Monday - July 14, 2008
Zeppelins over London
No need to run for the bomb shelters, this time it’s all for fun.
Stella Artois is celebrating its pioneering spirit by providing a commercial airship for Londoners and the city’s tourists to enjoy a unique, memorable and pioneering experience for six weeks over the summer from 10th July -21st August.
The airship is the largest commercial airship in the world at over 75m, bigger than a Boeing 747, imagine that at 300m above the Thames. Its rotating engines allow her to hover, fly forwards, backwards, up and down like a helicopter and can turn on a penny. It is so well balanced that you could stand under the airship and push it up and down as if you were doing weights. Well over 60,000 passengers have flown on the airship in Germany and Japan.
While this aircraft is called a Zeppelin, and is made by the scion of the original Zeppelin company, it is not a rigid airship like the zeps from the early 20th century. It is also not an actual lighter than air craft, and it uses nonflammable helium, not hydrogen. The new generation of ships are called “semi-rigid” aircraft because they have soft skins but an internal support structure made from aluminum and carbon fiber. Blimps are non-rigid aircraft with no internal frames. These zeps are not lighter than air either, although their net weight is not very much more than you could lift yourself. Their engines are on pivots, so the ships can hover and even fly backwards. Cool.
After undergoing tests, the Zeppelin NT has been granted FAA approval and at least one is on it’s way to the USA, purchased by Airship Ventures.
At 75m (246 feet) the Zeppelin NT is a good bit larger than the Goodyear Blimps (200 feet), or the MetLife (Snoopy) blimps, but not even a third as large as the rigid zeppelins of yore, some of which were over 245m (800 feet) long.
Ah well. Here in New Jersey I’m pretty jaded to the whole blimp and balloon thing. We have hot air balloons here all the time; on a still evening we often see 30 in the air at once. One even landed in my backyard. We also get flyovers from the Goodyear blimp, the Fuji blimp, at least one of those smaller blimps with the digital lights used as floating billboards, and one run by some HMO. So I see them at least once a month. Still, they’re pretty cool.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/14/2008 at 01:00 PM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •
• Comments (3)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
Once Again, The One And Only Post
(4 total trackbacks)
Tracked at iHaan.org
Thｅ advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
(3 total trackbacks)
Tracked at head to the Momarms site
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20
Vietnam Homecoming
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at 广告专题配音 专业从事中文配音跟外文配音制造，北京名传天下配音公司
专业从事中文配音和外文配音制作，北京名传天下配音公司 北京名传天下专业配音公司成破于2006年12月，是专业从事中 中文配音 文配音跟外文配音的音频制造公司，幻想飞腾配音网领 配音制作 有海内外优良专业配音职员已达500多位，可供给一流的外语配音，长年服务于国内中心级各大媒体、各省市电台电视台，能满意不同客户的各种需要。电话：010-83265555 北京名传天下专业配音公司…
On: 03/20/21 07:00
meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
a small explanation
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
RSS 2.0 
Atom 
