Private Financing Revives an Ancient German Marvel
by Max Schwing
A lot of time has passed since the Hindenburg exploded, a disaster that resulted from an accidental reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Many have concluded that the time for the giants of the sky, the Zeppelin, is long past, and will never return; others believe that propelled jets and helicopters have simply substituted for the big, dangerous vessels. They might be right, but there are still places and situations in which the special advantages of the Zeppelin are needed.
In the middle of the '80s a reassessment of the Zeppelin technology showed that they could be safely constructed today. Shortly afterwards, the Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co. KG (ZLT) started constructing and producing the first Zeppelin NT in the early 1990s. The designers of the Zeppelin NT (New Technology) sought to combine modern carbon-fibre materials with the ancient idea of a controlled balloon-craft. However, they substituted helium for hydrogen (helium is a bit heavier, but more on that later), and added the new ultra-light carbon and polymer materials to it.
After a few years of development, the first Zeppelin NT was born. The advantages of slower flight and lower vibration at high altitudes, along with good manoeuvrability, gave the ship a special advantage above other aircraft.
After the first flight of the Friedrichshafen (named after its mother city) on September 18, 1997, the dream was made real. However, the Zepplin NT wasn’t a moving object like a balloon or a satellite, but a flying object, due to its jet engines. These were necessary to compensate for the substitution of hydrogen with helium, because the latter was a hell of a lot more expensive. In 2001, the company started to sell tourist tickets for a tour-de-sky in Friedrichshafen and began building the ship in series. Today, they are even planning to build bigger and faster Zeppelins.
Besides its attractiveness to tourists, the new Zeppelin had other advantages. For example, the Zeppelin was used for a promotional tour by BMW and travelled through Eastern European countries (due to its slow movement and long time aloft, it is perfect as a flying PR machine). Another Zeppelin was sold to Japan, which wants to use the Zeppelin NT on their Expo 2005 events. Even flights for the German Postal office were done with the Zeppelin. But this wasn’t enough; the company wanted to venture forth and claim new market segments. The Zeppelin was used for security surveillance during the “Weltjugendtag 2005” (World Youth Day -- a Catholic festival with a visit by the Pope Benedikt). Another ship was used to help categorize satellite traffic for the Galileo Project of the ESA (European Space Agency). The company hopes to promote their ship for further scientific applications. The Zeppelin is a very good tool for scientists (especially environmental scientists), because of the large space, long flight hours, and the slow pace. DeBeers (a diamond company) is currently using a Zeppelin NT to search for new diamond mines in Africa.
Of course, the giant of the sky also has set records -- it is the biggest aircraft in existence, and Steve Fossett set a velocity record with one of the Zeppelins.
There are currently two Zeppelin NTs at the dock in Friedrichshafen, with capacity for one more (which was sold to Japan). The cost for one of these aircraft is estimated at several million euros (the Zeppelin sold to Japan went for 6 million euros).
Many would claim this is only possible due to government spending.
But the ZLT has done it on its own and even made a surplus.
I wish them well, and many successful years in their business. They have shown that private ownership and entrepreneurship can undertake innovative and risky engineering projects without state support.
Fare-… ehh ... Flywell.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_NT
http://www.zeppelin.de
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