Zeppelin returns to commercial skies

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany - Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the craft for sightseeing trips and advertising.

The granddaughter of the original airship's inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was on hand as Japan's Nippon Airship Corp. took delivery of the 247-foot ship, destined for sightseeing and advertising flights in Japan and a starring role at the 2005 world's fair in the city of Aichi.

The new craft designed by Germany's Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik - named Zeppelin NT for "New Technology" - is filled with helium rather than the intensely flammable hydrogen that fueled the earlier generation of airships.

"This is an important day in the history of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik - the very first time that a Zeppelin NT has been sold," Zeppelin manager Bernd Straeter said as 1,500 people gathered for Saturday's ceremony at the company's huge airship hangar in Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance in southern Germany.

The original era of the zeppelin ended when the Hindenburg caught fire on landing at Lakehurst, N.J., in 1937 - killing 35 of the 96 people on board and dashing the dream of the airship as a means of transportation.

Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik started building the new dirigibles, which are about one-third the length of the Hindenburg, in 1996, but the sale to Nippon Airship - sealed in March - was its first commercial deal.

Straeter said the sale price was less than $10.8-million.

Today, the cigar-shaped craft - with "Germany in Japan" painted in large black letters on its side - is to take off on its journey to Japan, where it should arrive by mid August.

There's room for 12 passengers and two crew members in the ship's gondola, but it won't be taking passengers as it zigzags across Europe and on to Asia.

Planned stops include Geneva, Paris, the Dutch port of Rotterdam, Munich, Berlin and Stockholm, where it will stop in mid July before heading to Russia.

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