Rain Man
10-26-2008, 07:09 PM
Just wondering. Airplanes are really fast and stuff, but there are some security problems with really fast stuff carrying fuel. Trains have to have tracks, and ships pretty much need to be near a large body of water to work well.
So we have airships. They're a lot faster than ships, a little faster than (American) trains, and you have less concern about terrorism than with planes.
Would you take an airship to Europe from New York if it was about 36 hours (versus about 7 on a plane or a week on a ship)? How about a flight from Chicago to Las Vegas (9 hours on an airship versus 3 on a plane or 18 on a train)? I think it'd be pretty cool, assuming you had more room than on a plane.
http://dvice.com/archives/2007/10/personal_airship_blimp_is_perf.php
http://dvice.com/pics/stratocruiser_2_12.jpg
Private planes are so last century. Nowadays, any reasonably loaded person can go out and get themselves a plane, it's just not a big deal anymore. No, you need something bigger and more ostentatious. How's a "flying palace" sound? Yeah, that's what I thought.
This Strato Cruiser Airship is a gigantic, helium-filled blimp that's got a gourmet restaurant, a spa, a swimming pool, a resident DJ, library, and private mini-offices. Yeah, it's pretty much designed for a super-villain, but I'm sure just kinda-evil rich people would enjoy it quite a bit as well. And while the design is loaded up with high-falutin' tech like carbon fiber skin, sectional helium chamber design and photovoltaic cells, it's still just a concept, and will probably stay like that for some time. — Adam Frucci
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/25/zeppelin.tours.ap/index.html
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/US/10/25/zeppelin.tours.ap/art.zeppelin.tours.ap.jpg
Zeppelins return to the skies in San FranciscoStory Highlights
Airship Ventures to offer aerial tours of San Francisco area in new zeppelin
Tickets start at $495 per person for a one-hour ride
German company brought zeppelins back to life in 2001
Airship Ventures ordered two more ships, plans East Coast tours
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Zeppelins, the giant floating airships used to carry passengers and drop bombs until the 1930s, haven't been seen in American skies for more than 70 years.
The Airship Ventures zeppelin flies over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, on Saturday.
Now, a California company is bringing the iconic aircraft back to the United States, with plans to offer aerial tours of the San Francisco Bay area in a newly built zeppelin. It's one of just three in the world; the others are in Germany and Japan.
Airship Ventures Inc.'s zeppelin arrived in the Bay Area on Saturday, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge en route to its new home at Moffett Field, a former naval air station in Mountain View, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.
Fifteen feet longer than a Boeing 747, the 246-foot-long Zeppelin NT (New Technology) was built in Hamburg, Germany, and transported by container ship to Beaumont, Texas, before a cross-country flight to California.
Though they may look like blimps, zeppelins have rigid internal frames that are covered with a canvas hull.
Starting Friday, Airship Ventures will offer rides that provide a bird's-eye view of Napa and Sonoma wine country, the Big Sur coastline, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. The cabin holds 12 passengers and two crew members, and tickets start at $495 per person for an one-hour ride.
"It's a way to see the world in a way that you haven't experienced it before," said Brian Hall, a software entrepreneur who started the company last year with his wife, Alexandra. "In a zeppelin, you're flying low and slow. You're going at a leisurely pace. You're seeing things that you wouldn't see from the road."
Invented by Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany in the late 19th century, zeppelins were used for commercial passenger transport and military operations until the start of World War II.
The zeppelin's golden age ended in 1937 when the LZ-129 Hindenburg, the largest airship ever built, caught fire and burst into flames in front of thousands of spectators in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of 97 people on board.
A German company, Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, began building a zeppelin about a decade ago and has been offering passenger rides since 2001.
Although the Hindenberg was fueled by flammable hydrogen, the modern version is kept aloft by nonflammable helium. They have carried more than 80,000 passengers without a safety incident, Hall said.
