The Zeppelin NT ("Neue Technologie", German for new technology) is a class of airships being manufactured since the 1990s by the German company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH (ZLT) in Friedrichshafen.
The initial design study was prepared in 1989. The ZLT was founded as a spin-off of the Zeppelin company in September 1993. It began to construct a prototype in 1995. The prototype first took to the air in September 1997.
On July 2, 2000, the centennial of the first Zeppelin flight, the prototype SN 01 was christened D-LZFN Friedrichshafen. Subsequently, it traveled some 3,600 km in test flights.
In 2001 the company began manufacturing the Zeppelin NT in series and began to exploit the airships commercially. The second ship SN 02 was christened D-LZZR Bodensee on August 10, 2001 and started to give joyrides five days later. By the end of that year, it had already transported 3,222 passengers, a figure that rose to about 30,000 by November 2003.
In standard operations with a maximum payload, the gas cells do not create enough buoyancy to make the whole ship "lighter-than-air." The negative buoyancy is overcome with engine power. The buoyancy can change when traveling with reduced payload and partially emptied fuel tanks, but usually the Zeppelin NT starts its journey with a net downward force of about 3,000 N (306 kg), and on long trips can end up lighter than air if a lot of fuel is used.
The Zeppelin NT is a semi-rigid airship. It is unlike both the original Zeppelins that had a rigid skeleton and non-rigid blimps. It has an internal triangular truss made of graphite-reinforced plastic and three longitudinal girders made of aluminium which connect the triangular elements along the length of the frame. This frame holds the engines, control car and the steering fins. Additionally, this structure is tightened with aramid cords. It weighs only about 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds).
To preserve its outer form, a slight overpressure of about 5 millibar is maintained within the hull. As in blimps, this pressure is kept constant by using ballonets. The ballonets have a total volume of 2,000 m³.
Instead of four rudder and elevator fins, the Zeppelin NT uses only three, which saves weight. As a side effect, the loss of one fin can be compensated with the remaining two.
The controls are implemented by fly-by-wire technology, with the pilot using a joystick to steer in three dimensions.
The Zeppelin NT is able to take-off and land vertically. Only three helpers are required on the ground.
The craft are also used as observation platforms for photographers and television commentators covering major events.
Due to their capability for long low-vibration flight (up to 24 hours), the ZLG also considers the airships well-suited to research missions for environmental observations, troposphere research or prospecting natural resources.
The third Zeppelin NT SN 03 was designated D-LZZF and first flew in February 2003.
The Friedrichshafen is intended to be used for training pilots, for special flights and for presentations. All further ships will be used commercially or sold. As a tribute to the days of Zeppelin mail, a number of mail-carrying flights are planned.
On March 2, 2004 the ZLT sold a Zeppelin NT for the first time; SN 02 was acquired by the Japanese Nippon Airship Corporation and was transferred in June 2004, and was to follow the historical route of the 1929 World Tour of the famous dirigible LZ127 "Graf Zeppelin". After problems with Russian authorities a special ship for huge parts from the Netherlands was chartered and the Zeppelin was shipped from Italy to Japan by sea. The company used the airship mainly for joyrides and advertising.
Steve Fossett and Paul Stroehle set the current speed record for airships over a distance of one kilometer on Wednesday, October 27, 2004 in Friedrichshafen, Germany with a Zeppelin NT. The new world record was set to 111.8 km/h (69.5 mph or 60.4 knots), an improvement of 19 km/h.
Starting in late 2005 the prototype Zeppelin NT, D-LZFN Friedrichshafen, was based in Jwaneng, a diamond mining town in southern Botswana, where it conducted an airborne geophysical survey on behalf of De Beers Prospecting Botswana. The airship was moved from Amsterdam to Cape Town by ship and then flown to Gaborone where a Lockheed Martin full tensor gravity gradiometer was installed. This instrument, owned and operated by Bell Geospace, measures changes in the Earth's gravity field associated with geological density variations. The technology is based on accelerometers and the data quality is sensitive to the turbulence and motion usually associated with fixed wing aircraft installations. The airship, flying slowly at night in relatively cool calm air, provides a very stable and vibrationally quiet platform. The resulting data is capable of revealing the rather faint gravity signals associated with Kimberlite pipes buried under the Kalahari sands. This survey came to an end on 20 September 2007, when D-LZFN was irreparably damaged by a whirlwind while moored at its mast.
In January 2006 the Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH announced building a fourth Zeppelin NT07. NT07 #4 was optioned by California-based Airship Ventures in Spring 2007. The new airship completed its first flight on May 21, 2008. On June 26, 2008, ZLT announced that the FAA issued the type certificate for the Zeppelin NT 07, allowing the airship to fly legally in the United States. Prior to the trip to the USA, the airship, registered D-LZNT, operated sightseeing and pleasure flights over eastern London and the Thames Estuary from an airfield close to Upminster, in Essex, England, advertising "Stella Artois" beer and the DrinkAware campaign. These flights operated between July and September 2008. The airship arrived at the Port of Beaumont on or about September 26, 2008. After spending three days tethered at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport, the airship flew cross-country to its base at Moffett Federal Airfield. Upon its arrival, the airship was given the U.S. registration N704LZ, and was christened "Eureka" (after the California state motto). Airship Ventures began commercial operations in November 2008, and is currently offering flightseeing tours over the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas, operating both out of Moffett Field, and Oakland Terminal.
In May 2010, due to economic problems at Nippon Airship Corporation, the SN2 was dismantled and shipped back to Germany in parts.
In May 2011 Goodyear announced it will be replacing its fleet of blimps with three Zeppelins
Category:German civil utility aircraft 1990-1999 Category:Airships of Germany
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