Airship Ventures Inc. was a private company that offered sight-seeing rides (which the company called "flightseeing") in a 12-passenger Zeppelin NT out of a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

hangar at

Moffett Federal Airfield Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November ...

near

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...

. , their airship, built by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, is in a state of disassembly, but is still one of three

zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

s in the world. The ship was dedicated and christened ''Eureka'' at the 75th anniversary celebration for Moffett Field on November 21, 2008; its flight from

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

, where it was shipped, to the Bay Area was the first zeppelin flight in the United States in 71 years. At long, it was the largest airship in the world until the U.S. Army's LEMV had its maiden flight in 2012. The company was owned by the husband and wife team of Alexandra and Brian Hall of

Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (; ; ) is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is located in the San Franc ...

. Alexandra Hall previously ran the Chabot Space and Science Center in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, and Brian Hall is the CEO of telecommunications software company Mark/Space. Two of their pilots, Katherine "Kate" Board (who left the company to fly another Zeppelin NT in Germany) and Andrea Deyling, are the only female zeppelin pilots in the world.Airship Ventures: People-Pilots
retrieved 2008-11-30
archived
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

2011-6-19. Airship Ventures was based out of the Bachelor Officer Quarters in Building 20 in the NASA Research Park. The airship was stored in the World War II era Hangar Two, a former blimp hangar. On November 14, 2012, the company announced that it was closing its doors and grounding flight operations due to a lack of long-term sponsorship. In mid-December the decision was announced to wind up the company and disassemble the ''Eureka'', which was shipped back to Germany.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.airshipventures.com
Official website as archived in September 2012
prior to cessation of operations

2008-10-23 Companies based in Santa Clara County, California American companies established in 2007 Airlines established in 2008 Moffett Field Aviation in California Aviation in the United States Airships Airships of the United States

See also

References

External links