Jeff BezosBlue Origin is preparing for space tourism. Elon Musk‘s SpaceX plans to colonize Mars. But Serge Brin was quietly working to bring back the airship.
A recent article loaded with the first photos in Bloomberg Business Week taking the first major tour of Mountain View, California’s LTA Research & Discovery Agency, a company founded by billionaire Google in 2016 that has been quietly working to bring huge vintage vehicles return.
“Welcome to LTA: Where We’ll Darken the Sky,” company CEO Alan Weston, one of the world’s first bungee jumpers, is said to have said so as he greeted the guests. (LTA stands for “lighter than air.”)
A century ago, airships were (literally) the height of luxury travel, and early plans for the Empire State Building included a docking station on the streets of Manhattan. (They tried once, but high winds quickly extinguished the idea.) Then, in 1937, Hindenburg boom, and that disaster, with its world-famous tragic sound, matched by advances in aircraft technology, killed the industry. Aside from the Goodyear balloon hovering over a football game, it’s fair to say most of us have never even seen a hot air balloon let alone piloted one. (Tourists visiting Friedrichshafen in Germany can surf for 90 minutes in an authentic Zeppelin NT for $800 at a balloon museum kept by the descendants of inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin himself.)
But all those changes are (possible) with the LTA. The company is preparing to launch Pathfinder 1, a prototype vehicle 120 meters long and 40 meters wide at its widest, with dozens of thrusters and laser sensors. None of this size has been built since the 1930s, and it is only “a fraction” of the size LTA is planning for its final fleet.
For comparison, the Goodyear balloons are described by Bloomberg are “large, inflated bags with a minimal gondola taped to the underside [which] lacked a solid internal structure so its engine had to be attached to the gondola.” As such, this “makes conditions noisy and unsightly for pilots and passengers.” (As for the official specific differences between airships, airships, and airships, all of which are airships, there is no better source than this page dedicated to that matter on airship.net.)
But you may have a question. Why is Brin sponsoring this business?
The main answer could be that Brin, 49, born in Russia, raised in Maryland, is worth $105 billion and the LTA just costs him every Bloombergestimated, $250 million. The article strongly implies that the guy just thinks the airship is cool, and that Brin would love to be the first to pilot in Pathfinder 1 when it’s done.
In addition, however, LTA’s Weston points out that they have the potential to be used to transport goods in an eco-friendly way and are also quite useful in delivering aid to disaster areas. The final LTA models can carry 200 tons, 10 times more than a Boeing 737. In addition, many areas in need of relief do not have access roads or runways nearby. For a spacecraft capable of hovering, this wouldn’t be a problem.
But other than that, yes, they look great. And the idea of traveling across the Atlantic while hovering like a god for a few days is sure to appeal to many who can afford the trip.
With that, let’s take a look at a scene from the 1971 movie balloonin there Michael York riding a zeppelin.
