9 Airships in one location and you don't know how to get there ?

Do you like Airship ? Do you think Blimps are cool ?

Then come to the 5th Airship Parade in Bad Homburg, Germany and you will be able to see 9 airships, yes nine at once flying over your head. On August 11th you will be able to see 9 hot air airships competing in the first ever airship bowling. It's a first in the world and this is not the only thing happening. Check out our previous post about the Airship Parade to read what exactly the parade is and why it's happening in Bad Homburg.
If you don't know how to get there read on to find out. Bad Homburg is located just 15 minutes north of Frankfurt and easily reachable from Frankfurt Airport. If you travel from around mainland Europe, use the route planner it will help you to find your way.

We will continue to report ahead of the event and we will be having extensive coverage after it. With videos, pictures interview and lots and lots of information. If you have questions that you would like us to ask the pilots email us or write in the comments section. Also make sure you are subscribed to the Blog via this link, so that you don't miss important updates. And if you haven't yet then read our announcement of the Airship Parade.

Announcing the 5th Airship Parade Bad Homburg

Today we want to announce the 5th Airship Parade in Bad Homburg, Germany on August 11th 2007. It's a unique event in Germany and maybe in the World. 9 airship are gonna be on site and flying, more than ever before, which is a record in Germany. The 9 airships will compete in the first ever airship bowling, where the pilots will have to knock over a stack of boxes with a ball attached to the airship. The site is the same as the 1. German Luftschiffparade from 1910, back then Kaiser Wilhelm II., the German Emperor at that time, ordered his war-airships to the town to get an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the different models. Just like on this 22. April 1910 the parade is going to be a big folk fest, together with lots of information booths, films and music. Starting at 12 o'clock on August 11th the brewery "Graf Zeppelin" opens it's beer-garden and exhibitors open their booths, this is a rough overview of the program:

Legendary Atlantic-Crossing
Dr. John Provan, historian and airship-expert is in charge of the exhibitions at the parade. This time he revives the legendary Atlantic-crossing of the LZ127 Graf Zeppelin - service to North and South America. No other airship did more flights, transported more passengers and mail and travelled longer distances. 144 times the "Graf Zeppelin" crossed the Atlantic ocean, twice the airship and crew where greeted with a parade in New York

Special-Edition Stamps of the German Post
The LZ 127 is also the topic at the booth of the philately-team of the Deutsche Post. They open a special office at which you can buy stamps with the logo of the parade and the special-stamps about "Graf Zeppelin" which came out earlier this year. Also there is a Book about the "Graf Zeppelin" on sale that was just released.

Movies of the Zeppelin-Museum
The Zeppelin-Museum shows some of their movies and the Collector Dieter Weih is selling speclia souvenirs.

Aerial-Pictures
The Basler insurance one of the main sponsors of the event has a tethered model airship with a ground controlled camera that allows to take pictures of the people on the ground, the pictures can then be seen on a Website (we are going to announce the correct address later).

Warm-up to the main event
Starting at 16 o'clock the warm-up begins. Guido Holz an airship-expert and moderator is going to introduce the 9 airship teams competing in the first German Airship-Bowling. The tournament is scheduled to start around 18:30 depending on the conditions. The 9 team in alphabetical order are Arnold Luftwerbung from Kassel, whose green white HIT Radio FFH airship will be piloted by Germany's only female airship-pilot Pia Marie Witt. Out of Cologne comes Airgraphic Cologne for Germanwings, steered by Matthäus Smodis. Airovision GmbH & Co. KG out of Aachen is starting the the silver-blue Linde-"Zeppelin" with Sebastian Harrer as it's pilot. Two airships come from Kißlegg, one of them is Helmut Seitz from Ballonsport Seitz who is piloting the Thomapyrin airship and the Andreas Merk with the Ratiopharm airship. Blue Sky Promotion from Barcelona, with their Pilot Daniel Stuber is driving for Hessen in his yellow-white airship. Wim van den Boogaard from the Cologne Airship Comany and the Gefa Flug GmbH from Aachen are also part of the teams. Last but not least there is The Airship Company from Stockach with their silver EnBW airship with Albrecht Fischer as it's pilot. We are going to introduce the teams in detail in the next few days so stay tuned.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. We can also help you with travel arrangements, and are looking forward to seeing you in Bad Homburg on August 11th 2007. Check out the Luftschiffparade Bad Homburg Website for more detail information, unfortunately only in German, but we have provided an autotranslated version in the links below. The pitures used in the article are copyright by Gerd Kittel/Kur- und Kongreß-GmbH Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe. More information can be obtained by emailing us at airshipworld@gmail.com or directly via:
Kur- und Kongreß-GmbH
Kaiser-Wilhelms-Bad
61348 Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe

Phone +49 6172 178 152 and +49 6172 178 110
E-Mail: tourist-info@kuk.bad-homburg.de

Also read our articles about:

• The Radio FFH Airship
• The Linde Airship
• Cameron Balloons the manufacturer of the airships

Links:

• Luftschiffparade Bad Homburg Website (german)
• Luftschiffparade Bad Homburg (translated to english)

Cameron Balloons Hot-airships - follow up to G-BWKE - [Update: Post 100]

Following up to our article from Tuesday morning about the Radio FFH hot-airship G-BWKE
We have to thank Brett from Airminded who pointed out some great information in response to the last post. The Airship has a UK registration and is registered to Wilfried Arnold in Kassel Germany. You can read the registration details here at the G-INFO databse Search of the UK Civil Aviation Authority Website. The Manufacturer of the Airship is Cameron Balloons UK which seem to work together with GEFA-Flug (also check out their more extensive German website). The AS-105 GD is a very versatile little hot-airship that can be stored in a trailer when not in use. The crew needed to operate it is just 3 people the pilot plus two ground staff. The Envelope is 2,970m³ (105,000ft³) and 41m(134.5ft) long and weighs about 200kg (440lbs) together with the Gondola which is made of "Stainless Steel Space Frame & Aluminium Panels" the whole airship doesn't weigh more than 500kg. According to the Cameron Balloons website such an airship "costs less than 5% of the price of a large helium airship to buy and incurs less than a tenth of one percent of the operating costs, yet will conservatively return 50% of the advertising value". These airships are also similar to Dan Nachbars personal blimp "Skyacht" which he built and constructed with some friends.

Here are some additional pictures of the airship and other Cameron Balloons airhsips. Check out each link for the pictures
Airliners.net:

• G-BWKE (cn 3685) Bad Homburg Zeppelinfestival 2003.
• G-BWKE (cn 3685) Opening lap of the first blimp race since 1910 in Germany on authentic site.... included in this picture is also the Linde hot-airship which we have reported on before

Jetphotos.net

• Celebrating the 4th Airship Day at Bad Homburg
• Collection of Photos from Gefa-Flug AS 105 GD
• Picture of the Radio FFH Zeppelin NT that we have talked about in the previous post

[Update] I am proud to announce that this was the 100th post on the Airshipworld Blog, now on to the next 100 I would say. Right now I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to the blog and reads it regularly. Please continue to send us your feedback and comment on the posts. If you want to support us, click on the "Make a Donation" Button on the left and send us your donation so that we can afford hosting and provide you with more stuff and better service in the future.