It's the first international Zeppelin Cruise since the 1930s
The Aerwin Zeppelin Tour has departed from the historic airship base at Cardington near Bedford early this morning. This is the first Zeppelin cruise to offer passengers a taste of international airship flight since the great transatlantic airships of the 1930s. The modern Zeppelin NT accommodates ten passengers on this exclusive northern European tour which includes England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The airship is flying from Cardington via London and across the Channel to Calais, then on via Dunkirk and Gent for a stop-over at Brussels, and over Antwerp on its way to Rotterdam and its final destination at an airfield at Valkenburg, near The Hague.
This special three day Zeppelin cruise which includes hotel accommodation, meals and tranfers plus various talks and entertainments on a Zeppelin theme is being organised by Aerwin, an airship company based in the Netherlands. Aerwin is a partner with Zeppelin European Tours which is planning for a network of Zeppelins throughout Europe in the future.
It is very fitting that Cardington should be the location for the start of the cruise. The two giant airship hangars stand as a memorial to Britain's giant airships of the past and in recent decades Cardington has continued as a centre for lighter-than-air development. This visit by the Zeppelin is the first since the Graf Zeppelin came to the airfield in April 1930 when it landed beside the famous R100 which was moored to its tall mast. On that occasion the R101 remained in the hangar as there was only room on
the mast for one airship at a time.
The NT N07 is the most advanced airship flying today. 75M long, it has an internal rigid framework which combines lightweight carbon fibre triangular frames with three aluminium girders or longerons. Three Textron Lycoming engines drive the airship at up to 125 km/h and these can be swivelled by up to 120 degrees to provide a superb level of manoeuvrability. With its large panoramic windows the spacious cabin, or 'gondola', carries its passengers in great comfort and it is equipped with a loo.
This is indeed the same airship that has flown over London for several weeks. It has been rebranded in Cardington and, following this first international Zeppelin Cruise, sightseeing flights will be available over Rotterdam until the second half of September. Then it will embark on a journey to the States, where Airship Ventures will operate passenger flights over San Francisco and surrounding areas.