Two decades ago, Google co-founder Sergey Brin made internet search one of the most valued businesses. Brin now is trying to master and improve a technology which had its best years long before he was born – Airships!
Brin and his team are building new generation Airships that won’t need conventional airports. These behemoths will be built in Ohio. If built, they will be docked in one of America’s most exemplary structures – the Goodyear Airdock in Akron.
Airships can be very useful in situations which require aid delivery in disaster struck areas. They can transport air cargo at a much cheaper rate than aircraft and have minimal emission issues. However, earlier similar projects petered out due to the complex and intricate engineering challenges involved. These attempts either ran out of money or left potential customers uninterested and disillusioned.
“Flying an airship is unlike flying any other aircraft because it’s lighter than air and floats, instead of sinks, when you put the power at idle,” Andrea Deyling, a pilot and director of airship operations of Brin’s airship company, LTA Research, told BBC. “There’s also a sense of wonder people have when they see a lighter-than-air vehicle flying overhead. LTA Research is building a unique airship and I can’t wait to get into the actual aircraft and fly it.”
According to BBC, “in the first half of the 20th Century, Akron in Ohio, was known as the “rubber capital of the world” because it was home to great American tyre manufacturers such as one time arch-rivals Goodyear and Firestone, and it soon became a centre of airship development thanks to the connections between the two industries.
Inaugurated in 1929, Goodyear Airdock where these airships will potentially be built, is a giant airship factory with a floor space equivalent to eight American football fields (364,000 sq ft or 34 000 sq m).
At its prime it was supposed to spearhead America’s transition to airships. But the Hindenburg disaster put an end to those dreams. The Hindenburg disaster was an airship accident which happened in 1937. The Hindenburg airship caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. That ended the Airship dream and a generation of luxurious air travel between Europe and the United States.
It remains to be seen whether Sergey Brin and his team can revive this long-lost dream and turn it into it a reality!
