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Zeppelin Flies Again

Posted by Hemos on from the taking-to-the-air dept.

rakerman writes "The Globe and Mail reports Japanese firm buys first new-look Zeppelin. "Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the 12-seat craft for sightseeing trips and advertising." They call themselves Zeppelin-NT, or as the Germans say "Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH"."

10 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Old news... by ArbiterOne · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Zeppelin NT has been around for at least 10 years! I've seen photos of it in Popular Science, Discover, et al.

  2. Mirror by swordboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mirror here. This would seem like a no-brainer for the editors. But they couldn't care less, it seems.

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  3. Uh... no. by tunabomber · · Score: 4, Informative

    From their website:

    Fare per Person: EUR 335,00 Monday to Friday; EUR 370,00 on weekends and holidays.
    Please visit www.zeppelinflug.de for booking.

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    1. Re:Uh... no. by emtboy9 · · Score: 4, Informative

      You put the coma in the wrong place.

      33,500 and 37,000

      stupid.

      Uh... No. You put the comma in the wrong place. Take a look at the currency selections in Word or Open Office sometime. You will find that not everone in the world uses "." to denote cents or percentages of units of monetary measure. Europeans tend to use "," where Americans and other countries use ".".

      stupid. ;)

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  4. Re:Pronunciation by Hiro+Antagonist · · Score: 4, Informative

    GmbH is the German equivalent of, 'Inc'. or 'Ltd.'

    It's short for 'Gesellschaft mit Beschränkter Haftung' (Corporation with Limited Liability).

    Das ist alle für heute. Viel Spass.

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  5. NOT A BLIMP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    it's a blimp people, it just has a different name - whoop de do

    Actually, it isn't a blimp, it's a proper Zeppelin. The difference? A Zeppelin has a rigid frame, a blimp does not.

    Did you know that the US Navy built a few Zeppelin Aircraft Carriers in the 1930s? That's right - Zeppelins that could carry, launch and recover fighter aircraft. Fighteres were carried in a compartment in the body of the airship and were launched and recovered from a "trapeze". Link with pictures.

    Zeppelins are cool. I wish they'd become more widely adopted. Stoopid Hindenburg painted with Stoopid rocket fuel...

  6. Iron oxide, cellulose acetate, and aluminum powder by dogfart · · Score: 4, Informative
    was used for the doping material.

    "the total mixture might well serve as a respectable rocket propellant"

    The direction and color of the flame supports this theory. Hydrogen burns with a colorless flame and would burn upwards (being lighter than air). The actual flame burned downwards and looked like a "fireworks display".

    See: http://engineer.ea.ucla.edu/releases/blimp.htm

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  7. Re:It's about time by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Hindenberg accident was just the most memorable. However, most of the major dirigibles of the era were destroyed in mishaps. A lot of them got twisted to bits in thunderstorms; flying in those storm magnets was kind of like hanging out in a floating trailer park.

    The most famous exception to this, the Graf Zeppelin, was memorable mainly because it was able to operate so long without being lost in an accident.

    The Hindenburg was really just the last straw. Not to mention that even in the 1930s airplanes could transport a similar number of passengers faster, with fewer crew, and without needing a vessel comparable in size to the Titanic.

  8. Re:Why still use gas? by Nf1nk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Two big reasons.
    first using a gas gives you a tension structure. Tension structures are easy to build light wieght and strong. Using vacume gives you a compression structure and compression structures are much harder to build light.
    second Vacum isn't that much lighter than helium.
    follow me on this. At STP (standard temperature and pressure) air has a weight of about 26g/mole while helium has a weight of about 4g/mole blimps run low pressure so this is about right. 1 mole is about 23 L of gas. so for 23L of heium I get 22g of lift for the same amount of vacume I get 26g of lift. So by using helium instead of vacume you only lose about 15% of te lifting capacity, but you greatly simplify construction and maintainance.

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  9. A Zeppelin, not a Blimp by beq · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the company's website:
    The rigid framework weighs about a tonne and provides great stability. It comprises triangular carbon-fibre frames and three aluminium longerons braced by aramide cables. All the main components of the airship such as cabin, empennage and engines are mounted on this rigid structure. This arrangement ensures that the airship retains optimum manoeuvrability even with a loss of envelope pressure

    Looks like a Zeppelin to me.
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    -Brendan