The Airship Prize

From aopa.org: “Is there a more iconic corporate symbol than the Goodyear blimp? Company research shows that whenever the word “blimp” is used, most every American thinks “Goodyear.” Such name recognition and association doesn’t occur without a major investment in time and money, and Goodyear has made both over the past 84 years to support commercial blimp operations. However, the company’s contributions to aviation go back even further.” One giant icon: Flying a piece of aviation history

From Mountainview Voice: “NASA Ames deputy director Lew Braxton told a crowd last Thursday that the agency was hard at work on a plan to restore Hangar One within the next 18 months in order to return it to “its original purpose.” “There is a possibility we will have another [airship out here,” Braxton said as he talked about NASA’s plan for Hangar One. The announcement was a revelation to those at the Moffett Field Restoration Advisory Board meeting, some of whom said they’d heard rumors, but no confirmation, that NASA wanted to once more park a huge airship inside the iconic structure. Among other things, it would mean that NASA plans to re-skin the hangar after the Navy strips off its toxic siding.
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The founder of Dynalifter, a freight-moving aircraft in the line of a dirigible or blimp, will make a presentation to the Western Reserve Port Authority on Wednesday morning, seeking a partnership to allow the company to test and build the aircraft at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. Robert Rist, president of Ohio Airships Inc., said Monday that testing the aircraft at the airport could provide more than 500 jobs to the airport. If production of the aircraft were take place, employment could swell to 1,500, Rist said.
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From kqed.org: “The Hindenburg wasn’t the only air ship to end in a catastrophic crash. In 1935, the USS Macon went down in 1000 feet of water off the coast of Monterey, California. Now, as scientists study the recently-discovered wreckage, dirigibles are returning to the Bay Area and are poised to rule the skies once again. But these aren’t the same dirigibles – these are new and improved.”

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

From lvrj.com: “When you look up into the sky and see the M Resort blimp hovering above, you’re looking at a rarity. You’re watching Terry Dillard, one of just 56 certified blimp pilots in the world, steering one of just three of the planet’s airships with video screens on the side. As Dillard likes to point out, Earth houses more space shuttle pilots than it claims blimp captains. And, for that matter, the United States has as many space shuttles as it has video-screened airships. (more…)

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…)

From inventorspot.com: “Russia was not the birthplace of the zeppelin, although it may mark the site of its renaissance in the modern age. It was July of 1900 in Germany, when Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, unveiled the world’s first zeppelin before a crowd of disbelieving locals from the town of Friedrichshafen. Although air ships had been flown for almost 50 years, this was the very first ridged airship. (This zeppelin was the very first to have a skeleton built around bags of lifting gas.)
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From New Scientist: ” METAL airships are one of the oldest notions in aeronautics. As early as 1670, Italian mathematician Francesco Lana published his Demonstration of the Feasibility of Constructing a Ship With Rudder and Sails, Which Will Sail Through the Air. Lana proposed evacuating the air from a set of copper spheres, which he reasoned would weigh less than the surrounding air and would ascend until the weight of the sphere reached equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere. He calculated that four vacuum spheres, each with a diameter of 7.5 metres, could lift a boat carrying six passengers. (more…)