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A new airship and the future of travel.
Traffic on Highway 101 in Mountain View, California, is expected to worsen in the coming days or weeks, as motorists slow down to watch the launch of the 124-meter Pathfinder 1 airship owned by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
As it became known, LTA Research, a company founded by Brin in 2015 to develop airships for humanitarian and cargo transportation, received a special certificate of airworthiness for a helium airship in early September. This document allows the largest aircraft since the failed Hindenburg to begin flight testing at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley.
The certificate allows LTA to fly Pathfinder 1 within Moffett Field and the nearby Palo Alto Airport at an altitude of up to 460 meters. This will allow it to fly over the southern San Francisco Bay Area without interfering with planes arriving or departing from San Jose and San Francisco commercial airports.
The huge airship will initially be attached to a mobile mast for ground-based outdoor testing, before conducting about 25 low-altitude flights, with a total duration of 50 hours. Despite the fact that its rigid design resembles the huge airships of the early 20th century, the Pathfinder 1 is almost completely different from any large airship that has flown before.
LTA airships are made of lightweight titanium and carbon fiber. Twelve electric motors distributed on the sides and tail of the airship, as well as four rudders, allow vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) at speeds up to 120 km/h.
Although the Pathfinder 1 is designed to be operated by a single pilot, it is equipped with dual control organs and, according to the LTA's letter to the FAA, will have a co-pilot on board "for initial flight testing until the pilot's workload is assessed."
After extensive flight testing in California, Pathfinder 1 will move to the former Goodyear Airdock hangar in Akron, Ohio, which the company acquired as a future production location. An even larger 180-meter airship, Pathfinder 3, is already being developed there.
Eventually, LTA plans to use its airships for humanitarian missions, delivering cargo and personnel to areas inaccessible to road traffic.
The Pathfinder 1's airworthiness certificate is valid for a year, although the LTA told the FAA in its statement letter that it expects the test program to be completed within 180 days.
Traffic on Highway 101 in Mountain View, California, is expected to worsen in the coming days or weeks, as motorists slow down to watch the launch of the 124-meter Pathfinder 1 airship owned by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
As it became known, LTA Research, a company founded by Brin in 2015 to develop airships for humanitarian and cargo transportation, received a special certificate of airworthiness for a helium airship in early September. This document allows the largest aircraft since the failed Hindenburg to begin flight testing at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley.
The certificate allows LTA to fly Pathfinder 1 within Moffett Field and the nearby Palo Alto Airport at an altitude of up to 460 meters. This will allow it to fly over the southern San Francisco Bay Area without interfering with planes arriving or departing from San Jose and San Francisco commercial airports.
The huge airship will initially be attached to a mobile mast for ground-based outdoor testing, before conducting about 25 low-altitude flights, with a total duration of 50 hours. Despite the fact that its rigid design resembles the huge airships of the early 20th century, the Pathfinder 1 is almost completely different from any large airship that has flown before.
LTA airships are made of lightweight titanium and carbon fiber. Twelve electric motors distributed on the sides and tail of the airship, as well as four rudders, allow vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) at speeds up to 120 km/h.
Although the Pathfinder 1 is designed to be operated by a single pilot, it is equipped with dual control organs and, according to the LTA's letter to the FAA, will have a co-pilot on board "for initial flight testing until the pilot's workload is assessed."
After extensive flight testing in California, Pathfinder 1 will move to the former Goodyear Airdock hangar in Akron, Ohio, which the company acquired as a future production location. An even larger 180-meter airship, Pathfinder 3, is already being developed there.
Eventually, LTA plans to use its airships for humanitarian missions, delivering cargo and personnel to areas inaccessible to road traffic.
The Pathfinder 1's airworthiness certificate is valid for a year, although the LTA told the FAA in its statement letter that it expects the test program to be completed within 180 days.
