Google's Sergey Brin is building the world's biggest airship

[Flyaway]

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is building a hi-tech airship in Silicon Valley destined to be the largest aircraft in the world, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the project.

“It’s going to be massive on a grand scale,” said one, adding that the airship is likely to be nearly 200 meters long. This would make it by far the world’s largest aircraft today, albeit smaller than the epic Hindenburg Zeppelins of the 1930s, or the American navy airship USS Macon that was once based in the very same hangars where Brin’s aircraft is now taking shape.

The sources revealed details of the airship on the condition of anonymity, citing confidentiality agreements. Brin has revealed nothing of his airship ambitions and is building the airship in a giant hangar on a Nasa airfield far from the eyes of the public.

Brin wants the gargantuan airship, funded personally by the billionaire, to be able to deliver supplies and food on humanitarian missions to remote locations. However, it will also serve as a luxurious intercontinental “air yacht” for Brin’s friends and family. One source put the project’s price tag at $100m to $150m.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/26/google-sergey-brin-building-largest-aircraft

 

[sferrin]

Love the way the author conflates the details to make it sound more impressive than it is. :

 

[Flyaway]

Love the way the author conflates the details to make it sound more impressive than it is. :

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

 

[sferrin]

Love the way the author conflates the details to make it sound more impressive than it is. :

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

Just that it'd be nice if the media went back to hiring professionals. But I might as well be wishing to win the lottery. Anymore you always have to read the fine print for the disclaimers. "World's largest aircraft!!!!" Except it's not even close to the largest airship. As bad as China continually bragging about their "largest seaplane in the world" while the much larger Martin Mars can be seen flying on YouTube.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

"Needless" cynicism? Ain't no such thing.

 

[bobbymike]

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

"Needless" cynicism? Ain't no such thing.

;D

 

[Flyaway]

Love the way the author conflates the details to make it sound more impressive than it is. :

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

Just that it'd be nice if the media went back to hiring professionals. But I might as well be wishing to win the lottery. Anymore you always have to read the fine print for the disclaimers. "World's largest aircraft!!!!" Except it's not even close to the largest airship. As bad as China continually bragging about their "largest seaplane in the world" while the much larger Martin Mars can be seen flying on YouTube.

Well if I wanted to be pedantic you could say we officially don't know how big it is, so it might be the biggest and then again it might not be.

 

[sferrin]

Love the way the author conflates the details to make it sound more impressive than it is. :

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

Just that it'd be nice if the media went back to hiring professionals. But I might as well be wishing to win the lottery. Anymore you always have to read the fine print for the disclaimers. "World's largest aircraft!!!!" Except it's not even close to the largest airship. As bad as China continually bragging about their "largest seaplane in the world" while the much larger Martin Mars can be seen flying on YouTube.

Well if I wanted to be pedantic you could say we officially don't know how big it is, so it might be the biggest and then again it might not be.

"nearly 200 meters long"

 

[LowObservable]

"World's biggest airship" could well mean "biggest airship in the world today". Doesn't necessarily mean "biggest airship ever".

 

[Flyaway]

Love the way the author conflates the details to make it sound more impressive than it is. :

Not quite sure what point to make other than needless cynicism.

Just that it'd be nice if the media went back to hiring professionals. But I might as well be wishing to win the lottery. Anymore you always have to read the fine print for the disclaimers. "World's largest aircraft!!!!" Except it's not even close to the largest airship. As bad as China continually bragging about their "largest seaplane in the world" while the much larger Martin Mars can be seen flying on YouTube.

Well if I wanted to be pedantic you could say we officially don't know how big it is, so it might be the biggest and then again it might not be.

"nearly 200 meters long"

Well we will see I suppose at some point how accurate or not this article was.

 

[Grey Havoc]

From back in June of this year:

A Google Co-Founder Is Building a Massive 400-Foot Airship for Humanitarian Missions

Pathfinder 1 spans 400 feet and could hit the skies by 2023.

robbreport.com

Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s airship start-up grows rapidly (ft.com, subscription or registration may be required)


ORIGINAL CAPTION: LTA crew members manoeuvre Pathfinder 1 inside the hangar at Moffett Field in California © LTA Research

Tim Bradshaw in London JUNE 3 2022


Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s secretive project to build huge electric airships is scaling up rapidly, as Lighter Than Air (LTA) Research prepares its first major test flights later this year.

