HELP! Save The Airship Ventures Zeppelin NT (And AirPigz Too)
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 09:57PM 
A little photoshop excercise to bring the Zeppelin NT and AirPigz together
Yesterday was a really sad day for the Zeppelin NT operated by Airship Ventures out of Moffet Field near my birth city of San Francisco... financial hardship brought all operations to an abrupt standstill. When the airship was on tour across the country in 2011, including its fabulous stops at Oshkosh and Indianapolis (I rode Eureka in Indy!), it was wearing the Farmers Insurance graphics, but that sponsorship deal ended many months back. It's this kind of advertising revenue that makes an operation like this possible, even if still questionably profitable. This beautiful Zeppelin airship named 'Eureka' has worn many different sponsor graphics in the four years it has been in service, and has also safely taken over 20,000 passengers for a ride. But without a corporate sponsorship deal, the company has found itself unable to continue operations.
It appears that there's still a week or two for an angel to come forward and make a sponsor deal to keep the airship flying. If you're in a position to see the value in spending $5 million to $6 million to have your company logo on the largest flying billboard in the world for a year, then please go now and check out the Airship Ventures sponsorship page.
Even better, why not invest the cash to keep this one-of-a-kind airship operation in business (there are only two Zeppelin NT's in the world, this one, and one in its home country of Germany) and then put the AirPigz logo on the side like my photoshop graphic above shows. This would keep Airship Ventures operating here in the Unites States and would also provide a much needed boost to my quest for AirPigz to achieve 'Avgeek World Domination'. I realize this idea is a pretty tall order, but I'm sure there's at least one very nice, very wealthy person out there who would give this some serious consideration. After all, it's only money : )
Seriously tho, I really do hope that a sponsorship deal somehow materializes. Otherwise this amazing airship that's been operated very professionally for four years will simply be dismantled and sent back to Germany. It's fairly easy to understand how the recession has made an airship operation difficult to succeed with, but added to that is the reality that sky-rocketing helium prices have complicated the process even more. However, a fresh sponsorship deal should allow things to get back to 'normal' for at least another year.
I admit that I can't graph it out on paper, but I really do believe that airships are somehow good for people... good for the world. And the Zeppelin NT has proven itself to be a fantastic, safe, and successful airship. I sure hope someone steps forward to #SaveEureka.
(AirPigz will likely survive even if someone doesn't pay for the logo to be put on the side of the Zeppelin airship, but right now would be a perfect time for you to consider donating to my work here... the donate link is to the left of the title of this post - thank you)
Without a sponsorship deal in the next 2 weeks, Airship Ventures will close permanently
Reader Comments (4)
I sure do hope something works out! It has been so great seeing her over the South Bay and Santa Cruz. If not then I dearly thank you guys for taking on this adventure.
And after this generous person takes care of Airship Ventures and AirPigz, please have him/her remember that the CAF could use some help with FIFI. Thank You!
Gary - I'm with ya on saving FIFI too... I'll get a post up on her needs here soon too!
Airship Ventures Assets up for Auction Airship Ventures Auction