European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 19, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Or it Etc St a t e is d Eon Blimp by Jodi Duckett the Allentown a morning Call hey once served As warship escorts and surveillance Craft. Now these magnificent aircraft mostly promote pizza tires and life insurance. Blimps and their ancestor airships have travelled quite a distance since their creation in the mid-1800s As the first flying machines capable of prolonged Steerable flight. Through every stage there has been a legion of admirers and advocates inspired and humbled by the enormous Ness and gracefulness of the Airship and its seeming ability to Glide effortlessly and relatively quietly through the sky. Yet by the 1960s, the Blimp was almost extinct no longer needed to Aid in major world Battles and with a future still uncharted. Today it is in the midst. Of a Renaissance fuelled by capitalistic pursuits. Blimps have become floating billboards in the sky used by some of the world s largest companies a metropolitan life pizza hut Gulf Oil Mcdonald a Fuji a to get an. Extraordinary bang from their advertising Buck. Quot blimps Are one of the few advertising Media that people never get tired of Quot claims Joe Olma vice president of . Lighter than air of Eugene ore., which owns two blimps. Blimps also Are being used for scientific pursuits such As tracking whales and exploring weather patterns Westinghouse electronic systems has a contract with the department of defense to build a Blimp at least twice the size of those flying today As part of its air defense system. And a German company that built a Fleet of huge airships in the Early 1900s known As zeppelins is proposing to reinvent the air cruise ship the Best. Known of which was the Hindenburg. The Hindenburg exploded and crashed in new Jersey in 1937, killing 35 passengers and ending the use of a airships for regular passenger services. Although there Are about three times As Many blimps in the United states As there were a decade ago 33 were registered with the Federal aviation administration in 1992, the most recent year for which the Agency compiled figures a the number is nothing like the past. There once were hundreds of a a. A a. A a a a a a a los Antolos Utmos traffic stops and Heads turn skyward when the Goodyear Blimp passes by. Airships flying the world. Airships evolved from hot air balloons. Credit for their invention is Given to Henri Giffard French Engineer whose Cigar shaped Airship was powered by a 3-horsepower steam engine. The Golden age of airships was in the Early t900s, during the infancy of the aviation Industry. Serving As the jetliners of yesteryear airships were built by the germans to carry passengers around the world. In world War i germans used airships to patrol the Ocean and drop bombs. At about the same time Goodyear blimps Are one of the few advertising Media that people never get tired of a Joe Olma vice president . Lighter than air began building airships and soon became a Leader in lighter than air Craft. During world War i it produced More than 250 airships for the allies. After world War i airships became bigger faster and stronger. Germany s Graf Zeppelin carried thousands of passengers overseas and reached a Speed of 80 Mph. The Goodyear built Akron and Macon launched and received fighter planes. And during world War ii Nonrigid airships a ones that did rot have frameworks As the Early ones did a were used by the Navy to patrol coastal Waters to detect Cerman submarines and escort warships blimps however began to be considered dinosaurs in an Era of High technology. Fortunately for Airship lovers advertisers picked up on the idea of using blimps As floating inboards As Goodyear had done with in commercial Fleet launched after world War i in an ahead of the times advertising gimmick. Quot our first client was Jordache. It was a Golden Airship Quot recalled Scott Bennett Public relations director for Airship International of Orlando fla., which owns six Large blimps. Quot it took off and flew for three minutes and the Sun heated up the Gold paint and caused the Airship to become unstable and lose its equilibrium. It crashed just a few Yards away from where the Hindenburg went . A but since then the company has become a world Leader in the business. Currently its blimps Fly for  Beer Gulf Oil and sea world according to  if the company has its Way it will keep the blimps in the air for years to a come. A. A. Quot we really  this is a relatively new Industry Quot said Bennett. Quot the United states Market can really handle a number More airships and the rest of the world is virtually  subject flight museum lands excess space station by Michael Mehle Scripps Howard news service a visit to Mars will soon be As close As hangar no. 1 at now closed Lowry af8, Coio. That a Home to the wings Over the Rockies aviation and space museum a fledgling Effort to assemble aviation artefacts from across the Globe. It wont open until december but the museum has landed a prize Possession a prototype space station. A a it a the first major piece of our space. Collection and its really amazing a said. Museum curator Virginia Steele. A a we la actually be Able to simulate a Mars Mission once its fully  the enormous space station came Courtesy of Martin Marietta which  to make room at its Waterton Canyon Complex for construction of the Atlas rocket. The recent donation marked a major moment for the museum which also will feature 17 planes a on loan from the air Force. The space station is expected to give the curators a boost in their Hunt for More aeronautic and aviation gifts. Quot if anybody out there has a dc-3 they want to donate id love to talk to them a Steele said half jokingly. T the museum will be a bigger better version of the Lowry heritage museum which has closed along with most other buildings on the base. While the heritage museum was confined to a 7,000-Square-foot building wings Over the Rockies will fill a 150,000-Sqoare-foot hangar Large enough for a b-52, .-v.v. R by it Ltd l p i inv a f a a list it a i1, file. The museum is seeking a dc-3 like this one reenacting the plane s 1935 Maiden flight although the museum s b-52 will be kept outside. Inside the hangar there will be a b-52 cockpit a salvaged from another plane a that visitors can enter. Unlike the heritage museum which focused on Lowry and air Force history exhibits in wings Over the Rockies will mix military aviation with commercial aviation and space. A a. A this museum will chronicle the powerful influence the state has had on the aviation Industry Quot Steele said. The two Story space station will be the Centrepiece when the museum opens dec. 1. Quot we donated All of the Racks computers and machinery that we had in it Quot Martin. Marietta spokesman Evan Mccollum said. Quot they should at least be Able to simulate some of the things that astronauts do on a space  space station was built by Martin Marietta in the mid-1980s in an unsuccessful bid for a contract on a space station project. Wednesday october 19, 1994 the stars and stripes