World's largest zeppelin dedicated at NASA facility [246 foot Eureka at Moffitt Field, CA]

CNet ^ | November 21, 2008 | Daniel Terdiman

[Mike Fieschko]

The zeppelin, Eureka, sits on the tarmac at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. The airship was dedicated Friday at an event celebrating the 75h anniversary of Moffett Field.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.--NASA celebrated the 75th anniversary of this iconic airfield and research center on Friday by dedicating a brand-new zeppelin from a private company called Airship Ventures.

The zeppelin NT ("new technology"), which is one of just three currently functioning zeppelins that exist in the world, and the biggest, at 246 feet, was named "Eureka," a name that relates to the fact that the ship is based in California, as well as the fact that it is "rooted in scientific principles," said Brian Bell, a co-founder of Airship Ventures, the ship's owner, minutes before he revealed the new name.

At an event here to celebrate the two milestones, Alexandra Bell, also a co-founder of Airship Ventures, spoke of the experience of getting the zeppelin program off the ground. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), as well as Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center, attended the event.

Airship Ventures is the first company in the United States to offer public access to zeppelins. And the company will be carrying paying passengers around the Bay Area, as well as helping NASA carry out scientific research.

The co-founders of Airship Ventures pull back the cover on the name of their brand-new zeppelin, the largest in the world, at the event Friday. The zeppelin is called the Eureka.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Brian Bell explained that Airship Ventures had a naming contest and received more than 1,500 submissions, five of which turned out to be "Eureka," a name that those involved in the company had already been thinking about anyway.

But Alexandra Bell said that the Eureka may not end up being Airship Ventures' only zeppelin (See video below of the first flight of the Eureka after its dedication).

"We decided we just have to get a couple more," she said, "so we can name them with some of the other wonderful names" we got.

While the Eureka is the largest currently functioning zeppelin, the airships from the golden age of zeppelins were much, much larger. The Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin were about 800 feet long, and the Macon, which was based at Moffat for a couple of years in the 1930s, was 785 feet long.

[PAR35]

There’s no rigid internal structure in this airship — therefore, it’s a blimp.

Apparently, no. http://www.airshipventures.com/theship.php

[skeeter]

Yep. Its a big one.

[pbear8]

So is mine in December. We need to start a support group for people with sucky birthdays.

[ml/nj]

If you have any info that taxpayer dollars contributed to Eureka's design, construction, operation, etc., please post it.

From NASA's website:

NASA and Airship Ventures entered into an agreement to use the airship to assist with disaster response agencies, for scientific research and educational training with local science centers and museums.

This whole thing STINKS. Esther Dyson is a big investor apparently. She's a fraud to my mind. I still remember being at a conference where she was on a panel and another on the panel said to her, "Esther. You're blowing smoke out your a$$ again." Wow! Did this guy hit the nail on the head!

The company that built the thing is called Airship Ventures. Now one could be forgiven for thinking that this was a craft that floats on hydrogen as did the zeppelins of the 1930s. But it's loaded with helium just as blimps are. The difference apparently is that this is a rigid airship. Wow. Big deal. But they let you know that they needed a team of 14 lawyers to get flight certification. Why this would be is unclear.

As for renting space at an airfield. Blimps frequently use the field near my house. It's a mini-bonanza for the airfield as the blimp uses an otherwise unused grassy area of the field. Almost all airports I've landed at have such grassy areas. (I'm an inactive IFR rated pilot.) The Airship Ventures folks claim somewhere that the need a much smaller ground crew than a blimp, which means mooring rental should probably be less than for a blimp. (Maybe. I'm sure this thing weighs more, so maybe whatever temporary mast they tie it to would create more ground disturbance at the field, but I doubt it.)

Anyway, my guess is that we're paying for this, or at least a lot of it.

ML/NJ

[Emperor Palpatine]

Yeah, because the world's largest Zeppelin was actually the "Hindenburg", which was almost as long as the "Titanic", and made a 747-400 look like an insect.

Oh! The Humanity! (sorry.....couldn't resist on a Zeppelin thread.)



Of course, both were equally ill-fated...

[ml/nj]

And your point is ... ?

ML/NJ

[Mike Fieschko]

Thanks. From the quote you provide from NASA’s web site, it looks as if we’re subsidizing this project.

[skeeter]

You suffered the “its a combination birthday/christmas gift” thing, too?

[pbear8]

Oh yeah. Or if you get a birthday gift it is wrapped in Christmas paper.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Zeppelins were also built under license by Goodyear in Akron Ohio. Zeppelin Reederei GmbH designer Dr. Karl Arnstein was director of a partnership of what was known as the Goodyear-Zeppelin Co. and the extremely huge hangar on Akron's south side still stands next to the Rubber Bowl and Soapbox Derby track.

They built two airships for the US Navy, sister-ships the USS Akron and USS Macon. They used helium for lift, and actually carried a small squadron of biplane fighters in their interior - launched and recovered by hooks and a trapeze sort of mechanism. They were used in war games in the late 20's and early 30's as aerial aircraft carriers. Both came to grief in bad storms. Admiral Moffett, the driving force behind naval lighter-than -air capability and for whom Moffett Field is named, was killed when the Macon crashed in 1935.


USS Akron


USS Macon


Plane recovery USS Macon

[shorty_harris]

Admiral Moffett, the driving force behind naval lighter-than -air capability and for whom Moffett Field is named, was killed when the Macon crashed in 1935.

Admiral Moffett was killed on the Akron. BTW, his great-grandson was supposed to be at the Airship Adventures event.

[editor-surveyor]

Moffet Field was one of my favorite places to go when I was a kid in the 50s. The father of one of the kids in our Cub Scout pack was a pilot that was stationed there, and he managed to get us included in a lot of the family day saturdays there.

That hanger is astounding. It even has clouds and rain inside sometimes.

[Emperor Palpatine]

My bad, it appears you are correct.

;-)

[sionnsar]

There was a small problem with H2, however.

Also, according to other FReepers, with the aluminized rocket fuel mixture used to coat the skin.

[sionnsar]

It’s not a zeppelin or a dirigible. There’s no rigid internal structure in this airship — therefore, it’s a blimp.

I was wondering about the evident absence of a frame.

[sionnsar]

The zeppelin NT ("new technology")

Maybe I'll wait for the Zeppelin XP, or Zeppelin Vista.

(Can I get a copy of Kubuntu Zeppelin instead?)

[Mike Fieschko]

(Can I get a copy of Kubuntu Zeppelin instead?)

Could we interest you in fvwm (running a modified White Magic configuration, screenshot here [1.5Mb image file])?

[Poundstone]

Actually, Moffett died in the crash of the Akron off the New Jersey coast in 1933. The Macon went down off of Point Sur, California, in 1935.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I believe that it is a rigid — albeit with a very different framework than the original Zeppelins had.

[Fichori]

>groan<

Heh, yeah.