Re-introducing The Zeppelin

No, Page, Plant, and Jones still won’t play without Bonzo.

What the title refers to is the return of that craft that was shown exploding on the British band’s first album cover.

A French industrial designer has decided that the fuel crisis and the idea of ‘luxury transportation’ can come together in the redesign of the zeppelins of yesteryear.

Other than the advertising benefits and ‘eye-in-the-sky’ capability at sporting events, the zeppelin has been used for little in years. However, the slow speed and natural buoyancy of the design allows for high fuel efficiency, and a much different traveling experience.

from Popular Science

Most of us fly for speed, but French industrial designer Jean-Marie Massaud believes that slow cruising in an airship could be the next step in air travel. Massaud has sketched airships since the age of five, he says, and has since collaborated with major brands like Yves Saint Laurent and Yamaha to design, respectively, perfume bottles and submarines. Now he’s partnering with Onera, France’s space agency, to create the world’s first luxury airship. The design of the Manned Cloud calls for a double-decker, 5.6-million-square-foot airship shaped like a whale. Boasting a top speed of 105 mph and outfitted with all the amenities of a cruise ship, it would ferry 55 passengers from Paris to Madagascar in four days, offering a turbulence-free, unpressurized flight at an altitude of a mere 9,800 feet.

Intrigued by Massaud’s spaceship-like design and the possibility of a new aeronautics market, Onera has been testing the aerodynamics and flight-control capabilities of a scale model for the past year. This spring, the agency recommended a slightly less grand version of the airship, capable of carrying 15 passengers and traveling at 80 mph. Massaud hopes the new design will attract the attention of private investors, from whom he aims to secure as much as $15 billion to begin building the Manned Cloud, with a sail date of 2020.

the new design is still somewhat classic, but better -

Photo by Matt Stubbington

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