From RT.com: ” Exactly a century ago, in 1908, the first Russian airship blasted off in the then capital St Petersburg. Today, after successfully building scaled-down zeppelins, the Russian company RosAeroSistemy is planing to realize the ideas of the rocket scientist – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The Russian pioneer of space theory predicted that airships with hard shells could be highly reliable and maneuverable once the right technology was developed.
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In February 2008, three individuals with a passion and interest in the development of freight transport airships banded together to begin development of the Airship Prize. Ron Hochstetler, Barry Prentice and Jeff Ashcroft all came to jointly build this initiative from different but very complementary backgrounds, and short Bios of each of these Founders are shown below for your information. Meet the Airship Prize Founders
From cnet news: “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.
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