The Airship Prize

From sfgate.com: “There have only been three complaints to speak of since Airship Ventures began its luxury zeppelin service flying passengers around the Bay Area three and a half months ago. The primates at the San Francisco Zoo are said to “freak out” when the world’s largest airship passes overhead, and two people on the ground have complained that passengers aboard the ship are looking at them through telephoto lenses. So Alexandra Hall, the chief executive and co-founder of Airship Ventures with her husband, Brian, has ordered that the 246-foot-long Eureka stay clear of the zoo and, well, she insisted that no spying is permitted.”
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Over 70 years after the notorious Hindenburg disaster, Zeppelin airships are finally making a comeback. As John Blackstone reports, a whole new design has been created for modern passenger travel.

From sun-sentinel.com: “A tubby, slow-moving airship ascended over South Florida to track tubby, slow-moving marine mammals as state biologists rode the Goodyear blimp to count manatees. The 192-foot Goodyear-Zeppelin Spirit of Innovation lifted off from Pompano Beach on a mission to assess the manatee population of Palm Beach County, taking advantage of the cold weather that drives manatees to a few well-known warm spots.
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From The Torontoist: ” At daybreak on the morning of August 10, 1930, His Majesty’s Airship R-100—the British airship that had arrived in Montreal from England on August 1—made a surprise visit over Toronto. She hadn’t been expected until 9 a.m., but just before dawn the faint droning of motors announced her presence over the harbour. Milkmen stopped their carts mid-route, diners and staff emptied from restaurants, and night-watchmen all gazed skyward to marvel at the ghostly sight of the airship against the moonlit sky. Ship whistles greeted the airship and woke its passengers. Across the city, people in pyjamas rushed outdoors to witness the history-making event. (more…)