The Halls came up with the business plan for Airship Ventures about two years ago after Brian, 43, took his first zeppelin ride in Cologne, Germany.
The German company agreed to build another zeppelin so that Airship Ventures could start offering rides from its base at Moffett Field, which has three of the country's 13 remaining airship hangers.
Airship Ventures has ordered two more zeppelins, which take about 18 months to build, and plan to offer tours on the East Coast, most likely from New York and Florida, starting in 2010.
Despite the slumping economy, the company hopes to sell about 15,000 tickets a year in the Bay Area, aiming to attract passengers for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and even marriage proposals.
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/06/new_zeppelin_de.php
http://dvice.com/pics/SkyCat-heavy-lifter-zep.jpg
New zeppelin designs could reinvigorate airship travel
The disastrous flights of rigid, hydrogen-filled zeppelins such as the Hindenburg and the helium-filled USS Akron are black marks against the idea of passenger airships. To this day, the idea of what a zeppelin could accomplish seems limited to flying over stadiums or acting as glorified hot air balloons.
Still, there's hope. New zeppelin technologies being put into use by companies such as SkyCat of Britain and Germany's Zeppelin NT would bring us more robust, more dynamic airships. Airship frames made of proprietary synthetic materials, for instance, would be stronger than steel and durable enough that a leak would take hours to cause any effect. Vertical lift technologies would also enable the airships to take off and land on their own, rather than having to be tethered to docks by ropes.
SkyCat has several designs in the works, from freight vessels to passenger blimps. Still, you probably won't see an airport full of zeppelins any time soon: despite using no fuel (which gas-guzzling air carriers would love), they top out at a sluggish 100 mph and have severe weight restrictions, which means not a lot of passenger per flight.
SkyCat and Zeppelin NT, via Wired
CORRECTION: The Hindenburg was indeed filled with hydrogen. The correction has been made. The Akron, however, was a helium-filled zeppelin and went down due to operator error rather than a problem with the gas. Readers The_Doctor and Harry Bergeron, thank you.
Here's a link about the economics of airships that is too long to copy.http://www.trforum.org/journal/2005spr/article11.php
So we have airships. They're a lot faster than ships, a little faster than (American) trains, and you have less concern about terrorism than with planes.
Would you take an airship to Europe from New York if it was about 36 hours (versus about 7 on a plane or a week on a ship)? How about a flight from Chicago to Las Vegas (9 hours on an airship versus 3 on a plane or 18 on a train)? I think it'd be pretty cool, assuming you had more room than on a plane.
http://dvice.com/archives/2007/10/personal_airship_blimp_is_perf.php
http://dvice.com/pics/stratocruiser_2_12.jpg
Private planes are so last century. Nowadays, any reasonably loaded person can go out and get themselves a plane, it's just not a big deal anymore. No, you need something bigger and more ostentatious. How's a "flying palace" sound? Yeah, that's what I thought.
This Strato Cruiser Airship is a gigantic, helium-filled blimp that's got a gourmet restaurant, a spa, a swimming pool, a resident DJ, library, and private mini-offices. Yeah, it's pretty much designed for a super-villain, but I'm sure just kinda-evil rich people would enjoy it quite a bit as well. And while the design is loaded up with high-falutin' tech like carbon fiber skin, sectional helium chamber design and photovoltaic cells, it's still just a concept, and will probably stay like that for some time. — Adam Frucci
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/25/zeppelin.tours.ap/index.html
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/US/10/25/zeppelin.tours.ap/art.zeppelin.tours.ap.jpg
Zeppelins return to the skies in San FranciscoStory Highlights
Airship Ventures to offer aerial tours of San Francisco area in new zeppelin
Tickets start at $495 per person for a one-hour ride
German company brought zeppelins back to life in 2001
Airship Ventures ordered two more ships, plans East Coast tours
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Zeppelins, the giant floating airships used to carry passengers and drop bombs until the 1930s, haven't been seen in American skies for more than 70 years.
