Not The Hindenburg - Zeppelin's return to the U.S.

[FireLight]

Was there ever a zeppelin in California? Wasn't the USS Macon (and Akron) an airship rather than a zeppelin? At least these guys are using helium rather than hydrogen this time around.

Like swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano — except with a longer interval (73 years in this case) — the zeppelins are returning to California.

Operating out of Moffett Field, near Mountain View at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, Airship Ventures has announced that it has inked a deal with Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH of Germany (the successor of the same firm who made the Hindenburg and the zeppelins that bombed London in World War I) to acquire a modern, 12-passenger zeppelin.

The $8 million airship will be sent to California in September, where it will be used mostly for sightseeing excursions. Being much smaller than the passenger zeppelins of the 1920s and 1930s, it will have to cross the Atlantic on the deck of a ship.

More here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24618752/

[HalcyonDays]

Wasn't the USS Macon (and Akron) an airship rather than a zeppelin?

Must admit I would have said zeppelins were also airships. Zeppelin was merely the German name, after their inventor.

[P3_Super_Bee]

Must admit I would have said zeppelins were also airships. Zeppelin was merely the German name, after their inventor.

The correct way is:

A Zeppelin is an Airship made by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik of Germany.

But because of the success Zeppelin had all rigid airships are casually refered to as Zeppelins....

Kind of like All Transparant Tape is refered to most as "Scotch Tape" even though 3M doesn't make have the stuff that's on the market.

[RichPhitzwell]

it saddens me whenever i see a balloon or larger using helium...what a waste of a precious gas that is going to waste. so many uses for it and its wasted on this.