Interesting signs

Some air type friends for No. 4

The Ship is sharing the hangar with a Skyship and a Skykitten (I think).  The kitten is the small one and No. 4 is closest to the door.  Here they are getting to know each other.

Us and next door

Roof

Inside the hangar

More Airship Love

Meanwhile

Passengers from the transfer flight waiting for their transport back pick blackberries! 

More men at work..

What does this bit do?

Landing

The crew were waiting to land the Ship and get it into the hangar.

Flying in

The hangars from the air and the mast truck waiting for the Ship with people who have gathered to watch.

On board and off board

Animals on the Ship and some deer we saw on the ground.

..Fritz knits!!!

Who knew?!

...Kate conducts a wedding ceremony..

Two of the transfer passengers were flying as a surprise for their wedding later this weekend.  As Captain of the Ship, Kate Board took it upon herself to marry the couple for the duration of the flight!

Good Luck guys!

Fritz briefs the passengers..

Bye bye London!

After about a week of high wind and no flying, the transfer flight from London to Cardington left on time and as planned.  The last half day in London saw lots of happy passengers, including many who had tried several times to fly but been affected by our English summer weather.  

Here is a picture of the Ship's temporary lodgings disappearing into the distance and the last Zeppelin shape shadow that London will see for a while... 

Arrival at Cardington (1930)

Ken Nippress, a friend of ours at Cardington, reports that Zeppelin NT #4 arrived around 5.20pm local time, landed around 5.38pm and was on the mast at 5.42pm for hangar entry The winds were around 6 knots southwest and apparently all was very smooth. We checked our GPS tracking and saw that it captured the ship on the way. The red marks in london show the track of the airship during the tours.

Looking at the closeup, it hasn't quite made it to Cardington when the last ping happened and if the airship was powered down before the next, then we won't have one at Cardington until the airship is next powered on!

Ken reminds us that the last Zeppelin to visit Cardington, Bedfordshire, was the Graf Zeppelin on 26 April, 1930. The wonderful book, "Airships R-100 and R-101" by Michel Pratt has many photos of that historic occasion and is a really great read too. You can often find it on ebay at the store of the publisher.

Room with a view

I think we've mentioned that our Zeppelin NT is the first with a window in the smallest room. Ruth, who has been supporting the London operation, sent us this picture of the worlds most well traveled Giraffe, enjoying the view.