the year came to a close I had to slow down a little with the blog but kept working on Airshipworld as much as my time permitted. End of February 2009 we were proud to announce the Airshipworld Event Calendar, which is a collaborative Calendar solely dedicated to capture Airship and Lighter-Than-Air events all around the world. We have many features planned, but are also looking for your contributions, to make the Calendar a central place for the airship community to contribute and find events.
Another big step forward in 2008 was that I attended two important Airship Events last year, the first one was the International Airship Convention in Friedrichshafen the other one was the Airship Association Annual Symposium. I was allowed to film the sessions of both events, so the video of all the sessions is captured and preserved for history. I am working with the Airship Association and the DGLR on how to publish the videos, it will take a while to work out everything in regards to copyrights and licensing but once we cracked that nut we should be able to launch a video portal for session videos from conferences.

For this year I will record the Sessions of the DGLR Workshop XI and plan on coming to the Airships to the Arctic Symposium in Calgary this fall. So there is lot's of material coming. If you have experience with publishing video on the internet both the legal and technical aspects please contact me any help is highly appreciated. We are also bringing you an upgraded layout for the Blog, that aligns with the layouts of the Forum and the Events Calendar and we are planing on providing more services, beyond the Blog and utilizing the Website Airshipworld.info more. I will still blog but am in desperate need for contributing editors, so if you are interested please send an email.
So now after 2 years and 85.000 visits all that's left to say is Happy Birthday Airshipworld.

Video of the Zeppelin NT with the new branding

The new season has just started for the Zeppelin D-LZZF in Friedrichshafen. We featured a photo of the new Süddeutsche Zeitung branding in our last post. Now we can bring you a video of the Zeppelin featuring the new branding and showing a glimpse of the Skyship that is just in the hangar in Friedrichshafen.

Thanks to Brian Hall from Airship Ventures for the tip via the Colorado Airship-List

DGLR Workshop XI this Friday and Saturday in Friedrichshafen

We mentioned it already in a pre-announcement in early February, but now we have the final invitation and the program for the DGLR Workshop XI this weekend in Friedrichshafen Germany.
I have attached the Invitation and the program below, if you are in the area why not stop by. Prices range from 20 Euros for students to 45 Euros for people who aren't members of the DGLR, so it's quite affordable for a two day event. If you cant read the German invitation don't be shy to email me your questions I will try to answer them.
The Workshop starts Friday morning 9:40 and ends on Saturday with the RC Airship Regatta around 15:00. I will be there and take pictures and videos of the sessions and the event. I will probably also write one or the other Blog post. If you are reading the blog and are also in Friedrichshafen this weekend, let me know so that we can meet.
Einladung DGLR Workshop XI 2009

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Promotional Brochures & Catalogs workshop invitation

Programm DGLR Workshop XI 2009

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs workshop programme

KQED - QUEST Segment on Airships

KQED is a public broadcasting station for Northern California, one of their shows is QUEST a "multimedia series about the people behind San Francisco Bay Area science and environmental issues" it combines traditional media like TV and radio with new media formats like a website containing a blog and audio podcasts as well as video podcasts. This current season opened with a segment about airships, looking back at the USS Macon (ZRS-5) disaster and looking at the Zeppelin NT based at Moffett Field and operated by Airship Ventures.


QUEST on KQED Public Media.
To get a better version of the Video jump to Zeppelins Resurrected page on the QUEST website. You can also download the 80MB MPEG4 Video here. If you don't know how to watch MPEG-4/h.264 download VLC Player or Apples QuickTime/iTunes, both are freeware and play M4V files.

You should also check out the Zeppelins Resurrected page contains also additional content and links, like this nice slide show of photos taken during the shooting of the segment on the QUEST page.

Zeppelin starts into the next season in Germany

© ZLT

The Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei just announced that they will start their flights again in Friedrichshafen after the 3 month winter break on Friday 13th 2009 at 12.15. They obviously aren't superstitious about Friday the 13th but I guess after 8 years of successful flight operations and more than 85.000 passengers this 9th season of flights will just be as successful as the previous ones. But the Zeppelin will not only fly in Friedrichshafen, just like last year the Zeppelin will be flying over Munich again. It will be based at the Airport Oberschleißheim from April 25th to Mai 3rd 2009. So what more to do than to jump over to Zeppelinflug.de and book your tickets.
We will be adding the dates also to our Events Calendar also below the full Press Release in German. If you have any questions about it or want to know more just send me an email.

Zeppelin NT - Saisonstart 2009

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business & Legal Friedrichshafen airship

PRESSEINFORMATION Zeppelin NT startet in seine 9. Flugsaison Friedrichshafen, 12. März 2009 – Am Freitag den 13. März 2009 eröffnet die Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei GmbH um 12.15 Uhr erneut die Flugsaison rund um den Bodensee. Zum Saisonstart ziert die Süddeutsche Zeitung die Aussenhülle des Zeppelin NT. Die Jahresinspektion des Zeppelin NT ist abgeschlossen – das Zeppelin-Team freut sich auf die ersten Fluggäste des Jahres, freie Sitzplätze stehen noch zur Verfügung. Der Zeppelinflug als Geschenkgutschein erfreut sich für besondere Anlässe großer Beliebtheit. Seit der Aufnahme des Passagierbetriebes im August 2001 wurden über 85.000 Fluggäste an Bord begrüßt. Die Passagierabfertigung und die Gastronomie sind für die kommende Saison im Hangar des Luftschiffs aufgebaut und bieten für jeden einen einmaligen Blick in die Zeppelinwelt. Mit der Saisoneröffnung werden wieder regelmäßig dienstags und freitags Werksführungen angeboten. Nicht nur der Zeppelin NT sondern auch ein Prallluftschiff, ein so genannter Blimp, kann während einer Führung im 110 Meter langen Hangar betrachtet werden. Über eine steuerbare Webcam auf www.zeppelinflug.de ist die Verfolgung des Flugbetriebes auch über das Internet möglich. „Nach drei Monaten Flugpause starten wir wieder durch, aber nicht nur in Friedrichshafen“, so Susanne Federle, Leiterin des Buchungsservice bei der Deutschen Zeppelin-Reederei GmbH. „Vom 25. April bis zum 3. Mai 2009 bietet der Zeppelin wie im vergangenen Jahr Flüge über München vom Flughafen Oberschleißheim aus an.“ Buchungen und Gutscheine können über die Telefonnummer 07541/ 5900 0 vorgenommen werden. Weitere Informationen finden Sie im Internet unter www.zeppelinflug.de. Zur sofortigen Veröffentlichung freigegeben. Presse-Kontakt: Kathrin Runge Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei GmbH Allmannsweilerstrasse 132 D-88046 Friedrichshafen Tel.: +49 7541 5900 547 Fax.: +49 7541 5900 22547 presse@zeppelin-nt.de www.zeppelin-nt.de