The Airship Ventures zeppelin flies over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, on Saturday.
Now, a California company is bringing the iconic aircraft back to the United States, with plans to offer aerial tours of the San Francisco Bay area in a newly built zeppelin. It's one of just three in the world; the others are in Germany and Japan.
Airship Ventures Inc.'s zeppelin arrived in the Bay Area on Saturday, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge en route to its new home at Moffett Field, a former naval air station in Mountain View, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.
Fifteen feet longer than a Boeing 747, the 246-foot-long Zeppelin NT (New Technology) was built in Hamburg, Germany, and transported by container ship to Beaumont, Texas, before a cross-country flight to California.
Though they may look like blimps, zeppelins have rigid internal frames that are covered with a canvas hull.
Starting Friday, Airship Ventures will offer rides that provide a bird's-eye view of Napa and Sonoma wine country, the Big Sur coastline, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. The cabin holds 12 passengers and two crew members, and tickets start at $495 per person for an one-hour ride.
"It's a way to see the world in a way that you haven't experienced it before," said Brian Hall, a software entrepreneur who started the company last year with his wife, Alexandra. "In a zeppelin, you're flying low and slow. You're going at a leisurely pace. You're seeing things that you wouldn't see from the road."
Invented by Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany in the late 19th century, zeppelins were used for commercial passenger transport and military operations until the start of World War II.
The zeppelin's golden age ended in 1937 when the LZ-129 Hindenburg, the largest airship ever built, caught fire and burst into flames in front of thousands of spectators in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of 97 people on board.
A German company, Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, began building a zeppelin about a decade ago and has been offering passenger rides since 2001.
Although the Hindenberg was fueled by flammable hydrogen, the modern version is kept aloft by nonflammable helium. They have carried more than 80,000 passengers without a safety incident, Hall said.
The Halls came up with the business plan for Airship Ventures about two years ago after Brian, 43, took his first zeppelin ride in Cologne, Germany.
The German company agreed to build another zeppelin so that Airship Ventures could start offering rides from its base at Moffett Field, which has three of the country's 13 remaining airship hangers.
Airship Ventures has ordered two more zeppelins, which take about 18 months to build, and plan to offer tours on the East Coast, most likely from New York and Florida, starting in 2010.
Despite the slumping economy, the company hopes to sell about 15,000 tickets a year in the Bay Area, aiming to attract passengers for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and even marriage proposals.
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/06/new_zeppelin_de.php
http://dvice.com/pics/SkyCat-heavy-lifter-zep.jpg
New zeppelin designs could reinvigorate airship travel
The disastrous flights of rigid, hydrogen-filled zeppelins such as the Hindenburg and the helium-filled USS Akron are black marks against the idea of passenger airships. To this day, the idea of what a zeppelin could accomplish seems limited to flying over stadiums or acting as glorified hot air balloons.
Still, there's hope. New zeppelin technologies being put into use by companies such as SkyCat of Britain and Germany's Zeppelin NT would bring us more robust, more dynamic airships. Airship frames made of proprietary synthetic materials, for instance, would be stronger than steel and durable enough that a leak would take hours to cause any effect. Vertical lift technologies would also enable the airships to take off and land on their own, rather than having to be tethered to docks by ropes.
SkyCat has several designs in the works, from freight vessels to passenger blimps. Still, you probably won't see an airport full of zeppelins any time soon: despite using no fuel (which gas-guzzling air carriers would love), they top out at a sluggish 100 mph and have severe weight restrictions, which means not a lot of passenger per flight.
SkyCat and Zeppelin NT, via Wired
CORRECTION: The Hindenburg was indeed filled with hydrogen. The correction has been made. The Akron, however, was a helium-filled zeppelin and went down due to operator error rather than a problem with the gas. Readers The_Doctor and Harry Bergeron, thank you.
Here's a link about the economics of airships that is too long to copy.http://www.trforum.org/journal/2005spr/article11.php