Google Co-Founder Plans Longest U.S. Airship Since 1930s

A company owned by Google co-founder Sergey Brin plans to build the largest U.S. airship since the USS Macon and the golden age of airships nearly a century ago.

Thom Patterson

Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at 10:26 AM ET

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Pathfinder 1 is expected to be the longest U.S. aircraft since the USS Macon, a Navy airship that was destroyed in a storm in 1935. [Courtesy: U.S. Navy]

Key Takeaways:

LTA Research, a company owned by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is developing a new generation of electric-powered airships, "Pathfinder," which will be the longest U.S. aircraft built in nearly a century.
These modern airships, designed for fuel efficiency and long endurance, are intended for humanitarian relief and cargo transport missions.
The Pathfinder airships will utilize non-flammable helium gas and advanced materials, along with electric propulsion (transitioning to hydrogen fuel cells), to ensure significantly improved safety and efficiency compared to historical airships.
The larger Pathfinder 3 is slated for construction at Akron's historic Airdock, the same facility where the massive USS Macon and USS Akron airships were built in the 1930s.

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A company owned by Google co-founder Sergey Brin aims to build the longest U.S. aircraft since the golden age of airships nearly a century ago.

An electric-powered airship dubbed Pathfinder 1 is in the final building planning stages at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, according to a detailed report in the Akron Beacon Journal. Could this project by LTA Research trigger a resurgence in the development of huge, majestic airships carrying payloads weighing about 20 tons that stay aloft with lighter-than-air (LTA) gas?