The tech billionaire is hiring hundreds of aerospace engineers in Silicon Valley and Akron, Ohio, at a site made famous by the Goodyear blimp, to build airships intended to run humanitarian missions to remote areas or disaster zones.

LTA was incorporated in 2014, before Brin stepped down from executive duties at Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2019. The start-up’s headquarters are at Moffett airfield in the San Francisco Bay Area, a Nasa-owned facility a short drive from Google’s headquarters that the US space agency began leasing to the tech company in 2015.

LTA’s payments to Google for the use of Moffett have risen more than tenfold in the past three years, according to parent company’s Alphabet’s most recent annual proxy filing, which has disclosed the “arm’s length” transactions with Brin’s company since 2017.

After starting at just $131,000 five years ago, those payments rose from $1.1mn in the year to March 2019 to $10.9mn in the most recent period ending in March 2022, suggesting that LTA is accelerating its development.

LTA hopes to reinvent the blimp for the 21st century with “zero-emissions” flights. The company’s first full-sized airship, the 120-metre-long Pathfinder 1, is scheduled to begin test flights over Silicon Valley this year.

An even bigger dirigible, Pathfinder 3, is in development at the air dock in Akron, which became the world’s largest building when it was completed in 1929 and remains one of the world’s largest aerospace facilities today. A recruitment drive in Akron will double LTA’s total headcount to more than 400 people over the coming months.

Alan Weston, a former Nasa programme director who has led LTA since 2016, told local news reporters in Ohio in May that the company was building “the largest air vehicle on earth” in Akron. The 185 metre-long Pathfinder 3 will eventually be capable of carrying up to 96 tons across a range of up to 10,000 miles, or 16,000km, when it is completed next year, Weston said.

Pathfinder 3 is 60 metres shorter than the ill-fated Hindenburg-class airships that promised to revolutionise passenger flight in the 1930s until a disastrous accident in New Jersey killed 36 people and shattered the industry’s ambitions.

Brin’s day-to-day involvement at LTA is unclear but he is one of 13 inventors named on a key US patent granted to the company in April last year. The patent covers “methods and apparatus for constructing airships”, using 3D printing and carbon-fibre tubing to reduce costs and speed up production.

Weston said: “We believe lighter than air technology has the capacity to speed up humanitarian aid by reaching remote locations with little infrastructure, and to lower carbon emissions for air and cargo transportation.” Among the many open positions for which LTA is hiring is a “flight test engineer” in Silicon Valley with “experience with first flight efforts of experimental aircraft”. Advertised perks include free lunches, “swag and the occasional airship ride”.

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.ltaresearch.com/ (WARNING! Bandwidth intensive)

 

[TomcatViP]

I can confirm that you'd need to seat on top of a Starlink dish to get all the 3D anims.

 

[Grey Havoc]

An article and separately a couple of videos from last year.

The world's largest aircraft breaks cover in Silicon Valley | TechCrunch

As dawn breaks over Silicon Valley, the world is getting its first look at Pathfinder 1, a prototype electric airship that its maker LTA Research hopes

techcrunch.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrAc-yORdAo

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[Grey Havoc]

Sergey Brin’s gigantic blimp aims to change the future of aviation

Lighter Than Air, a company owned by Google's co-founder, begins testing Pathfinder 1, a next-generation airship that could revolutionize air travel, cargo transport, and the movement of humanitarian aid.

www.domusweb.it

https://spectrum.ieee.org/lta-airship-faa-clearance

https://simpleflying.com/lta-research-pathfinder-1-sergey-brin-largest-aircraft/

 

[Archibald]

Mandatory creepy video (ROTFLMAO, this never, ever gets old)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7W9a9tNhvA

 

[publiusr]

That's my employers whenever I asked for a raise.

 

[Dilandu]

Not much recent news about this project?

 

[Grey Havoc]

Testing seems to be still underway. The lack of drama is probably a good sign.