Airship Venture's NT Zeppelin arrived yesterday in the San Francisco Bay area at its new home at Moffett Field, the former naval air station in Mountain View, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. Rides will start to be offered on 31 October at $495 per hour and up. Cabin holds 12 passengers. Non-flammable helium supports the new Zeppelin in a rigid internal frame hull covered in canvas, according to the AP report. (Actually, it is a multilayer laminate of polyester and tedlar with low gas permeability).
America has 13 remaining airship hangars, and Moffett Field has three of them. Rides are to be offered over Napa and Sonoma County wine fields, the Big Sur coastline, and the San Francisco Bay area. The NT Zeppelin is 246 feet plus 3/4 inch long, about 15 feet longer than a Boeing 747. The NT Zeppelin was built by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik Gmbh, a Friedrichshaffen, Germany company in business about 10 years.
Powerplants are three Lycoming IO-360 200 horsepower engines, two tractor mounted on the sides of the hull, with swiveling vectored thrust propulsion through a 120 degree range using three blade variable-pitch props. The third Lycoming IO-360 200 horsepower engine is tail-cone mounted with a belt-driven gearbox to a lateral fan for precise yaw control and vectored prop used as a pusher for forward flight and pitch control in landing configuration.
The cabin should be quite quiet. Japan has also taken delivery of one. Controls are computer-assisted, dual fly by wire with no mechanical backup. Passenger ride comments welcome