What’s that big Blimp doing in the Bay Area sky?

Look, It’s a bird, it’s a plan no it’s a Dirigible?

Actually it's not a blimp at all. Look to the skies on a calm day around the Bay Area and you just might spot the world’s largest Zeppelin in your neighborhood. What’s it doing here? It was the brain child of Brian and Alex Hall to offer sightseeing flights around the Bay area. This lofty business venture got its start in 2006 when Brian first rode in a Zeppelin while in Germany and immediately was hooked. First, an order needed to be place for only the fourth Zeppelin NT in the world. Then, just two years later on October 23, 2008 the Zeppelin “Venture” was launched from Moffet field. This isn’t your mother ship Hindenburg; it’s filled with Helium instead of Hydrogen and uses gas engines to propel itself through the skies at lightning speeds up to 35 MPH. The Zeppelin NT07 airship can carry up to 12 passengers and is the largest airship flying in the US. At 246 feet in length, it is more than 50 feet longer than the largest blimp. It uses inert gas helium for lift, and vectored thrust engines for flight. So what’s the difference between a Blimp and a Zeppelin? Blimps are non rigid dirigibles and Zeppelins are rigid (and can carry more passengers). The Hindenburg by contrast was much larger and filled with Hydrogen (an extremely volitile gas). At 805 ft long, it could carry 73 passengers and flew at a blazing 80 MPH. Oh, and any DIRECT-IBLE flying machine can be called a dirigible.

(I took this picture out of my sunroof while in San Mateo)