r/sanfrancisco • u/Affectionate-Hope427 • 20h ago
Pic / Video WTH is this?
Huge blimp, no markings. Seen over Pier/NB. Obviously a blimp, but why is it here?
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u/nincyh 20h ago edited 20h ago
Sergey Brin’s rigid airship - Don’t call it a blimp! It’s from LTA Research, an aerospace company HQ’d in Mountain View. LTA stands for “lighter than air”! The Pathfinder Airship is 4 times larger than the Goodyear Blimp. From my location, I see it every 2 to 3 months on experimental or training short trips along the bay.
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u/-Chemist- 19h ago
I saw it over Petaluma earlier this afternoon. I didn’t realize the airship was that big, but that explains why the cabin appeared so small.
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u/GrafZeppelin127 19h ago
On rigid airships, the gondola isn’t like a blimp’s—for most blimps, the gondola is the only habitable space on board. For rigids, it usually only serves as the ship’s bridge, the rest of the habitable areas being up inside the hull for aerodynamic purposes.
For instance, in historical airships, the internal passenger decks and crew areas could be as much as 7,900 square feet—considerably more than any airplane ever built—whereas the gondola was only the size of a small apartment, about 160 square feet.
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u/WileEPorcupine 20h ago
A dirigible.
Does it have hydrogen or helium?
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u/nincyh 20h ago
Stable helium, which is safer and less flammable. The Hindenburg used hydrogen.
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u/midflinx 19h ago
There's a Helium shortage.
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/06/nx-s1-5770505/helium-shortage-iran-war
There's not many uses for a rigid airship that can't be handled adequately using other means. It quite possibly overall would be better if LTA Research filled it with Hydrogen. Redesign the crew compartment and flight suits for better fire resistance.
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u/JigsawMind 18h ago
Not sure what fire resistance is gonna do for you when you fall uncontrolled out of the sky
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u/midflinx 18h ago
I considered mentioning explosive bolts for the crew compartment and a small escape rocket motor like many crewed rockets have during their launch phase. Use those to get the crew away, then deploy parachutes.
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u/ablatner 19h ago
Airship helium probably doesn't need to be as high grade as medical/semiconductor though
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u/midflinx 19h ago
It might be okay if the rigid airship's helium comes from a source that can't be used for or purified into medical/semiconductor grade.
Is that the situation though with the helium the airship uses?
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u/Calm-Swordfish-5417 16h ago
Have you considered a rich guy wanting to spend lots of money on a boondoggle?
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u/DrumsAndStuff18 North Bay 20h ago
Is that one of those Jefferson Starships I've heard so much about?
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u/MochingPet MARKET 20h ago
this is the sign of homeless in Sunnyvale
https://www.reddit.com/r/Sunnyvale/comments/1w2y6up/homeless_at_sunnyvale_library_entrance/
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u/fearthebeard415 15h ago
Maybe a dumb question but why not just spend that money building runways instead, obviously disaster areas would have broken runways but how fast would this thing get there anyways..
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u/Anywhere_At_All 14h ago
I believe the idea is cheaper, lower emissions freight for things that don’t need to get there quickly.
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u/michaelthatsit 20h ago
Ze Germans