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Zeppelin Rules: California to Welcome New Era of Lighter-Than-Air Travel

Don't call it a blimp. A company named Airship Ventures hopes to usher in a new era of Zeppelin travel as it starts offering aerial tours of San Francisco Bay in its 246-foot-long Zeppelin NT, one of only three functioning rigid-framed Zeppelins in the world. Zeppelins haven't been seen in American skies for more than seventy years, in part because many people became scared of the lighter-than-air flying machines after the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. However, Airship Ventures execs want to ensure everybody that modern zeppelins use nonflammable helium gas rather than hydrogen, and that thousands of people have already enjoyed safe, slow, and low flights over Germany in these majestic aircraft since 2001. The tours begin on Friday, and visitors hoping for a bird's eye view of the Big Sur coastline and San Francisco will need to show up at Moffett Field with $495 for a seat on the one-hour flight. Demand must be looking pretty good, as the company is already planning its expansion, with two more zeppelins on order from a German manufacturer for similar tours in New York and Florida. We'd be game for a zeppelin ride over New York, though at nearly five hundred bucks a ticket, it'll have to be a very special occasion.

[Photo: airshipventures.com]

Related Stories
· Airship Ventures [Official Site]
· Californians Float a Plan: Return of the Zeppelin [AP via Yahoo! News]
· Adventure Travel Coverage [Jaunted]