BERLIN — A new zeppelin that took to the skies this week over Germany carrying passengers — the first commercial zeppelin flights since the Hindenburg disaster — could bring new life for the spurned form of air transport.
"It has a real future," Juergen Bleibler, curator at the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, said of the new airship that took its first passengers for a cruise Wednesday over southern Lake Constance — the same place where Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin inaugurated the airship age in 1900.
The zeppelin era ended in 1937 when the Hindenburg caught fire on landing at Lakehurst, N.J., after an Atlantic crossing, killing 35 of the 96 people on board. Unlike the Hindenburg, the new model — called the Zeppelin NT for "New Technology" and built by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik in Friedrichshafen — is filled with nonflammable helium instead of dangerous hydrogen.
"They won't fly again to America but have a chance to succeed for tourism and sightseeing," Bleibler said of the new zeppelin.
With six flights a day, five days a week, the Zeppelin NT Bodensee — the German name of Lake Constance — will carry up to 12 passengers and two crew members on a one-hour cruise over the lake on the Swiss border.
The firm received final approval Tuesday from air authorities to start commercial flights in the 246-foot-long airships. Prices for the trip start at $275, and the company says it already has 3,500 bookings for this year and 500 for next year.
The new zeppelins are much smaller than the Hindenburg and are designed to carry tourists on short jaunts at a top speed of 75 miles per hour. The company has also been licensed to start production of the new airships.
The Zeppelin NT can reach altitudes up to 7,875 feet and fly for 24 hours for a range of 560 miles carrying 4,200 pounds. Three propellers help the craft maneuver like a helicopter, able to take off vertically and come to a landing on a point.
Bleibler said the dirigible's relatively slow speed, low noise and cheap operating cost make it well-suited for such pleasure cruises.
"It is a wonderful experience," he said.
The museum has already featured an exhibition on the design of the new zeppelin and is gathering materials to document the history of the new aircraft.
Zeppelin-Luftschifftechnik has invested $34 million over more than a decade to develop the new ships, flying the first prototype in 1997. The new model uses principles of construction going back to Count Zeppelin himself, using internal supports to maintain its shape and maneuverability even in case of a loss of pressure.
The Hindenburg offered the first commercial air service across the Atlantic. It carried 1,002 passengers on 10 trips between Germany and the United States during its one year of operation. The airship was destroyed at the May 6, 1937, tragedy at Lakehurst, which was captured as it happened by New York media and reverberated around the world.
Goodyear and other companies have since turned blimps into advertising tools. But unlike zeppelins, blimps lack the internal supports and will lose their shape in case of pressure loss.
Zeppelin isn't the only German firm hoping to find a 21st-century market for airships, despite the legacy of the crash.
Another German company, CargoLifter AG, hopes to use lighter-than-air vehicles to move bulky products such as turbines, prefabricated bridges and oil rigs from factory to customer.
The first prototype of its 860-foot-long dirigible enters production this autumn, and CargoLifter has said it hopes to build 50 airships by 2015.