Zeppelin Tours Coming to Moffett Field

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA-A company that wants to provide sky tours and advertising operations with Zeppelin NT airships is setting up shop at the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field. Airship Ventures Inc. chief executive Alex Hall tells GlobeSt.com the company has set up shop in a temporary location at the park while it negotiates a lease for one of the historic airship hangars and a portion of an historic building on Shenandoah Plaza that would hold its headquarters.

Meantime, the airship, a 12-pasenger Zeppelin NT07, is being constructed in Germany by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH and is expected to be ready in May. Hall tells GlobeSt.com that its contract to acquire the semi-rigid carbon fiber airship is contingent upon Airship Ventures obtaining all the necessary approvals from the FAA to operate the vessel in the US. The goal is to have it here and ready for tours by October.

“The FAA is in the process of doing type certification for the Zeppelin,” Hall says. “It’s been going on for several years and is reaching its conclusion. The ship won’t come here until that’s finished.” As for NASA approving its plans to locate permanently on at the research park, Hall says “all indications are that bringing an airship back to the former airship base is an appropriate reuse of the historic structures.”