2 Comments

1. Bruce  •  Mar 21, 2009 @2:34 am
   

   I rode in a blimp once. My wife and I won the joyride in a raffle at her employer’s ball.

   Not for the easily travel sick. Things are constantly moving including when boarding and it took a bit of agility just to get into the thing. I was also a little freaked out that there was no control yoke in front of the pilot. He had a wheel at side to control pitch and used the rudder for yaw. There is, of course, no ability to roll. At least not deliberately – the thing rolls about all the time and as the centre of mass is a couple of metres above your head it is a bit like being in a large swing as it wallows about a bit.

2. Tyler Nixon  •  Mar 21, 2009 @6:59 am
   

   Nice post. I did some work in the re-emerging airship industry from 2000-01 (9/11 pretty much brought collapse of most venutres).

   These vehicles still do and will only have more utility in the future. The military has gotten into the act (since 9/11) which, for better or worse, is always a boon to an industry and its technology development. Were it not for the U.S. Navy there would have been none but German airships in the U.S. in the 20′s and 30′s.

   Just to clarify, zeppelin became shorthand for ‘rigid airships’, specifically the giant ones of yore. The name derives from the originator and principal manufacturer/developer of rigid airships : the Zeppelin Airship Company in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Zeppelin has continuously remained in existence since being founded nearly 100 years and has been back in business making new airships since 1999.

   They are actually the manufacturer of the airship you saw, which has a rigid framework (though nothing as elaborate or intricate as the giant rigid airships the company once produced.)

   So you were correct right off the bat in thinking you were seeing a Zeppelin, if not a ‘zeppelin’ of the more common parlance.

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