Aviation Buffs See Return of Airships
A B O A R D A I R S H I P ‘S P I R I T O F <br>E U R O P E’, July 14 -- Pilot Florian Kuhn pushed a red button igniting an engine while several men holding mooring ropes on the ground hoisted the airship forward as it slowly floated into the sky.
Below the 115-foot Goodyear airship an open window offered a postcard view of a German church and pastoral village next to a lake. The long shadow of the airship glided slowly along the surface of the water.
Only a few hundred people a year enjoy such stunning views from low-flying airships, which number about 30 worldwide. Yet a number of forthcoming projects — the focus of a convention last week at Friedrichshafen in southern Germany — could provide a long-awaited industry revival in this centenary year of the flight of Germany’s first zeppelin.
“Airplanes are much faster and cheaper but airships offer a journey to enjoy,” said Eugen Bentele, a 90-year-old survivor of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which badly tarnished the airship industry. “When I fly on an airplane it’s really boring.”
Now filled with inert helium rather than the highly combustible hydrogen that lifted the Hindenburg and the ill-fated British airship of the same era, the R-101, the airship of the 21st century is also a good deal safer.
A ride on an airship can offer a unique perspective on life.
“The most surprising thing I saw was a couple having sex in a park in Stuttgart right next to a tennis event,” said Kuhn, one of only about 80 airship pilots worldwide, as we cruised over Germany. “You do get a very good view from an airship.”
Airship business people say more usual viewing for the general public will be cities, exotic locations such as the Amazon or monuments such as the Great Wall of China.
Floating Tourists
Last year, a company began offering hour-long rides above Las Vegas for about $200. Next year, a successor to the company that built the 800-foot Hindenburg is likely to start flying tourists in Europe on a new generation zeppelin.
