Not surprisingly, German multinational Bayer AG, which designed the airship’s special hull, wants to be associated with this image of tranquility. Here the balloon is seen passing the Statue of Liberty in New York.
By Chris Melzer
Until the 1930s airships were a popular and luxurious way to travel between Europe and North and South America with Germany at the forefront of the technology.
However, the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 when the massive German airship caught fire while attempting to land near Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 people aboard, plus one on the ground, marked the beginning of the end for airship travel.
While there is no airship operating today that can truly rival the majesty of the Hindenburg, airships have never quite disappeared and even the Graf Zeppelin company is still building dirigibles, though mostly as tourist attractions.
Haimo Wendelstein is also currently attracting attention as he pilots an airship around the globe, stopping in half a dozen world metropoles along the way. The craft is one of the few modern airships to use hot air rather than helium to generate lift.
“An airship is really something special. It draws people from all over the world regardless of which continent they are from,” says Wendelstein.
The pilot does not like being the centre of attention but he has no choice when hundreds of interested spectators welcome his arrival, especially in the developing world where airships are a rarity. “The airship is such an appealing flying machine,” explains Wendelstein. “It is not aggressive like a helicopter, it hums quietly. It is majestic and slow and basically somehow friendly.”
Not surprisingly, German multinational Bayer AG, which designed the airship’s special hull, wants to be associated with this image of tranquility and has sent Wendelstein around the world to help mark the company’s 150th anniversary.
“We have already been to Sydney and Johannesburg with Tokyo, Rio and other places still to come,” Wendelstein said during his recent stop in New York.
“It really is amazing to look the Statue of Liberty directly in the eye from a height of 30m.”
The airship’s body is three times as large as a bus while the gondola is around the size of a small car. The airship can carry four passengers, although the backseat travellers have two large gas bottles in front of them.
“If anyone appears nervous, I let them know that they are travelling in the world’s safest aircraft,” says Wendelstein as he knocks on the gondola’s metal frame. “Nobody has ever been injured by an airship that uses hot air.”
If the motor or burner break down then the blimp simply floats slowly back to Earth. Even a large 1-sq-m hole in the hull is not a safely issue, the 55-year-old pilot says.
It is not surprising that the airship causes a stir at every airport it lands at. Wendelstein has priority because of the speed he travels at and an airship really is hard to ignore. “We often get asked by control tower operators if we can do another circle of the airport so they can all take a photograph,” says Wendelstein. — DPA
